INDUSTRIAL
PRACTICE AND UNIVERSITY RESEARCH
FINAL REPORT AND APPENDIX
by
Daniel E. Whitney, written while
the author was employed at Charles
Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge
MA 02139. Dr Whitney is now
employed at MIT.
Sponsored
by the Office of Naval Research,
SDN N0001491MD242TK
The
opinions and conclusions in
this report are those of the
author and his hosts and are
presented for the purposes of
stimulating discussion. They
do not necessarily represent
the opinions and conclusions
of the Office of Naval Research.
The final report was published
in The ONR Asia Office Scientific
Information Bulletin, vol 17,
no 1, Jan-Mar, 1992, pp 89-111.
The individual company visit
reports were published in the
ONR Asia Office Scientific Information
Bulletin, vol 17, no 3, July-September,
1992, pp. 83 - 171.
Author's
note
The following files comprise
a summary report and visit reports
to companies and universities
in Japan during the summer of
1991 and is intended to be a
companion to the overall report
with the same title. Each of
the reports included here has
been read, altered as appropriate,
and approved by the respective
hosts. The visit reports are
intended to be read in conjunction
with the overall report of the
same title, which is in a separate
file.
I
recommend that interested readers
read the final report first.
Then they should scan the annotated
table of contents below to see
what individual visit reports
they might want to read. Following
the annotated table of contents
is a list of a few related publications.
The
annotated table of contents
gives a one sentence abstract
of the main points of each report,
with a hypertext link to that
report. The same topics are
often addressed in several reports
and many reports refer to others.
This includes cases where the
same site was visited more than
once with some days or weeks
between visits. Therefore the
dedicated reader who reads all
the visit reports in sequence
will gain more than one who
reads selected reports.
I
again want to thank these hosts
for their time and hospitality.
I learned a great deal from
these visits and hope that my
hosts gained something from
our mutual discussions.
- Final
Report (Adobe PDF, 108K):
Summarizes project objectives,
presents observations about
Japan, reports how companies
utilize CAD, what product
development practices are
in use, how design and manufacturing
are linked, etc.
- Visit
to Prof H. Inoue, University
of Tokyo, June 5, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 12K): Cross fertilization
of mechanical engineering
with computer science and
electronics, and the general,
non-discipline specific nature
of Japanese engineering education.
- Visit
to Prof Fujimoto, Dept of
Economics, University of Tokyo,
June 7, 1991 (Adobe PDF,
28K): Types of management
methods used in Japanese companies
and the relative influence
of management methods vis-a-vis
computers and software.
- CAD
and Product Design Methodology
at Hitachi
(Adobe PDF 24K): How videocamera
tape transports are designed
and how Hitachi has developed
its DFA methodology into a
Concurrent Engineering Methodology.
- Discussion
about Design with Prof Kimura,
June 13, 1991 (Adobe PDF
12K): Prof Kimura's thoughts
and research priorities in
computer representations of
product design problems.
- Visit
to IBM Tokyo Research Lab,
June 18,1991 (Adobe PDF,
24K): Recent developments
in feature-based design and
assembly analysis, plus research
topics for the near future.
- Visit
to Sony, July 1
(Adobe PDF, 18K): The first
of two meetings to discuss
product design methods and
priorities for CAD, including
how designers take assembly
into account.
- Visit
to Hitachi Sawa Works and
Taga Works, July 3, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 24K): How Hitachi
designs automotive components
and consumer durables, and
the priorities for new CAD/CAE.
Includes description of new
fuzzy control washing machine.
- Visits
to Prof Kimura's CAD Research
Lab July 5 and July 19 for
Discussions about Product
Realization, IMS, and Product
Development Cycles (Adobe
PDF, 24K): Broad description
of their broad approach to
manufacturing, plus specific
research in CAD, feature-based
design, and product modeling.
Discussion includes representatives
from Hitachi, who provide
company reactions to university
research.
- Visit
to Nissan Technical Center,
July 8, 1991 (Adobe PDF,
28K): Complete description
of car development process
and the role of software,
from the point of view of
people responsible for planning
future CAD. Wide use of computers
to predict production problems.
Challenges in organizing world-wide
design activities. Discussion
s continue at second meeting.
- Visit
to Hitachi Construction Machine
Co, July 11, 1991 (Adobe
PDF, 16K): A small, low tech
company becoming higher tech,
computerizing, retraining
from within.
- Visit
to Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy
Industries (IHI) Aero-engines
Div. Tanashi Plant, July 16,
1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): Corporate
plans for speeding the engine
design process, including
adoption of overlapping tasks
and CAD/CAM/CAE. Also careful
reorganization of the design
process.
- Visit
to Yamazaki Mazak Tokyo Sales
Office (July 10, 1991) and
Nagoya HQ (July 24, 1991)
(Adobe PDF, 20K): A largely
non-computerized method for
focusing design decisions
so that some of the world's
best CAM methods can be applied.
- Visit
to Prof Norio Okino, Kyoto
University, July 26, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 12K): The theroy
of holonic or bionic manufacturing,
based on recursively defined
"modelons" which
are apparently equivalent
to independent objects in
US software terminology.
- Visit
to Nippondenso, July 29-30,
1991
(Adobe PDF, 56K): Complete
exposition of product-process
design integration to produce
products that can be made
in wide varieties at mass-production
efficiency. Examples of products
designed this way plus description
of integrated design methodology.
Interesting DFA. Also see
four full-page charts separated
from text: chart
#1, chart
#2, chart
#4, and chart
#5.
- Visit
to Toyota July 31, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 32K): Like Nissan,
a complete description of
the body engineering process
and use of CAD/CAM/ CAE for
drive trains. Content continued
at second meeting. Also see
with three full-page charts
separated from text: chart
#1, chart
#2, and chart
#4.
- Visit
to Prof. Tomiyama, University
of Tokyo, Aug. 15, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): Research
on innovative artificial intelligence
methods for modeling products
and their behavior during
concept design. Also see two
full-page charts separated
from text: chart
#1, and chart
#2.
- Visit
to Hitachi-Seiki, Abiko Works,
Aug 21, 1991 (Adobe PDF,
16K): Even here at the smallest
company visited, nearly every
engineer is on a networked
terminal. The company successfully
exploits rules of thumb to
design machines and estimate
costs.
- Visit
to Fujitsu Technical Center
and Fujitsu Labs, Kawasaki,
August 22, 1991 (Adobe
PDF, 12K): Mostly about electronic
product design but an interesting
approach to DFA.
- Visit
to Nikon Nishi-Ohi Works,
Aug 23, 1991 (Adobe PDF,
20K): Also a surprisingly
small company, Nikon (like
Ricoh) has been thrust into
freeform surface CAD/CAM by
new camera styles. Only 10
engineers on a design team
for autofocus SLR's.
- Visit
to Ricoh Tokyo offices, August
29, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 24K): Like Nikon,
but also discussed optics
design and a new CAD package
called Design-base. Also first
attempts at including computerized
tolerance analysis in optical
train design.
- Visit
to Seiko-Epson, August 30,
1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K)
- Visit
to Mazda, Sept 2, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): Working
hard to standardize designs
and be competitive with much
larger rivals. Dedsign manuals
may be the seeds of a computer-orchestrated
design process.
- Visit
to Hitachi Image & Media
System Lab, September 3, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): More detail
on why videocameras are hard
to design and how CAE was
used in innovative ways.
- Visit
to Nissan, Sept 4, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): Continuation
of earlier discussions with
emphasis on engine design.
Some frank discussions about
how well design activities
are coordinated in practice.
- Visit
to Sony, September 5, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 16K): Continuation
of earlier discussions with
emphasis on innovative DFA
and other ways assembly is
taken into account during
concept design.
- Visit
to Toyota, September 6, 1991
(Adobe PDF, 28K): Continuation
of earlier discussions with
description of overlapping
tasks methodology and methods
of controlling the car development
process. Also a tour of stamping
die engineering and NC fabrication.
10u accuracy in a shop with
no air conditioning.
- Visit
to IBM Fujisawa Plant, Sept
9, 1991 (Adobe PDF, 12K):
Tour of almost unmanned factory
for making small disk drives.
Related
publications
"Nippondenso
Co. Ltd: A Case Study of Strategic
Product Design," Research
in Engineering Design,
#5, Dec, 1993, pp 1-20. (An
extended study of Nippondenso.)
"Integrated
Design and Manufacturing in
Japan," Manufacturing
Review, v 6 no 4, Dec,
1993, pp 329-342. (A shortened
version of the final report.) |
