Milestones of a Product Lifespan and Tools for Product Life Management

摘要

This paper is prepared by the participants of the Postgraduate Seminar on ProductDevelopment at Helsinki University of Technology. The course is intended to discuss the most interesting new methods and tools of product development in the field of Machine Design. The key success factors in manufacturing industry have changed from skill and know-how to effective manufacturing processes, to effective marketing, to understanding the customer needs and environmental aspects-what will come next. We know that future companies must operate in a world of uncertainty, rapid changes and shortening life times of variform products. It is well known that companies are concentrating on their key competence areas. Most of the manufacturing tasks and even assembly, testing and some design subprojects are given outside for contract or partner companies. The importance of product data management in the networking companies increases.