Essay About Design Engineer And Shop Floor

Fast-Track Product Redevelopment at Instron
Fast-Track Product Redevelopment at Instron
Fast-track Product Redevelopment at Instron
Background
Instron designs and manufactures machines for testing the properties of all types of material. One
particular plastic testing instrument has been selling around 250 units per year worldwide. In 1992 at the
height of the recession, with margins being squeezed and sales volume dropping, Instron decided to
redesign the instrument to reduce its cost and make it easier to manufacture.
The Project
Instron began to undertake change in the late 1980s, which included a programme to institute concurrent
new product development. This was accompanied by pressure for cost reduction, the introduction of
manufacturing changes, and the breaking of the firm into business teams.
The team was highly transient and changing environment, there were few restrictions on the way the
redesign project had to be handled. It was one of the first projects in Instron to be run from the beginning
as a concurrent engineering project. A small multi-functional team was formed, consisting of a
manufacturing engineer, a design engineer, a marketing engineer and a draughtsman. The design rief was
to improve the ease of manufacture of the product such tat a cost reduction of 20 percent could be
achieved.
The team was co-located in an area adjacent to the manufacturing facility. Although there was some
initial resistance, the comment was made that ‘they dont know how they ever worked without it. The
ease of communication and sharing of ideas became a more natural part of working life.
Adverse Effects
The principles of concurrency were, in general, favorably accepted by departments downstream of the
design process and with some notable exceptions, unfavorably viewed by the design department.
Individuals had concurrency imposed on them in the initial projects selected; be tried out. Senior
management staff was selected as champions of the cause, with the objective of overcoming the resistance
to change that existed. This came in a number of forms:
1. Passive resistance- summarized as ‘dont show reluctance to apply the new ideas, attend all the
group meetings, nod in agreement, then carry on as before.
2. Active resistance- ‘do what you like, but dont ask me to do it
3. Undermining the initiative- through overstating the apparent problems.
They began by carrying out brainstorming sessions with manufacturing engineers, buyers, members of the
shop floor, suppliers and additional design engineers, to find new and innovative ways to improve the
product. The outcome of these investigations was to draw up a list of areas