Product Maturation Guide - A Digital Simulation Outcome

The process of improving product performance by improving individual parts and tuning the assembly line fixtures to reach acceptable quality to start mass production is called Product Maturation. Often in new product development, product maturation affects the target date due to iterative process. Tolerance analysis tools, those optimizing the individual part tolerances at the time of design can generate a product maturation guide that eliminates many problem solving procedures and saves time on root cause analysis. Assume a first product built on a new assembly line was found to need improvements. To conclude the actions we need information about all the dimensions of child parts and processes involved and their influence. At the time of product design, the tolerance analysis system works with the same variables with a given range of variations virtually. For a practical build, instead of variation range, it has to consider one fixed value measured from initial parts. By adding information about process characteristics, like speed, cost, etc. to all the dimensions, the system can directly guide the manufacturing team, on which parameter to modify, which direction and how much. At the same time, it can predict the time required and cost involved. Product Maturation guide is one of the documents/tools that gets passed from design to manufacturing along with 3D models and drawings at the manufacturing kick-off gate. Tolerance analysis tools can make it possible to reduce product maturation time by 80%.