System-Level Design_ A Missing Link英文资料.pdfVIP

System-Level Design: A Missing Link? Durward K. Sobek, II Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Montana State University Bozeman, MT 59717-3800 dsobek@ie.montana.edu Introduction Toyota Motor Corporation is arguably the most successful automotive company in the world, outperforming its US competitors on many fronts, including product quality and engineering productivity.1 Prior research on Toyota’s product development practice has revealed a number of striking differences with those of US automakers; however, from a design process standpoint, the differences are relatively few.2 All carmakers study the market and develop many styling alternatives. All gradually eliminate alternatives until a final design remains. All then engineer the design, conduct manufacturability reviews and crash simulations, release engineering drawings for prototype, and create and test prototype vehicles. They all use computer-aided design and analysis tools with similar capabilities. Interestingly, though, Toyota has a phase in body engineering that others do not: kozokeikaku, roughly translated ‘‘design structures plan.’’ From the concept design, rather than proceeding immediately to detailed engineering drawings and analysis, body engineers develop the key cross-sections of the sheet metal parts, and specify key interfaces. They create a document (the kozokeikaku) incorporating these preliminary design plans for the entire sheet metal design of the vehicle body, and distribute it to approximately 80 key individuals across the product development organization for review and comment before moving to detailed design of parts. This phase is remarkable because it seems to play a pivotal role in Toyota’s process, yet