Operational Acceptance Testing of Manufacturing Process Innovation Initiatives

摘要

For successful implementation of innovation initiatives it is important to have in place adequate deployment and test plans for the initiatives, pre-implementation. This paper presents an Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) methodology for use in testing deployment readiness of innovation initiatives. The OAT methodology is centred on scenario-based simulation techniques, using test cases of innovation deployment plans and risks. The focus in this paper is on manufacturing process innovations (MPI). The proposed methodology enables testing of MPI initiatives with the aim of assessing the level of confidence offered by MPI deployment plans and the associated readiness to deploy. Using an illustrative example, it is shown that the OAT methodology helps determine whether there is enough statistical evidence in favour of a belief that a manufacturing process will operate as desired during innovation deployment whilst maintaining the required manufacturing capabilities and service levels.