Coordinating the Engineering and Aftermarket Disciplines in Early Phases of Product Development

Paper i proceeding, 2006

Product development is a complex engineering activity in most manufacturing companies, as it entails the consideration and elaboration of a wide variety of parameters. The early involvement of important cross-functions, e.g. manufacturing and aftermarket, facilitates great opportunities in terms of lowering lead-times and cost and increasing product quality. However, it also complicates the engineering work, as a broader range of stakeholders gets involved earlier in the development process. This research work considers two parallel and integrated pre-studies aligned towards the engineering and the support view of a future product. Organisational, procedural, method, and IT aspects are examined. The extension of this work will provide better possibilities to administer and process product information within a cross-functional product development environment.