Paper review

Change and customisation in complex engineering domains
Claudia Eckert , P. John Clarkson and Winfried Zanker

I found the paper very valuable in terms of the precise description of the process within the selected engineering company. The case described is the Westland helicopter development. The paper is 21 pages and published in the highly accredited journal of Research in Engineering Design.
Some terminology and observations from the industry are very new and I have not seen reports about them anywhere else.
Actually I think the value in this paper is in translating and simplifying the complex issues of the engineering design world into a format and description which everyone can understand.
I am especially facinated by the concepts of Emergent Change, Initiated change, change propagation and the difffernt strategy of dealing with change as mentioned in the paper: forward redesign and backward redesign.
The paper is more a report of observation and do not come up with significant conclusions.

Vee model

I found something about the Vee model in design verification. It was interesting since I did not expect the NDP litrature to have gone so in detail in product development. I found it in one of the chapters in the The Wiley Guide to Managing Projects ~Pinto 2004. I will explore this and post here as I get more information.

book

This book is more recent than the wheelright and Clark. This is published in 1999. The important thing about this book is that it is describing the manufacturing systems in Toyota in detail. I was suprised how Fujimoto was permitted. highly recommended.

Book

The ultimate referece for the NPD practices. A bit old now. published 1993. But still a good reference. It is cited 1300 times according to google scholar.

NDP is different

NDP is a different paradigm in management of projects. Specialy in contrast to construction, emphasis on team work and innovation is very strong.