Production Management

The product lifecycle from a production aspect goes as this:

• Concept
• Design
• Realize
• Service
• Product Development Process and Methodologies

CONCEPT

This is the initial idea. The aim is to imagen the idea, specify , plan and innovate. At this stage you need to base your idea on your chosen market. For example choose if you are going to design for :

Mass market

The majority of the public. The height street fashion. This is accessible to most people and is a large area of the industry,

Couture

This is a design , that is high end fashion with a smaller market and a higher price point. This is not accessible to a wide target market.

Bespoke

This is a section of the industry where the design is tailor made to one persons requirements and the design is solely inspired by this one person.

From this specification the designs major qualities and major technical parameters can be defined. Prior to the design work this area defines the visual aesthetics of the product as well as the main functional aspects to the design.

At this stage a wide variety of medias are to be used to determine the theme for the designing.

DESIGN

In this section you will define you design. By describing the product, developing the design, testing, analysing and developing the main design. This is where the detailed design development takes place and where design development is very important. The main tool used for design development is CAD( computer aided design).

Computer aided design

This is the use of computer technology to assist with the design process. Such programmes as Photoshop and illustrator are widely used in the industry. Its often involves the drafting of shapes as well as technical and engineering drawings. It is used to develop design on a 2D basis. Other software included in this section is Stress analysis, Finite element analysis, Kinematics, mechanical event simulation, computer aided quality and dimension tolerance. All these programmes help to assist with the quality standards of the designs in order to ensure your design is taken from a concept into a practical workable design.

Another task done at this stage is the sourcing of the materials which will assist with the design process such as sourcing the correct fabrics and thread suitable for the concept.

REALISE

Once the design components is defined the next stage is to realise this design. Through manufacture , making, building , produce , sell and delivering the product. This can also include CAD such as CNC machining instructions. This makes the realisation of the product easier and involves analysing the tools used in the production process. This determines the manufacturing method, once this has been determined the CPM comes into play. This uses technology such as CAPE (computer aided production engineer) for carrying out factory layout and production simulation. For example: Press-Line Simulation; and Industrial Ergonomics; as well as tool selection management. Once components are manufactured their geometrical form and size can be checked against the original CAD data with the use of Computer Aided Inspection equipment and software. Parallel to the engineering tasks, sales product configuration and marketing documentation work will be taking place. This could include transferring engineering data (geometry and part list data) to a web based sales configuration and other desktop publishing  systems. This area of the design process involves a lot of CAM (computer aided manufacture) and many companies use different techniques for this.

SERVICE

Once the concept and design has been realised it is now the supplying of the service of the product. Supplying the customer with all the relevant information such as washing instructions to assist with the use of the product. This involves supporting the maintenance of the product.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND METHODOLOGIES

Processes and methodologies have been developed to speed up the process of all the above stages. This increases profit by reducing lead times, and increasing market share. Such techniques include:

• Concurrent engineering workflow
• Industrial design
• Bottom-up design
• Top-down design
• Front loading design workflow
• Design in context Modular design
• NPD new product development
• DFSS design for six sigma
• DFMA Design for manufacture / assembly
• Digital simulation engineering
• Requirement driven design
• Specification managed validation
• Configuration management