Natalia Moreira
email: natalia.moreira@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Daoud Aït-Kadi
email: daoud.aitkadi@gmc.ulaval.ca

Darli Rodrigues Vieira
email: darli.vieira@uqtr.ca

Alejandro Romero
email: romeroto@uqtr.ca

Luis Antonio De Santa-Eulalia

Yi Wang
email: yi.wang-2@manchester.ac.uk

Integrating Eco-design and PLM in the Aviation Completion Industry: A Case Study

Keywords: Green aviation, project lifecycle management, eco-design, product development, completion

Aviation represents 12% of the CO2 emissions from all transport sources in the world. These pollutants are even stronger in their impact because they are released at high altitudes. Therefore, aeronautical companies have adopted the eco-design and PLM perspective to integrate the environmental concerns into the development of their products. PLM permits to include the environmental matters into every phase of the development process, not forgetting traditional arguments such as function, costs, production and aesthetics. Research regarding ecologically concerned textiles in aviation completion industry is not available in literature, especially those regarding its whole lifecycle and supply chain. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse this unexplored concern by assessing the integration of eco-design and PLM perspective for the use of textile materials in this industry sector. Through a case study, the research team explored the completion function of a north-American company in general and, specifically, the use of textile materials for internal completion of the aircraft. Even though representing 1% of the total weight of the aircraft, textiles represent an important factor in the composition of an airplane and the fact that it is being thought off as another recyclable and not disposable part of it should mean a shift in the perception of its growing importance in the development of the plane as a whole.

Introduction

Aviation, term used to define the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft represents 12% of the CO2 emissions from all transport sources in the world [START_REF] Wang | Facts and figures[END_REF]. This industry sector emits large volumes of CO2 each year, and whilst only being 2% of overall global production it still amounts to an additional 670 million tonnes in a year. That volume has doubled since 1990 and is predicted to more than double again by 2025 [START_REF] Mccollum | Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Aviation and Marine Transportation: Mitigation Potential and Policies[END_REF]. Pollutants from aviation are even stronger in their impact because they are released at high altitudes [START_REF] Keynes | Characteristics of the airline industry, The Airline Industry: Challenges in the 21st Century[END_REF]. Scientists predict in different research that the total warming impact of aviation's emissions can be multiplied anywhere between 1.9 and 2.7 times, or even more in some scenarios, to estimate their true impact [START_REF] Greenaviation | Humans need to fly[END_REF].

Besides the concern with the development of new products, there are a growing number of companies interested in guaranteeing the ecological contribution of aviation companies. There is a clear interest in increasing their responsibility, what can also be seen in publications such as Egri and Ralston [START_REF] Egri | Corporate responsibility: A review of international management research from 1998 to 2007[END_REF] where they analyse the considerable increase in interest on corporate ecological responsibility as an academic topic as well as a competitive tool for international business. In this context, the Eco-design concept emerged as a trendy concept, integrating the environmental demands to the development of new products [START_REF] Darnall | Do environmental management systems improve business performance in an international setting[END_REF]. Integrated into the designer's practices and tools, eco-design provides more space for innovation and creativity within the industrial environment. Thus being a new opportunity for differentiation and a future competitive factor [START_REF] Riopel | Ingénierie et gestion de la logistique inverse[END_REF].

Coming from a gap in the literature on the development of green aircraft completion textiles, the main contribution of this paper is to investigate how products development process can be used to improve the production and acceptance of ecological textile systems for the aeronautic completion industry and decrease its ecological footprint from the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) perspective. The article is organized into four sections. Starting with a literature review about eco-design and its relation with the product life management, the section 3 describes the methodological strategy and the case study chosen in this research. Finally, the section 4 and 5 expose respectively the main results and the conclusions.

Literature review

Eco-design in the Completion Industry

Eco design is defined as a proactive environmental management approach that integrates environmental issues into the product development and their related processes [START_REF] Pigosso | Ecodesign methods focused on remanufacturing[END_REF]. Within the product development process, the eco-design represents the inclusion of environmental matter into every phase of the development process, not forgetting traditional arguments such as function, costs, production, aesthetics, etc. [START_REF] Darnall | Do environmental management systems improve business performance in an international setting[END_REF]. Such a change means to evaluate the used materials, the environmental performance during the fabrication, maintenance, logistics, reutilization, dismantling, re-manufacturing, recycling and final disposal [START_REF] Rozenfeld | Gestão de desenvolvimento de produtos: uma referência para a melhoria do processo[END_REF]. When it comes to the ecological performance of a product or a service, there is not much to do once the product is released into the market (and when there is it usually originates an extremely high cost), that is why this aspect of the development has to be considered and a high influence from the initial phases of the process [START_REF] Dewulf | Estimating the environmental profile of early design concepts[END_REF].

Morelli [START_REF] Morelli | Product-service systems: a perspective shift for designers[END_REF] explains that a more ecological approach towards products development is a challenge as it not only represents the creation of a new product, but also the reorganization of already (or not) existing elements throughout the supply chain according to new needs and values. In addition, for the development of an "eco-product" the cultural and social values are equivalent to people and technologies [START_REF] Vezzoli | Design for environmental sustainability[END_REF], adding more complexity to the development process.

In the aeronautic industry textile materials can be found in the exterior structures, technical and fibrous composite materials applied to the fuselage, coating and internal items of the aircraft, as well as for special uniforms, parachutes, balloons, etc. Authors such as Dexter [START_REF] Dexter | Development of Textile Reinforced Composites for Aircraft Structures[END_REF] and Suarez et al. [START_REF] Suarez | Novel composites for wings and fuselageapplications: textile Reinforced Composites and Design Guidelines[END_REF] have already published a wide range of material regarding textile composites and its use in the exterior structure of the airplane. They believe that it is important to emphasize that designers who work with the performance of textiles in the aeronautic industry must develop further and try to standardize more, thus ensuring repeatability and structural integrity, needing considerable insight into the processing methodology to adequately define the part (through modelling tools), design the tooling and be confident in the end-product performance.

From the most sophisticated system to the less complex component, aeronautic pieces could get several benefits from ecodesign. Vezzoli and Manzini [START_REF] Vezzoli | Design for environmental sustainability[END_REF] claim that even low impact products may require clean technologies, but it demands for secure new design capacities, promoting sustainable consumption and behaviour. This is clearly the case of textiles for the aircraft completion. It was noticed that there is almost no academic research on textiles applied in the aeronautic industry, especially on what regards refurbishment, completion and its ecological aspects, what led to a need to research information not only in academic publication but also through a wide number of companies and white-papers in order to understand the development and disposal of textile material in the aviation industry.

Product lifecycle management (PLM)

UNEP [START_REF] Suarez | Novel composites for wings and fuselageapplications: textile Reinforced Composites and Design Guidelines[END_REF] conceptualised PLM as tool permitting to achieve sustainable development and study the ecological impact of product throughout their lifecycle. PLM vision has been adopted by the eco-design to improve the conceptualisation of the new product and their relative processes. PLM was developed as a business activity of managing, in the most effective way, a company's products all the way across their lifecycles; from the very first idea for a product all the way through until it's retired and disposed of [START_REF] Stark | Product Lifecycle Management: 21 st century paradigm product realisation[END_REF]. It is considered, by Abramovici and Sieg [START_REF] Abramovici | Status and development of product lifecycle management systems[END_REF], to be the conversion of a combination of a multitude of acronyms: Product Data Management (PDM), Collaborative Product development (cPDM), Collaborative Product Commerce (CPC), Product Knowledge Management, etc. PLM provides benefits throughout the product lifecycle (see Table 1). The main concept behind it is how to integrate people, processes, business systems and information in an efficient manner [START_REF] Zheng | Key characteristics management in product lifecycle management: a survey of methodologies and practices[END_REF]. For Stark [START_REF] Stark | Product Lifecycle Management: 21 st century paradigm product realisation[END_REF] examples include getting products to market faster in the Beginning-of-Life, providing better support for their use during the Middle-of-Life, and managing their End-of-Life better.

Table 1: Benefits provided by PLM implementation in companies [START_REF] Stark | Product Lifecycle Management: 21 st century paradigm product realisation[END_REF] Area Benefit Financial performance increase revenue with earlier market introduction; reduce product development costs Time Reduction reduce project overrun time; reduce engineering change time Quality Improvement reduce manufacturing process defects; reduce the number of returns; reduce the number of customer complaints Business Improvement increase the innovation rate; increase the part reuse factor; increase product traceability; ensure 100% configuration conformity On the other hand, Schuh et al. [START_REF] Morelli | Product-service systems, a perspective shift for designers: A case study: the design of a telecentre[END_REF] states that, besides its clear advantages, PLM has serious limitation as the difficulty of implementing PLM in some industries due to its high complexity, what tends to lead to a very specific focus in particular aspects of it (such as for instance the supply chain), without the necessary holistic approach to the whole life-cycle and its underlying processes.

On an environmental perspective, with particular interest in the completion industry, PLM will play a key role in addressing all these positive and negative issues because it provides the opportunity to get control of products across their lifecycles. The problems it addresses, and the ideas for their solution, aren't new. Over the years, population growth, lack of disposal sites, and scarce natural resources have led to all sorts of reduction, reutilisation, recycling and recovery programs.

Research gap

Research regarding ecologically concerned textiles is not available in the visited literature, especially those regarding its whole lifecycle and supply chain. We believe that it is, on one hand, due to privacy issue, and on the other, due to a known lack of interest in this line of textile products, also seen as superfluous by many (see case study later). This paper was built from this literature gap and criticism, the absence of interaction between the researched methodologies and the textile industry, for their potential to add interesting insights to each other.

The Product-Service Systems (PSS) [START_REF] Schuh | Process oriented framework to support PLM implementation[END_REF] and the Systemic Design [START_REF] Bistagnino | Systemic Design: designing the productive and environmental sustainability[END_REF] propose to switch the production-consumption activities into a production-consumption system which would reduce the effects of all stages of life cycle throughout the whole supply chain. Thus, the relationship between supplier and buyer would not end with the moment of purchase, but perpetuates over time [START_REF] Manzini | Product-Service Systems and Sustainability: Opportunities for sustainable solutions[END_REF]. Within this scenario, PLM's five main phases: Imagine, Define, Realise, Use/Support, and Retire/Dispose [START_REF] Stark | Product Lifecycle Management: 21 st century paradigm product realisation[END_REF], can then be used to assist the development team as it is supposed to manage a well-structured and valuable product portfolio. By doing so, it can help maximizing project's financial return, managing and providing control and visibility over products throughout the lifecycle, as well as feedback about products from customers, product & field engineers and the market, above all, enabling collaborative work between supply chain partners and customers, thus unifying the whole concept behind sustainable development.

In order to guide the empirical part of this study, we employed a clear and objective approach that takes into account three aspects: the literature on traditional development of products in aviation, the development of green products using PLM-based methodologies and the existing literature available on aviation.

First, the literature about the development of products is immense and focuses on the different existing approaches to the development of new products but Literature on aviation ecodesign is quite limited. It provides a broad overview of the history, current situation and forecasts of the aviation industry as a whole, also evidencing a great level of concern with the industries' carbon emissions, not ignoring its environmental and social impacts. It does, oppositely, completely disregards the development and improvements being implemented by the industry, only providing forecasts of what is being intended, especially when considering green completion. This analysis then suggests the importance of the combinations of the missing factors examined in the literature review: a comparison between traditional and environmental development of products using the supply chain viewpoint as a strategic differential; a combination of the theoretical and practical aspects of the development process; and the study of the state-ofthe-art of the development of green completion, aiming to also involve the supply chain, the final consumers and local communities.

Methodology

Methodological approach

To better respond to the gaps found during the literature review it was decided to develop a case study [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research: Design and Methods[END_REF] as it is the preferred methodology when studying in-depth a contemporary problem. This was considered the best alternative to deal with different sorts of evidence: visits, interviews, artefacts, and observations. During the literature review, in order to evaluate the current situation of the matter researched, many data about companies and manufacturers have been found. Such material was considered complementary to the theoretical information gathered. Considering companies environmental management, governments increasing concern regarding pollution and ecological disturbances, as well as the particular way used by each company to develop their products, the companies were scanned and highlighted. Thus, to properly assess the priorities to be analysed in the case study it was decided to develop a comparing, broader, conceptual framework using the best practices of the methodologies discussed during the literature review.

Designing the case study

The case study was executed into the North-American context for a period of six months. Ten Canadian and U.S. companies were chosen for a first screening according to their proximity to the Green Aircraft Completion subject. From them, one, named in this paper as 'the Company' due to privacy issues, was chosen for being the most suitable for the research, for providing a broader view of the whole supply chain and, finally, for being a highly environmentally forwarded business. Indeed, the Company not only deals with refurbishment and completion activities, but also with the production of new aircrafts and the development of both products through partnerships with companies around the globe. This company has adapted an environmental focus which shapes the future of its technological innovations. Environmental challenges are therefore being addressed by the Company from a global perspective using a four pillars approach (see table 1). The case study focuses on the completion function of the Company in general and, specifically, on the use of textile materials for internal completion of the aircraft. Completion function is crucial for the Company because it permits to personalise products in function of customers' needs. The completion team establishes a strong relationship with them to identify their requirements and adding more value to the final product. The Company estimates that a customized aircraft could increase it value by 50 to 100 million dollars. Textile materials could also add value to the aircraft. The company propose several types of textile products for aircraft walls, carpets, seats and sofas. These textiles have different characteristics, such as resistance, safety issues, cleaning characteristics, composition (natural sources), among others.

During our visits, three main representatives of the company were interviewed: two engineers (the Interior Completions Manager -ICM and the Interior Completion Engineer -ICE) and a designer in charge of stylist and sales of the completion centre (DSSCC). These participants were chosen either for their connection to the completion as a department (ICM), for the contact with suppliers (ICE) or for being the link between the company and the final consumer (DSSCC), as well as for their academic backgrounds. These three participants provided us interesting insights of the product lifecycle for textile materials and the actual efforts to include the green perspective into aircraft completion. For instance, they enable to identify the different phases of the textile lifecycle for aircraft completion (production, transportation, setting up, completion, dismantling and disposal or recycling) and the organisations involved for each phase (see the right hand-side of the Figure 1).

Results

Green initiatives

Empirical evidence highlights that the Company has included the ecological perspective into its strategies for ensuring its "neutral emission commitment". In its 2011 Market forecast, the Company claims that it environmental focus was based on building on a strong track record of technological innovation and, in addition, it has formally committed to a future of carbon-neutral growth and increased environmental sustainability. These statements, during the visit were proved to be true, but the Company's greatest concern is the fuel consumption of the aircrafts. As the consumption is directly related to the weight of the aircraft, development companies and suppliers are more concerned with decreasing the weight of the airplane parts, than the composition or production techniques. This disregards the intense usage of highly pollutant composites in the aircraft structure, and a minimal concern with different development techniques on the used fabrics and textiles components (which represent around 1% of the total weight).

In addition, it is interesting to highlight that the social aspects of the Company and its ecologically forwarded initiatives are also visible throughout its mission. One of them is to enable and motivate its workers to buy and sells carbon credits during their trips with the company's aircrafts; the company also encourages its employees to suggest environmental improvements through projects, which might be implemented. Being then a company interested in the wellbeing and environmental development not only of its consumers but also its personnel.

On what regards the development of green products in the aircraft's industry, it is clear that there is an entrance gap in which the conceptual framework can be inserted and from where the eco-development can grow and expand, initially using few suppliers and eventually growing, constantly ensuring the participation of the final consumer in the development as an essential stakeholder. Indeed, the company has established a strict control for choosing suppliers and materials that could consolidate its strategic goals. Suppliers and their products are screened by an external consultancy company to guarantee aviation authority certification and product quality. Due to carbon neutral commitment of the aviation industry, most of the suppliers seem to be interested in supplying green products but actual efforts are limited. The company also focuses on the consumer's vision. The customer becomes an important stakeholder of the aircraft design process and its participation for defining ecological initiative is crucial for ensuring product profitability.

As the company holds an ISO1400, it has a great concern with the disposal of its trims and leftovers. However, this concern only regards the company if the remains are created within the company's propriety. In order to guarantee the accordance to the ISO rules, the company hires the disposal services of a third party. Therefore, the Company is not directly connected to the disposal or aware of its destination and eventual uses.

Eco-design for the aircraft completion

In order to better identify and discuss the results of the interviews, the Table 3 was organized highlighting the similarities on the interviewees' arguments, the main points discussed. According to this table, the interest of the industry and practicality of the conceptual frame-work are in harmony as they exist in the same level. However, it also led to an important initial finding: the lack of interest coming from the final user towards green completion. Even though, there is a strong trend towards this practice and that suppliers are constantly increasing the availability of ecologically sound product, its request and acceptance is minimum, reaching only 2% of the requests (mainly by environmental companies or young trend followers). None of the interviewees believe there is an interest coming from consumers to acquire GAC in their planes It is in this matter that the framework could provide important improvement measures as it aims to use the final consumer as an asset of the development, thus creating a product consumer-oriented

Lack of interest from consumers

Consumer's acceptance

Sales manager believe the main problem for consumers to accept GAC in their jets is the fact that they don't consider it an improvement in their completion, they consider it a poor/no value adding investment In order to satisfy the company's neutral carbon emission commitment, they say that the Company try as much as possible to convince costumer of the qualities and improvements offered by this line of products With the creation of a product that answers to consumer-oriented criteria the level of acceptance and persuasion should raise as a response to a product oriented to those who actually need to be convinced of its quality, advantages and features Doubts about the quality of GAC products have to discussed with clients and final consumers

Disposal

Recycling processes by for this sort of materials; What happens with the trims of the upholstery which is not used for the refurbishing; how can the 3 main sorts of materials used in a completion (leathers, carpets, wood and natural fibres) be reused or recycled

The company uses a thirdparty to dispose the left-over material, however all the interviewees agree that, due to the high-end characteristic of the materials they are ordered by quantity, an amount very close to the actual need, what, in the end, leaves few left-overs to be sent to this third-party partner Essential aspect of the ecodevelopment the disposal gains a new level of importance and its characteristics change as the supplier will have to consider its recyclability or 'compostability' and the producer will aim to provide end-of-life services Possibility of a new system for the disposed material internally in the company

Importance of green completion in aviation as a whole

How GAC is better for aviation: through the decrease of the aircraft's total weight; by the reduction of waste produced; through the diminution of the use and emission of chemicals; better marketing; decrease the company's footprint; reduce carbon emission; etc.

For the interviewees (specially the completion manager) percentage of weight GAC accounts for is minimal, however it still represents an improvement in the aircraft as a whole

When dealing with the framework, the importance of every feature in the aircrafts raises size and the responsibilities are shared, therefore, even if representing one per cent of the total weight of the aircraft, it can increases the environmental value of the aircraft as a whole

It does not account for great changes in aviation as a whole but is an improvement nevertheless. In addition, textiles are in direct contact with costumers, what can in future be an important element of as customers become more aware and demanding

Usage of textile left-overs in different projects

Start a handicraft atelier or cooperative within the company's community

Once again the interviewees were not very faithful on the possibility of implementing some activity which would use the left-over materials The completion manager believes this might be a possibility in some of the plants which already have programmed with the local community Investment in projects within the companies' community can contribute to its targets connected to sustainability 1. However, so far they do not fully satisfy the whole cycle of PLM as it does not yet integrate completely the end-of-life stages of the development. On the other hand, the company's suppliers had been working mainly with two concepts when dealing with textiles: its decompostability and production (to ensure recyclability and rapidly renewal -produced of an organic source and be 100% decomposed within a 10-year or shorter cycle). Regarding this matter, Lee et al. [START_REF] Lee | Product lifecycle management in aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul[END_REF] highlights that the ideal PLM approach should be able to manage inspections and maintenance records throughout the product life spam, but these elements are not included so far in the model.

Conclusions

Aiming to decrease their carbon footprints, adapt to regulations or to lean towards a neutral carbon emission industry, the aviation industry is investing largely in the improvement of a large number of aspects in its assembly, one of them being the use of ecologically sustainable textiles. Even though the aeronautic industry is currently one of the biggest pollutants worldwide, its concern in becoming green is mainly a response to directives and environmental regulations than an answer to consumer's interests and demands. Elaborated from the need to better understand and to identify the development and ecologic requirements of the aeronautic industry this research was developed to understand the use of fabrics in the aeronautic industry and possible applicable improvements. Thusly the presented article served to provide an initial idea of what was being considered 'eco' in Aviation, what could be done for it to be more ecologically forwarded and the main ecological objectives of the industry, as well as its consumer's behaviour.

Quality is not yet associated to GAC in this sector as the consumers tend to demand opulence rather than sustainability. Consumers played a very important role in the quest for the use and implementation of ecologic methodologies and products in the aviation industry, even though they seem to be working as a barrier to the introductions and diffusion of the green air-craft completion concept and fundaments, the industry believes that will change once they become an active stakeholder of the process.

The most important aspect seen for the industry when 'becoming green' is directed to a need to emit less carbon dioxide. Along with an increasing interest coming from the textile suppliers to produce more ecologic solutions for aviation, not only regarding weight (and fuel consumption) but also the materials used, its recyclability or clean disposal. Most of the problems currently associated to textiles used inside the aircraft have a chemical and highly pollutant source, however a solution or suitable alternatives do not seem to have yet been found in a reasonable price and in accordance to the supply and demand expectative. But the raw material or the fabrics before the finishing phase are leaning gradually towards 'greener' development and production approaches.

In conclusion, it is important to emphasise that, even though representing 1% of the total weight of the aircraft (not considering composites), textiles represent an important factor in the composition of an airplane and the fact that it is being thought off as another recyclable and not disposable part of it should mean a shift in the perception of its growing importance in the development of the plane as a whole. Especially when considering the fact that this industry is the biggest adopter of PLM [START_REF] Lee | Product lifecycle management in aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul[END_REF], and that PLM represents an important production shift for aviation and can be a key asset towards a more sustainable industry.

Table 3 :

 3 General Green Aircraft Completion (GAC) topics discussed during the interviews Since development risks are shared between the company and its suppliers, they are already working together and dealing with the environmental problems, as summarized in Figureperyear; price difference; offer of colours, materials, textures, etc.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: Ideal PLM cycle for textiles used in the completion process

Table 2 :

 2 Environmental focus of the studied organisation

	Organisation		Environmental pillars
		Technology	New aircraft designs, new lightweight materials, new engine advances
		Operations	Improved operational practices, more efficient flight procedures, weight reduction measures
	The Company	Infrastructure	More efficient air traffic management and airport in-frastructure
		Economic measures	Consistency in addressing and assessing noise and emissions within the industry, incentives supportive of environmental sustainability

Moreira, Ait-Kadi, Romero, Rodrigues-Vieira, de Santa-Eulalia and Wang


Daniele Cerri
email: daniele.cerri@polimi.itvalerio.contaldo@mail.polimi.itmarco.taisch@polimi.it

Valerio Contaldo

Marco Taisch

Sergio Terzi
email: sergio.terzi@unibg.it

Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, Life Cycle Costing, LCC, Life Cycle Optimisation, Life Cycle Simulation

Introduction to a Model for Life Cycle Optimisation of Industrial Equipment

Introduction to a Model for Life Cycle Optimisation of Industrial Equipment 1 Introduction

During the last years, the operating context of global companies has been dramatically changed due to several reasons, often mutually related.

Firstly, globalization pushed the industrial companies of Advanced Countries (European, American and Japanese) to face the ones of emerging countries (BRICS) in a "flat" world [START_REF] Friedman | The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century[END_REF], where global competitors start from the same line. In this context, Advanced Countries companies are forced to face the low cost pressure of emerging countries.

At the same time, also the customers' behaviour changed. Global customers demand for personalized solutions [START_REF] Mccarthy | Special issue editorial: the what, why and how of mass customization[END_REF] at the lowest total cost of ownership, more reliable systems, less polluting equipment, less consuming plants / facilities, greener products, etc.

Environmental consciousness is more and more felt, also due to the imposition of regulations and normative. In fact, national and international institutions are strictly regulating the environment, like Kyoto protocol or the tons of EU Directives.

In this evolving context, to pursue a life cycle approach, considering both economic and environmental dimensions, and realizing green products / systems at the less cost of ownership, can be a strategic key for Advanced Countries companies to compete and survive in the global market.

Designers and system engineers are the main involved actors to pursue a life cycle approach, due to their influence on product life cycle costs and environmental impacts. Different studies like [START_REF] Munro | Let's roast engineering sacred cows[END_REF], [START_REF] Romm | Lean and Clean Management: How to Boost Profits and Productivity by Reducing Pollution[END_REF], [START_REF] Dowlatshahi | The role of logistics in concurrent engineering[END_REF] and [START_REF] Blanchard | Design To Cost, Life-Cycle Cost[END_REF] estimates how designers, during the design phase, fix about 65%-85% of the total costs. The same consideration, about product life cycle environmental impacts, is reported in [START_REF] Rebitzer | Life cycle assessment Part 1:Framework, goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, and applications[END_REF].

The aim of this paper is to propose a first model to support designers and system engineers in the creation and identification of best life cycle oriented concept. The paper is so organized: in Section 2 a brief state of the art of Life Cycle Optimisation will be presented. In Section 3 the conceptual framework of the model will be explained, while in Section 4 first results are reported. Finally, in the Section 5, conclusions will end the paper.

State of the Art

To pursue a Life Cycle approach, in terms of costs and environmental impacts, it is necessary to study and depth two methodologies: Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Both the methodologies are well known in literature, being developed by the 60s.

Life Cycle Costs are described as "cradle-to-grave" costs summarized as an economic model of evaluating alternatives for equipment and projects [START_REF] Barringer | A Life Cycle Cost Summary[END_REF]. [START_REF] Elmakis | Life cycle cost analysis: Actual problem in industrial management[END_REF] defined LCC as the total cost of acquiring and utilizing a system over its entire life span, in other words LCC is the total cost of procurement and ownership. More detailed definitions are proposed by [START_REF]Reliability and Maintainability: Guideline for Manufacturing Machinery and Equipment[END_REF] -Life cycle cost is the total cost of ownership of machinery and equipment, including its cost of acquisition, operation, maintenance, conversion, and/or decommission -and [START_REF] Landers | Product Assurance Dictionary[END_REF] -LCC are summations of cost estimates from inception to disposal for both equipment and projects as determined by an analytical study and estimate of total costs experienced in annual time increments during the project life with consideration for the time value of money.

Life Cycle Assessment is described as a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life from-cradle-to-grave [START_REF]Life Cycle Assessment: Principles and Practice[END_REF].

[13] instead stated LCA as a methodological framework for estimating and assessing the environmental impacts attributable to the life cycle of a product.

The LCA process is a systematic, phased approach and consists of four components: goal definition and scoping, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. This process is described in the standard "ISO 14040 Environmental Management -Life Cycle Assessment -Principles and Framework" [START_REF]ISO 14040 Environmental Management -Life Cycle Assessment -Principles and Framework[END_REF].

The above described methodologies allow only an evaluation / estimation of costs and environmental impacts along the product lifecycle, comparing few alternatives. Therefore, to be more effective in the product development, it is necessary to explore a huge number of alternatives -if it is possible all the ones -, in order to find the best solution. The idea is to apply something similar to Set Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE), exploring and testing several concepts in parallel. The results of the alternatives are presented in different forms like trade-off curves, checklist, etc., in order to support the decision [15] [16].

To pursue this approach, LCC and LCA methodologies are not sufficient. Therefore it is necessary to support them, applying methods and techniques so as to explore the different alternatives, evaluating costs, environmental impacts and technical performances along the whole life cycle.

Analysing the literature, two main areas are identified: optimisation and simulation. Within our group, two works try to explore these areas. In [START_REF] Cerri | Multi-Objective Optimization of Product Life-Cycle Costs and Environmental Impacts[END_REF], 79 contributions from the last 15 years (39 related to LCC methodology and 40 related to LCA methodology) are analysed, in order to find which types of optimisation method are used and if costs and environmental impacts were together optimised, or at least both considered. In [START_REF] Garetti | Life Cycle Simulation for the design of Product-Service Systems[END_REF] authors analysed the state of the so called Life Cycle Simulation (LCS). 43 contributions from the last 15 years are analysed, in order to classify the field.

From these analyses some gaps / discordances came to light. In literature, optimisation methods are applied in few contributions, while the majority used simply the life cycle methodologies for an evaluation, using in some cases software (mainly applied to LCA). Moreover, using a multi-objective optimisation there is not a unique solution, obviously, but a set of optimal solutions, due to the tradeoffs incurred between the different objectives. Therefore the decision makers have to choose the best solution for their customers within a set of optimal solutions.

In simulation area, instead, there are several discordances in the definition of lifecycle boundaries and which should be the inputs and outputs of the simulation. Moreover, different tools are used to perform a simulation of the product life cycle, from spread-sheets, mathematical software, and programming languages to specialist computational packages. Found these gaps / discordances, the objective of the paper is to define a model for Life Cycle Optimisation, considering the literature analysed. In the next section the Conceptual Framework behind Life Cycle Optimisation model will be presented.

Conceptual Framework of Life Cycle Optimisation

In the light of the deficiencies / discordances shown in the previous section, the aim of the paper is to show the develop of an integrated, structured and robust model, completed by methods and tools, to support designers and system engineering during the concept phase, in order to create and identify the optimal life cycle oriented concept, in terms of economic and environmental dimensions. The conceptual framework of the model is reported in this Section (see Fig. 1).

Alternatives' Exploration

Analysis of Solutions' Robustness Decision Making

Problem definition and Modeling

Fig. 1. Conceptual Framework of Life Cycle Optimisation model

The framework is composed of four main blocks. In the first one, "Problem definition and Modeling", the problem will be defined, in order to determine which costs, environmental impacts and performances take into account. This allows understanding which data and information are necessary to model the problem. The output of this block is all the possible concepts.

In the second one, "Alternatives' Exploration", methods or techniques will be applied, in order to narrow the initial number of concepts, selecting a set of optimal ones. As previously discussed, the most used optimisation method is genetic algorithm, that is very fitting with multi-objective problems, like the minimization of costs and environmental impacts generated along the product life cycle.

In the third one, "Analysis of Solutions' Robustness", methods or techniques will be used, in order to evaluate the robustness of the solutions changing some parameters. Analysing the literature, a method like Life Cycle Simulation or Sensitivity Analysis could be useful for the purpose. The output will be a set of optimal and robust concepts.

Finally, in the last block, "Decision Making", methods or techniques will be applied, in order to choose the more appropriate life cycle oriented concept for the customers. Having a multi-objective problem, the output at the end of the third block will be a set of optimal concepts. To weight the objectives, satisfying customer's requirements and needs, allow finding the more appropriate life cycle oriented concept for itself. Methods like Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) are effective to return the best concept.

In the next Section a first application of the model will be shown.

First Application

The conceptual framework developed and described in the previous section has been applied to a real case study: we have performed the Life Cycle Optimisation of an engine assembly line.

A. Problem Definition

In particular, we have considered a fraction of the line composed by five stations. As shown in Fig. 2, each station forming the analysed assembly line has been actually provided with a set of available alternatives: we have considered 16 station alternatives (2 alternatives for the first station, 4 alternatives for the second station, and so on, where "aut", "saut" and "man" stand for automatic, semiautomatic and manual, respectively), but the set of available alternatives to be evaluated during the optimisation can be easily extended. Taking up the definitions of Cartesian product and cardinality, since the line is formed by 5 stations and the number of alternatives each station is provided with is known, the number of available line alternatives can be evaluated as follows:

| | | |

B. Alternatives' Exploration and Analysis of Solutions' Robustness

The aim of the analysis has been finding the optimal line configuration or line alternative. From an economical point of view, the "optimal" line configuration is the one that minimizes life cycle costs; therefore we have performed a singleobjective optimisation: ∑ where LCCs represents the lifecycle cost of s-th station that forms the line analysed. Being a single-objective problem, in this particular case the Decision Making block has not been implemented. Moreover, Alternatives' Exploration and Analysis of Solutions' Robustness have been realized in one single step, combining simulation and optimisation. In particular, in the proposed model the life cycle behaviour of a station is simulated by means of Discrete Event Simulation (DES). Therefore, allowing the user to replicate the station model an arbitrary number of times, it is possible to create the model of any industrial equipment (e.g. an assembly line or a production line) and simulate its costs and environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective. Optimisation by means of genetic algorithm is also implemented to identify the values of each station's input parameters which permit to minimize a suitable objective function: processing simulation outputs in an iterative way, the optimisation method eventually finds the "optimal" line configuration. Adopting simulation-based optimisation allows to get significant information during the early design stages: simulation permits to cover the whole life cycle perspective, while optimisation ensures that final results -in terms of input parameters -denote the selection of best elements (with regard to some criteria specified in the objective function) from some set of available alternatives. The implementation of this model is realized taking advantage of the potentialities provided by MATLAB® and Simulink®: in such a way it is possible to make use of one single software tool -Simulink is integrated with MATLAB -to combine optimisation with simulation.

In Fig. 3 the outward appearance of the "station block" is presented, i.e. the Simulink block that implements the simulation of the life cycle behaviour of a manufacturing plant's station. In the right side of the block it is possible to recognize the output ports that allow extracting the signals generated within the block. In such a way these output signals are made available for visualization and postprocessing analysis. Particular attention has been paid to realize an in depth modelling of the station's maintainability, since at equipment and system level maintainability has a great influence on reliability and availability; it is thus an important parameter in the optimisation of availability and life cycle costs.

C. Results

In Fig. 4 results are presented. The first graph of Fig. 4 shows the convergence of the genetic algorithm to the optimal solution; the algorithm stopped according to the selected stopping condition, i.e. on the basis of the evaluation of the weighted average relative change in the fitness function value. The second graph provides the vector entries of the individual with the best fitness function value, i.e. the number of the selected alternative of each station forming the line. Even if these results refer to the optimal solution from an economical perspective, the value of its environmental impacts has been kept under control, so as to satisfy environmental requirements too.

Results have been validated and the model has been regarded as an interesting support tool during the early stages of the detailed design.

Conclusions

In this paper the aim is to present a model for Life Cycle Optimisation of industrial equipment. Introduction (Section 1) points out the context where Advanced Countries companies operate, highlighting how to pursue a Life Cycle approach can be a strategic key to compete and survive in the global market. Moreover, the main actors involved in Life Cycle approach are identified in designers and system engineers.

Analysing state of the art about life cycle methodologies (Section 2), two main methodologies are identified: Life Cycle Costing and Life Cycle Assessment. However, these methodologies are not sufficient to explore a huge numbers of alternatives. The idea is to apply something similar Set Based Concurrent Engineering, exploring different concepts in parallel. To pursue this approach it is necessary to support LCC and LCA, applying methods and techniques so as to explore the different alternatives, evaluating costs, environmental impacts and technical performances along the whole life cycle. In literature two main areas are identified: optimisation and simulation. Analysing these areas, gaps / discordances came out.

In the light of these deficiencies, a conceptual framework of Life Cycle Optimisation model is presented (Section 3), and in Section 4 a first application is shown.

Designers and system engineers of the first application have appreciated this model, because it allows them a fast exploration of a huge number of concepts.

However, further analyses are necessary to improve the proposed model. First of all, a more accurate literature analysis is necessary, in order to define all the existing methods / techniques, to classify them and to select the more appropriate one for the model.

Finally, a new application cases will be searched, to test in depth and to make the most general possible the model proposed. In particular, a comparison between an application case in B2B (Business-to-business) market and another one in B2C (Business-to-customer) market could be really interesting, in order to understand if a different approach in Life Cycle Optimisation exists.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Station code and corresponding station alternatives.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Station block and its mask: SimEvents® block of industrial equipment's station.

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Results.

Acknowledgments. This work was partly funded by the European Commission through the Linked Design Project (FoF-ICT-2011.7.4: Digital factories: Manufacturing design and product lifecycle management, http://www.linkeddesign.eu/). The authors wish to acknowledge their gratitude and appreciation to the rest of the project partners for their contributions during the development of various ideas and concepts presented in this paper.


Manuel Löwer
email: loewer@ikt.rwth-aachen.de

Jan Erik Heller

PLM Reference Model for Integrated Idea and Innovation Management

Keywords: Integrated Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Innovation and Idea Management, Product Planning and PLM, PLM Reference Model

The authors present their research results and practical experience regarding implementations of PLM systems in a set of companies. In detail, the very early stages of product planning and innovation management are considered. As most of today's enterprises already operate PDMS (Product Data Management Systems), excellent foundations for a company-spanning idea and innovation management exist. An extensive analysis showed that idea management -if established -uses autonomous databases and data models which are not merged into or consistent with already existing PLM models. Potential is scattered due to disruptions in the information flow. Mostly, marketing and strategic groups have no direct access to relevant development and service data and thus lack customer feedback and stimuli for new strategic product ideas. Furthermore, strategic, technological and market boundaries have not been modelled yet to allow for an efficient handling of « postponed » ideas. The authors developed an extended data model in combination with a reference process model for innovation and idea management. Strategic data comparable to business intelligence information is consolidated with regular PLM information offering advanced opportunities and efficiency for innovation management. The paper also features an implementation of the introduced reference data and process models in a state of the art PLM system. Additionally, the approach serves as a guideline for SMEs and enables the set-up of professional innovation and idea management including presets for workflows, model attributes and open innovation functionalities.

Introduction

In today's increasingly fast changing markets, enterprises are constantly forced to come up with fresh ideas and new products in order to remain competitive. In other words, they are forced to innovate. However, the term « innovation » has been one of the most used words during the last years when it comes to strategic product development. But innovation is more than the actual invention since it needs to match eco-nomic conditions and requires a successful market launch. Several approaches exist to transform ideas into products, subsumed as innovation management. Even though innovation management is implemented by larger enterprises on business process levels, a sustainable integration of reasonable data, information and processes has not been realized. Moreover, SMEs typically lack the financial resources to set up explicit staff positions and introduce broad and comprehensive approaches.

Product lifecycle management offers all means to provide that integrated platform. Per definition, PLM covers all phases of products' lifecycles from ideas to their disposal [START_REF] Eigner | Product Lifecycle Management -Ein Leitfaden für Product Development und Life Cycle Management[END_REF][START_REF] Feldhusen | Development of methods to support the implementation of a PDMS[END_REF]. From the authors' perspective, this common understanding of PLM has its limitations since the phase « zero » is improperly addressed. Hence, information about circumstances which led to the initiation of a focused idea development are not recorded and associated with the future product. Affected data mainly includes external or internal needs and strategic considerations which are subject to change rapidly. In addition, it usually needs a large number of ideas for the successful launch of a single product (Fig. 1). This does not necessarily mean that most of the withdrawn ideas in the process have no economic potential. Reduction of ideas along the innovation process [START_REF] Ehrlenspiel | Integrierte Produktentwicklung[END_REF] There is actually a large number of different reasons for not following ideas in a specific innovation cycle, ranging from insufficient company knowledge for needed production technology to currently non-economical commodity prices or even political influences such as punitive tariff duties. Studies show that most of the ideas which are transferred into commercial products originate from the development departments (Fig. 2). Since these divisions are historically constraint to document their work for further processing, engineering or product data management (PDM), in the majority of companies is implemented with the most advanced technical means in terms of process and data management. Thus, the technical availability of such systems can be exploited and broadened to the innovation and idea management affected departments of the company.

The process of idea and innovation management

The buzzword innovation is frequently misinterpreted as the invention itself. In 1934 Schumpeter already emphasized that innovation describes the transformation of an invention or at least enhancements of existing products into a commercial application for a company [START_REF] Schumpeter | Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung; Eine Untersuchung über Unternehmergewinn, Kapital, Kredit, Zins und den Konjunkturzyklus[END_REF]. One of the characteristics of this innovation is a so called degree of novelty, which can be subjective or objective and applies to products, services or processes [START_REF] Meiler | Führungsverhalten und Innovation in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen[END_REF]. Regardless of the type of innovation, the driver and catalyst commonly is the acquisition of market shares or the sustainment of the actual position [7,[START_REF] Brezing | Planung innovativer Produkte unter Nutzung von Design-und Ingenieurdienstleistungen[END_REF]. Hence, innovation cannot be seen as a nonrecurring, singular activity but rather as a periodic and complex business process which demands for a profound workflow suitable for the particular company. Within such a framework, the innovation management addresses and affects the three different layers: normative, strategic and operational ones (Fig. 3). The normative management sets the boundaries and restrictions for the definition of the innovation management on the strategic layer leading to the innovation targets and a structured innovation program.

Continuous process

Market launch

Fig. 4. The process of innovation management

This program is then systematically operationalized with ideation and conceptualization following e.g. the generic process of product planning as provided by VDI2220 and can also be realized within innovation projects also incorporating tools and methods of industrial design. As part of the undertaken research, different innovation processes have been evaluated and basic proceeding was setup (Fig. 4). It should serve as a landmark for the analysis of the own innovation activities. The research has been conducted in line with a set of consulting projects for the introduction and implementation of PDMS at different customers. It turned out that none of them had rather defined nor implemented strategic aspects of product planning. Due to this, the need for a method to introduce a PDM based innovation management arose. This method is presented in the following section of this paper.

A method for the introduction of a PDMS based innovation management

The innovation process is a sequence of deductive acquisition and processing of information. In each step a concretion using different methods and models is achieved. Compared to common technical parameters, strategic and normative boundaries are often of descriptive character, not quantifiable and hardly reducible to a single attribute. This complicates the extension of standard PLM data models and an evaluation of prospective costs and efforts in comparison to the anticipated benefit is highly recommended. The developed method (Fig. 5) is divided into three main phases and entails different evaluation milestones to ensure an effective controlling. The first phase (analysis and definition) closes with a conclusion about the company's needs and ability to deploy a PDM based innovation and idea management, the resulting efforts and the technical feasibility. Within the second phase, measures to achieve the intended state are taken. In most cases this requires a noticeable reengineering of product data, process and role models, assuming that PLM-supporting systems or respectively PDMS are already implemented for a restricted group of users. The third phase starts with the implementation of key functionalities on a test system, followed by different evaluation scenarios. Throughout this whole process the so called Capability Scorecard (CSC) is used that allows for the transition of a PLM strategy into operational activities and a quantifiable assessment of the achievement of objectives [START_REF] Gebhardt | Abschätzung der Produktdatenmanagement-Systemfähigkeit produzierender Unternehmen[END_REF]. Once the testing has proved positive an implementation in the productive system and roll out can be pursued.

The use of IT systems to support business processes implies the understanding that these systems are not intended to substitute or directly control employees. Acceptance and the success of a later deployment strongly depend on the proper communication of what the clear benefits are for the involved parties in their daily routine. In addition, implementing every sub process as a workflow will lead to getting the implementation efforts out of hand and the project to fail.

Support of the continuous innovation process

The following subsection gives an overview of requirements for the IT-based innovation planning and the key objectives.

Capturing and management of ideas

Per definition, ideas have a higher degree of abstraction compared to product concepts. Textual descriptions of ideas are an obvious way to articulate their content and to make them explicitly available. However, a system based evaluation, selection or clustering is not directly made possible through such a description. Additionally, characteristics and criteria such as classification schemes have to be realized to ease the search and identification of suitable ideas for the future user.

Simple access and participation in the idea and innovation process

Globalization and customer awareness set the trend to also enclose external sources and resources in the innovation process. Current PLM and PDMS software generally offers web technologies so that customers, partners or third parties can easily be integrated. Depending on the level of confidence, content has to be restricted trough an advanced role model and rights management.

Monitoring and evaluation of innovation activities

The association of ideas available in the database to innovation projects and created products should provide a traceable realization rate. Not only the outcome but also the actual status of an idea or project as well as a report of current activities for a specific search field, a business unit or braches should be available in real-time. Financial incentives for top innovation performers or significant sources for good ideas, which can be identified by the system, can be implemented. Integrated project management functionalities provide controlling mechanisms and inform about the innovation costs.

Support of innovation projects

As already stated, there can be different initiations for innovation projects. One is the continuous observation of the market or main competitors. Another one can be a specific planned activity or technology push. For both (and additional) cases, a process template has to be defined, providing a suitable framework to guide the user. Beyond project specific data, information from product planning and monitoring of later lifecycle phases has to accessible.

PDMS centred innovation management

The aspects of PDMS for the usage in the area of idea and innovation management can thus be divided into the core functionalities of innovation planning and controlling, project management and execution as well as idea-, concept-and data manage-ment. The different sub functionalities are also depicted in Fig. 6. Data-process-and role model serve as the backbone and ensure the integrated PLM approach. These models should be a digital mirror of the company in terms of its innovation activities and associated data and organizational structures. For those who do not have an established and documented process, the authors set up a process model as a maximum template which covers all relevant activities of innovation planning. The structure allows for a direct utilization for the three business models listed above. To unambiguously describe each process element, several parameters have to be included: process id, superordinate process (e.g. business process), predecessor and successor process, input (data, kind of data, format, location and association to predecessor processes), output, involved parties (groups, roles), responsible instances (process owner and authorized for changes), media and tools needed for the transformation of input to output. Referring to the product data model the different data objects, their dependencies and attributes have to be analysed. In order to model a PDMS data object also the object lifecycles have to be considered. In addition, the object can contain different objects itself as part of the object master record. These objects can conclusively own attributes. In the previous section of this contribution, it has been emphasized that ideas and the management of ideas is crucial for successful innovation.

Thus, the data model for the object "idea" to be implemented in a PDMS is described for clarification (Fig. 7). To comprehensively describe an idea and to make it sustainably available in a PDMS, the authors identified the need for integrating different elements: an idea description, a sketch, note/comments, discussion forum and evaluations. For the idea object, these documents or fields constitute the major record. The idea description should be covered as a document to allow for versioning and idea adaption in later phases. This document in turn owns a large number of attributes, and also has different lifecycle stages, the document lifecycles. It is obvious, that the complexity itself and setting up a holistic data and process model can overstrain the resources and capabilities of SMEs, as they usually do not have according staff positions. Therefore the created templates can be used and efforts can drastically be reduced. Anyway, it is highly recommended to involve experienced third parties to act as consultants from the early beginning and to focus on the project objectives.

Prototypic implementation

The last step of the proposed method is the implementation in the given IT system of the company. For the evaluation of the developed innovation process, role and data models and implementation has been performed using PTC Windchill 9.1 with its modules PartsLink and ProjectLink and an Oracle 11g1 data base. Decision for this PDMS has been taken due to its completely web centred approach which does not need a client installation, hence also fulfils the requirement of open innovation needs. Besides the different objects, their states and the associated processes, method sheets have been implemented in the "library context" which give additional information about appropriate methods to be used in each of the innovation phases (e.g. method 635, pest-analysis, …). The processes themselves have been implemented as (partly) automated workflows to guide the user and ensure a consistent data basis. Fig. 8 depicts the different operations of idea management which are supported by the PDMS. The best practice experience with customers for innovation projects led to the implementation of a project template consisting of all required milestones, activities and deliverables. Not only the project members' workload on the organizational level is reduced by using this predefined template but also the controlling and outcome of different innovation project has shown to be better comparable and evaluable. A screenshot of the system implementation is depicted in Fig. 9. Following the PLM approach, it is possible to link ideas (Windchill project context) with existing products (Windchill product context). In case the idea relates to a product improvement which has been initiated by service evaluation or warranty cases, the idea can directly be linked to these reports and thus close the information loop.

Conclusion and Outlook

This contribution outlined that although PLM has become one of the key aspects in today's business, a lot of further potential has not been unlocked yet. Innovation and idea management have not sufficiently been comprised in an integrated PLM approach to close the gap between strategic considerations prior to the early stages of product planning and the development phases. In order to overcome these drawbacks, an extensive analysis of innovation as well as product planning processes has been conducted as a basis for setting up a generic process and data model to be implemented in PLM supporting software systems. A method and guideline for companies how to determine and implement their innovation and idea management needs has been introduced and illustrated by an exemplary setup in a commercial system. Further research will be undertaken to create modular data and process models and to provide industry sector specific bundles as an out of the box solution to further decrease the implementation efforts of companies. Besides, the company specific analysis and objective definition will still remain necessary and meaningful.

  Fig.1. Reduction of ideas along the innovation process[START_REF] Ehrlenspiel | Integrierte Produktentwicklung[END_REF]

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2.The origin of product ideas[START_REF] Pelzer | Methodik zur Identifizierung und Nutzung strategischer Technologiepotentiale[END_REF]

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. The framework of innovation management [on the basis of 9,10]

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Method to introduce a PDM based innovation management

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig.6. PDMS centred innovation management[START_REF] Löwer | PDM basierte Innovationsplanung im Rahmen eines durchgängigen Product Lifecycle Managements[END_REF]

Fig. 7 .

 7 Fig. 7. Data object "idea"

Fig. 8 .

 8 Fig. 8. Process of PDMS idea management

Fig. 9 .

 9 Fig. 9. Windchill implementation for idea and innovation management


Tanja Minzenmay

Maximilian Zeiss
email: zeiss.maximilian@gmail.commasoud.niknam

Masoud Niknam

Jivka Ovtcharova
email: jivka.ovtcharova@kit.edu

Performance Indicators for Configuration Management

Keywords: Configuration Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Performance Measurement, Maturity Model

Configuration Management (CM) with its aim to ensure functional and physical consistency between the product requirements and the reality during the whole lifecycle is becoming more and more important, since the awareness of the resulting advantages rises in many companies. The Institute for Information Management in Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has developed a maturity model to evaluate the CM maturity for different organizations on the basis of different CM dimensions. The following paper enhances the capability of this model by developing performance indicators, which are aimed at measuring the quality of implemented CM activities as a supplement to their extent of application, which was measured before. Such indicators have been developed based on an extensive state-of-the-art analysis and were validated and refurbished through interviews with industrial experts.

Introduction

Configuration Management (CM) can be seen as a coordinated framework of activities to manage and control configurations [START_REF]Quality management systems: Guidelines for configuration management, British standards[END_REF][START_REF] Iaqg | International Aerospace Quality Group, Supply chain management handbook[END_REF]. Due to the primary aim of keeping consistency between what needs to be there, what is actually there and what we say is there [START_REF]) Report Series, Application Of Configuration Management In Nuclear Power Plants[END_REF], CM provides several benefits. Many researchers confirm that CM exerts positive effects on product quality, product lifecycle costs and therefore on the ability to compete in an environment with growing complexity [START_REF]) Report Series, Application Of Configuration Management In Nuclear Power Plants[END_REF][START_REF] Rouse | Handbook of Systems Engineering and Management[END_REF][START_REF] Dvir | In search of project classification: a non-universal approach to project success factors[END_REF]. Niknam & Ovtcharova [START_REF] Niknam | Configuration Management Maturity in Scientific Facilities[END_REF] have developed a CM maturity assessment framework which enables the organizations to investigate their CM maturity with respect to the extent of CM application throughout the organization. However, for a higher framework capability, concrete measurements are needed to assess the CM quality. Many organizations are already measuring their overall performance by using performance indicators (PIs), which usually control important business units or the organization as a whole [START_REF] Klingebiel | Performance measurement-systeme[END_REF]. Well known examples are the Return on Investment (ROI) or the amount spent on research and development. In order to ascertain organizations performance and success in high levels, the performance of every discipline shall be investigated by utilization of detailed PIs. Thus, the aim of this paper is to develop and present PIs for Configuration Management based on the critical success factors and dimensions in the CM Maturity Model [START_REF] Niknam | Configuration Management Maturity in Scientific Facilities[END_REF]. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In section 2, the CM Maturity Model of [START_REF] Niknam | Configuration Management Maturity in Scientific Facilities[END_REF] is briefly presented. Later, a general introduction to performance indicators is given. The research methodology is described in section 4 and in section 5 the PIs developed by the authors are introduced. Finally, section 6 gives a conclusion and outlook of future work.

Configuration Management Maturity Model

Since maturity models available do not cover CM in detail, Niknam & Ovtcharova [START_REF] Niknam | Configuration Management Maturity in Scientific Facilities[END_REF] have developed the Configuration Management Maturity Model (CM 3 ). They define five primary dimensions of CM, which influence the level of success for an organization's application of CM discipline. These five dimensions are Strategy & Performance, Processes, Information Technology, Organization & Value-stream as well as Knowledge & Support. Furthermore, they have created sub-dimensions or critical success factors, describing particular activities and attributes of the each primary dimension which needs to be considered for implementation and establishment of an effective CM discipline. (Figure 1) For assessing the current CM maturity of various industries and validating the developed critical success factors, Niknam & Ovtcharova [START_REF] Niknam | Towards Higher Configuration Management Maturity[END_REF] have done a crossindustry survey using the CM 3 model. The results illustrate a high potential for improvement in CM with respect to its penetration level in the organization.

Measurement by Performance Indicators

In this paper, as outlined in the Introduction, the assessment framework of CM 3 is enhanced by the development of performance indicators. These performance indicators shall measure the application quality of each sub-dimension. Therefore, only the quality of CM-activities concerning the given sub-dimensions is the point of interest, and not "well-known" measures which focus on the overall performance of a company or different organizational units, as for example Return On Investment. Quality in the context of the indicators refers to the question: "How 'good' is activity A performed?". Performance measurement in general is used for monitoring and improving performance. Klingebiel [START_REF] Klingebiel | Performance measurement-systeme[END_REF] highlights that no matter how the performance measurement system looks like, three main perceptions are important: 1. You cannot manage what you cannot measure 2. What gets measured gets done 3. Measurement influences behavior The three perceptions can be transferred to the context of this paper, since the aim is to manage the improvement of CM.

Research Methodology

In order to get a first list of possible PIs for the different sub-dimensions, a broad literature analysis was done. Based on this first collection, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with industry experts to both validate the indicators and adjust them with respect to their feasibility of application, data availability and importance. The interviews have been done with four experts, coming from automotive and aerospace industry, from plant engineering industry as well as engineering consulting. Summarized about 7 hours of interview time have been done. As a result of the interviews some of the indicators have been approved without any further remarks, some have been supplemented for a better understanding, and a few have been excluded because of doubts about the general significance.

Performance Indicators

The authors propose the following performance indicators. They are presented in the following format in 3 columns.

Performance V then the KPI results won't be reliable -# of KPIs: an organization should always focus on a limited number of KPIs to keep the focus -% KPIs linked to strategic objectives and critical success factors: -% KPIs from which an action plan can directly be started in case outcoming results are bad: KPIs should always point out success and drawbacks -Frequency of KPI reviewing and improvement: the usefulness of a KPIs should be checked regularly [START_REF] Eckerson | Performance Dashboards: Measuring, monitoring and managing your business[END_REF] [20] [START_REF] Eckerson | Performance Dashboards: Measuring, monitoring and managing your business[END_REF] [18] -V -U Regular Measurement of KPIs: KPIs needs to be measured regularly -Frequency of measurement and reporting: depending on the focus the measurement needs to take place constantly and results be reported [START_REF] Eckerson | Performance Dashboards: Measuring, monitoring and managing your business[END_REF] [17] V

Processes

Clear processes for different org. units, projects and lifecycle phases: Processes should be defined, transparent, controllable, effective, efficient, straightforward, robust and at a right level of detail.

-# questions/requests about processes due to a lack of understanding: clear processes should be defined in a comprehensible way -% cases where the result of the process is constructive in a way that predefined objectives are achieved -∅ time to approve Engineering Changes -∅ costs per change -# non-confirmative configurations at the final product: all standard processes are trying to prevent these deviations -Frequency of reports and audits -# deviations to make a "fast" design change: this kind of deviation should be totally avoided [START_REF] Watts | Configuration Management Metrics[END_REF][START_REF] Lyon | Practical CM, Best Configuration Management Practices[END_REF][START_REF] Watts | Engineering Documentation Control Handbook[END_REF] [17, [START_REF] Lyon | Practical CM, Best Configuration Management Practices[END_REF][START_REF] Watts | Engineering Documentation Control Handbook[END_REF] [I]

[23] [17] V V E V -

Process ownership, maintenance and update based on feedbacks:

A specific person is responsible for a process -processes are maintained, updated and improved -feedback among the employees is encouraged and maybe rewarded.

-∅ benefit per feedback: if possible to measure financial -Frequency of feedbacks: more reasonable if combined with the benefit -% of processes with a specific and active process owner, who is responsible for process audit and the interfaces with adjacent processes

[A] [21, 22] [21] V U U
Stakeholder access to processes: Access of stakeholders to process information must be defined and managed in an efficient way.

-∅ Time until process information can be found by the stakeholder -% of satisfied stakeholders regarding accessing process information

[A] [START_REF] Bourne | Stakeholder Relationship Management[END_REF]26] V U Process customizability for various scenarios: Processes should be able to handle different requirements in a continuously changing working environment.

-Availability of shortcuts: increases the efficiency for less complex scenarios (also called fast tracks) -# scenarios which cannot be covered by the company's processes: this can be minimized by very robust or flexible processes -some industrial sectors need very flexible processes others very robust ones [START_REF] Fischermanns | Praxishandbuch Prozessmanagement[END_REF] [I] V E fined clearly and the responsibility needs to be distributed to individuals -# escalations caused by unclear responsibilities (difficult to measure, could be also assess in audits): if responsibilities are unclear misunderstandings will occur which can end in escalations -% roles which are clearly defined and documented [START_REF] Hass | Configuration Management principles and practice[END_REF] [START_REF] Dvir | In search of project classification: a non-universal approach to project success factors[END_REF] [A] V E Cross-Functional Collaboration among Different Stakeholders for CM Purposes: CM is a cross-functional discipline, which is why the collaboration between functions is required by CM's very nature -% of process target achievement for each value chain element: an effective cross-functional collaboration between stakeholders along the value chain will enable every chain element to achieve its goals corresponding to CM activities -Cycle time per changes involving the value-chain: if collaboration works well, such changes should be able to get passed through fast -# revisions for change changes involving the value-chain: if collaboration works well revisions should not be necessary

Outlook

In this paper, performance indicators for the sub-dimensions of the Configuration Management Maturity Model have been introduced. The developed PIs extend the model's functionality and enable the assessment of not only the implementation extent of CM in the target organization, but also the quality of this implementation. The PIs so far are identified on the basis of literature review and expert interviews. A necessary further step is to apply the PIs in a case organization to find out the feasibility measuring them. The trade-off between the importance and measurement feasibility shall be identified and a more applicable list of KPIs shall be developed. Moreover, to enable an assessment and identifying various maturity levels, an extensive cross-industry assessment is required to understand various available ranges for each PI. After defining the levels the next step would be to define activities which support organizations in achieving the next maturity level.

Figure 1 .

 1 Figure 1. CM Maturity Model sub-dimensions

  Standard CM processes like configuration identification, baselining, product structure management, change evaluation -control & implementation, status accounting and configuration audits.

of the Deployed Strategy to Stakeholders:

  To be able to support CM objectives and policy guidelines, the strategy has to be communicated to the stakeholders % employees who can explain the CM strategy and what it means in terms of their daily work: if employees know how their work contributes to CM success the communication has worked properly -Effectiveness of policy implementation: the policy should not only be mentioned on a document but it should be understood and applied in the operative business

	Indicators:	Initial source:	Expert Comments:
	% -percentage	[ ] : Reference	V : validated
	# -number/amount of	A : Authors' proposal	U : updated
	∅ -average	I : Interview	E : emerged
			-: Not sure
	Strategy& Performance
			ob-	[10] [14]	V
	jective			[15]
	-# CM units having a mission statement that clearly defines their objec-	[I]	E
	tives and mission: it is important that all organizational units know
	what they need to do to achieve main CM objectives
	Communication [16]	U
				[16]	V
				[14] [15]	V
	KPIs for Performance Measurement: The fulfillment of objectives needs to be measured
	with Key Performance Indicators
	-Quality of data available for KPI results (sufficient quantity, com-	[17] [18]
	pleteness): if the database for the KPI application is not sufficient,	[19]

CM Strategic Objective and Policy:

For successful CM, objectives and policy should be available and be adapted to the corporate strategy -% to which CM strategic objectives are derived from overall strategy: the CM strategy needs to fit to the company's overall goals to support their achievement -Actual frequency / target frequency of updating CM objectives: CM objectives need to be rechecked regularly to be adapted to new corporate goals -% to which CM policy & objectives are covering all main CM activities in the organization: proper policy and objectives should cover all important subjects to avoid confusion and constitute a guideline

[9] [10] [9] [11] [12] [13] V U V

Deployment of CM Strategy in Different Organization Levels: CM strategy needs to be deployed to all levels to provide adapted objectives for all teams -% of deployed goals, which can be clearly linked to a higher CM -# of strategic deviations associated to communication: communication quality can be assessed by conducting audits. -

and support Standard CM Terminology and Knowledge Support Accessible by Stakeholders

	Benchmarks
	-% of projects for which CM lessons learned is recorded and ac-	[19]	V
	cessible by future stakeholders
	-% coverage of CM activities by standards and benchmark documents	[19]	V
	accessible to corporate search engines:
	-% of lessons learned used in future projects	[9]	U
	Support and Empowerment of CM Discipline by Top Management: To ensure the ful-
	fillment and acceptance of CM, management support is necessary
	-% of management attending CM meetings:	[A] [A]	E E
	-Frequency of management demands for CM reports: indicates that	[A]	E
	management's attention to CM
	Communication
		[A]	E
		[A]	E
	Consideration of Suppliers and Subcontractors in CM Activities: suppliers need to be
	integrated in CM activities to ensure the CM targets for sourced parts
	-# non-conformities resulted from lack of value-chain involvement: if	[9] [24]	U
	the exchange of information about changed specifications, require-
	ments etc. does not work well, non-conformities can occur
	-# of non-conformities (opposite perspective): if the contractor does not	[13] [5]	U
	deliver what has been specified, non-conformities can occur
	Involvement of Key Stakeholders in Major Configuration Changes:
	-# of complains after changes were implemented (internal or external)	[5] [13]	V
	-# of review cycles needed for changed implementation: if all stake-
	holders are involved from the beginning, changes can be defined in	[A]	E
	detail and implemented without any more changes to the change
	Knowledge -Frequency of updating the provided information: ensuring actuality	[19] [36]	V
	of information
	-∅ time to find the needed information: ensures a convenient access to	[36] [19]	V
	knowledge
	-# of audit findings illustrating insufficient knowledge of the employ-	[A]	E
	ees in CM
	Regular CM-Related Training Activities: Employees need to be prepared for CM tasks
	by trainings to ensure the quality of the task execution
	-% of CM activities for which training is available	[17] [24]	V
	-∅ amount of training taken by each employee associated with CM	[24] [17]	V
	-# of obligated trainings for each role: if the training is necessary to	[A]	E
	fulfill a role/ tasks it is a sign for a high quality of the training
	Accessibility and Promotion of Latest Standards, Lessons Learned, Best Practices and

of CM Benefits to Stakeholders by Top Management:

  For motivation and acceptance of CM it is necessary that the benefits are communicated to all stakeholders -Frequency of promoting CM as an influential discipline by Top Management -

Information Technology

High level of visualization and user-friendliness: IT-tools should be easy to handle and operate as well as being capable of providing all the information needed. The user should like the usage of these tools and recognize the benefits easily.

-∅ time a user needs to complete a specific task: this standard tasks must be executed with the IT-system -IT-happiness-score: measuring the satisfaction level of stakeholders with the CM IT system -Meaningful and intuitive wording is used for the user interface and wrong data typed in by the user is avoided [START_REF] Nielson | Usability Engineering[END_REF] [27]

[28, 29, 30, 26] V V -

Integration of CM-Tool with other IT-Systems

-% time spent on finding CM-information in the IT system out of overall time spent on CM-activities: if many IT-systems must be accessed, systems are not integrated efficiently

Supporting the CM-Functionalities -# processes developed based on given IT-systems: should be minimized because the IT-systems must be specified by CM needs and processes and not the other way around -% CM-activities supported by IT

[A] [START_REF] Lyon | Practical CM, Best Configuration Management Practices[END_REF][START_REF] Watts | Engineering Documentation Control Handbook[END_REF] V V Solid IT-Tools all over the Organization for all Lifecycle Phases -# cases during the product lifecycle where the format of information needs to be changed because of different IT-tools or databases -Frequency of data backups [START_REF] Lyon | Practical CM, Best Configuration Management Practices[END_REF] [32] V V Authorization Capabilities for different CM activities -# access rights following logical, transparent and comprehensible rules which are defined by the company -∅ loss due to wrong authorization [START_REF] Benantar | Access Control Systems[END_REF][START_REF] Lampson | Protection[END_REF] [A] V -

Organization & Value Stream

Suitable CM Organization Structure with Respect to Organization Complexity and CM Needs -# of CM employees / product complexity: if there are different product programs with different variants and the amount of products are high, more contributions are necessary -CM integration / organization complexity: for managing high complexity a high degree of integration, defined as communication, control and coordination, is necessary