Learning from digital disturbance management in an integrated product development and production flow

Journal article, 2018

Disturbances are an integral part of a product development management effort since they indicate the starting point of improvement work. Disturbances can occur in any phase of the product lifecycle, and managing them in digital systems and relating them to other PLM data helps companies learn from problem solving and previous mistakes. The case investigated has evolved in their disturbance management journey from: 1) ad hoc; 2) frequent meetings; 3) physical disturbance board; to 4) digital disturbance board. This article concludes that a disturbance database can be used to elicit learning points which are supported with real data extracted from the case company's disturbance database. The impact of the proposed approach includes identifying latent problems, guiding improvement work and investments, and exposing seemingly trivial repetitive disturbances that incur a high cost over time.