Fhe, Inc. Essay Example

Fhe, Inc. Essay Example Fhe, Inc. Essay Fhe, Inc. Essay FHE Inc. is a manufacturer of pumps and related fluid-handling equipment that supplies products used to transfer all types of liquids from paint to food products and pumps to various industries such as automobiles and appliances. FHE Inc. is a multimillion dollar company that is experiencing improved sales and profits over the last five years through aggressive new product introductions. Phil Thomas, VP for Corporate Development and Marketing is in charge of both Marketing and Engineering. FHE chose to do this in order to facilitate cooperation between Marketing and Engineering, particularly with new product introductions. With the marketing and engineering departments so integrated, many times it is difficult to tell which department is in charge of certain responsibilities and who is to blame when problems arise. Problem Statement Lum Donaldson, the Product Development Engineering Manager for FHE, Inc. is convinced that there is a need to improve the procedures, organization, and project control systems to make new product introductions go smoothly. He continually encounters problem in coordinating the technical program managers and the product managers. He is also concerned about the fluctuating workload in the engineering services department. While the Engineering Service and Administration Manager has requested several times for more advanced notice for these new projects the response given was that there are many uncertainties in the project schedules and many requirements are often unknown until the very last minute. : Another issue is that the manufacturing department seems to be excluded during the design stage of new products and suddenly has a product design trusted upon them with little knowledge about the design yet high expectations for their work. Because of these issues, there are many problems that arise during manufacturing and sometimes products must be recalled. Key Considerations 1. What could be done to clarify the organizational relationship among product managers, technical program managers, and manufacturing managers? Revise the current primary tasks performed by each department and set specific goals to ensure that all issues are being pinpointed, addressed and remedied. Management needs to ensure that there is no ambiguity about which department is responsible for each task. Have each department involved during each stage of the new product development. Each department doesn’t need to have the same effort and time during each stage but to have each department involved co ncurrently. Bring the Materials Manager on board to the Design Team so that during the Design Stage, potential manufacturing problems can be addressed and prevented with the help of a member with manufacturing knowledge. This will reduce the number of problems that have risen in past manufacturing stages and product recalls that have occurred. 2. What can be done to better manage the work load of the engineering services department? Create specific schedule for future new product projects and have a regular forecast of engineering services needed for the next year. This will help to stagger the services needed from the engineers and avoid bottleneck situations within the engineering department. FHE should also have the engineering services department participate during the marketing stage where the company needs to evaluate the customers’ needs and translate it into customer specifications using the concurrent process approach in new product development. 3. Evaluate the plans and the expected results from the new CAD-CAM system. Pros of CAD-CAM System: 1) Rapid Prototyping ) new products can be tested using software simulation without making it into a prototype b)New products cycle would be faster using CAD-CAM process 2) Ease of Communication a) Problems and issues can be addressed immediately between departments before specifications are relayed into the engineering department and sent to the manufacturing process 3) Improved Quality Products are accurate based on what was designed by the engineering and sent to the manufacturing depar tment Cons of CAD-CAM System 1) Garbage in – Garbage out If design problems are not addressed initially in the engineering department, problems will be carried on unto the manufacturing department 2) High Investment Costs A single user license of the Autodesk Inventor Software can cost up to $4,999 per license not to include the training costs incurred during the implementation of the new software. 3) Implementation Issues Some of the personnel are technologically challenged and cannot understand the use of the new technology for the new development process Purchase and implement new CAD-CAM system. With the new system, all three departments will be electronically coordinated, communication will become easier and more efficient and errors encountered in the past between engineering and manufacturing will be eliminated. This computerized system will also create a more speedy and efficient new product introduction cycle for FHE and eliminate many of the production problems it had been experiencing. 4. What steps should Donaldson take to improve the new product development process at FHE? Decrease the ambiguity of primary responsibilities delegated to each department by clearly outlining tasks and specific goals, increase the utilization of manufacturing department input by involving the Materials Manager in product design stage, create specific schedule for future projects and engineering services needed in the next year, and implement new CAD-CAM system as a way of coordinating the three departments. Analysis FHE has problems of coordination among product managers, technical program managers, and marketing managers. There is no clearly defined requirements necessary for each phase of project development so that the engineering services department is able to produce results in a more efficient manner. Communication between manufacturing and product design managers needs improvement. Currently the product design department admits that once a product is developed it is typically â€Å"thrown over the wall to manufacturing†, because of this lack of communication. Product quality often suffers and problems arise after products are introduced to the m Conclusion The problems that have risen in these areas are due to lack of clarity in department tasks and responsibilities, the over-integration of two departments (marketing and engineering) and the exclusion of input from the other. FHE must address the inadequacies of their current departmental set up by mapping out clearly defined duties required from each department, the integration of the Materials Manager into the Design team, an updated and more specific schedule drawn up for future services needed from engineering, and lastly the implementation of the new CAM-CAD system.