Assessing System Maturity of Interacting Product and Manufacturing Alternatives Before Early Technology Commitment

Paper in proceeding, 2015

This paper presents a new way to support early assessment of interacting product and manufacturing technologies based on system maturity. This approach is illustrated by an example from the aerospace industry, where alternative technologies are introduced in an existing product and manufacturing systems platform. By assessing the system maturity of interacting technologies, alternative solutions can be eliminated before early technology commitment. This is beneficial for 1) clarifying the company’s status regarding capability and maturity, 2) eliminating immature technologies within a certain capability bandwidth, and 3) prioritizing advanced technology development initiatives with respect to the risk of implementing a manufacturing technology to interact with a product technology. It may also enable reduction in design rework and manufacturing rework that comes with failed maturity matching of product systems and manufacturing systems, thus possible reduction in lead-time and cost could be met.