CPDA's newsletter, Tech Trends in PLM Update, highlights the critical issues in PLM research.

Contents:
• Manufacturing Simulation - Are More Acronyms Needed?
• Managing Variation through the Design Process
• Enterprise-Level Access through 3D: Dassault Systemes' 3D Live

Number of pages in report, 6.

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Michael Kennedy outlines the way Toyota thinks, and calls for developers to fully support the test-and-design paradigm. Simulate before design to explore the limits with set-based possibilities. Note that Toyota thinks about limit curves, and the limit curves summarize design tradeoffs early in design.

For companies implementing Lean or PLM, he recommends they get Lean first. They should understand how to apply the analysis of tradeoffs early in the design process, and understand the specific approaches at Toyota to build on. LAMDA and A3 discipline are absolutely critical. There must be a firm approach for identifying, collecting, and capturing knowledge. Number of pages in report, 22.

Design for Six Sigma strategies transform our methodologies for improving quality from inspecting defects after-the-fact to building quality into the product from the beginning of the design. The cost of poor quality becomes part of the design equation, along with the warranty, liability, recall, lost customer, and rework costs. The cost of the product should include all of the quality issues, with optimizations targeting the total cost up front, early in the design.

DFSS considers the statistical contribution of the design parameters to the critical requirements. The effects of variation can be identified, understood, and forecast during the design cycle. CAE analyses should include a robust assessment of known sources of variation. The sigma quality level must be calculated given the target performance and variation. Adoption of the DFSS process mitigates the risks and costs of poor quality. Number of pages in report, 20.

In the past, IT has represented a distinctly secondary priority to people and process at Toyota. Beginning in 2001, however, IT and systems became a high priority and strategically critical to the company. From 2001 through 2005, the company spent a reported 200 billion Yen, or $1.709 billion in U.S. dollars at recent exchange rates, on the Total Information System for Vehicle Development, or TIS. To us, that represents a paradigm shift.

The company has already established a major competitive advantage by leveraging people and process. Building on that established lead, its new emphasis on tools and technology on top of its strength with people and process extends and deepens Toyota's competitive advantage. Number of pages in report, 8.

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