Integrating Design and Production: Case Analysis of Fiat - Coursework Example

modern manufacturing firms have been known to offer new products to the customers at a lower cost but with high quality. Thus, integrating design and production can be considered on three different theoretical concepts, such as ontological (metaphysical) assumptions, a theory of production, and a theory of management in order to manage and integrate of design and production of projects.

             It was Ohno, a production engineer at Toyota, who for the first time broke through the conventional barrier between design and manufacturing and introduced the concept of product design in the manufacturing industry as a useful tool. Project process or life span is defined as “the sequence of phases through which the project will evolve” (Monden, 1992). The project process matters in design planning and final execution phases.  The time cycle is directly associated with the life span of the project so that from the time of design of the project till its final phase of full implementation the life cycle will evolve from one phase to the other. However, the life cycle is directly related to the structure of the project and therefore some projects require approval at the end of each phase. Thus planned sequences or phases involve corporate operations of the new project and therefore management should focus on the significance of skills, resources, and organizational controls in managing the project.

        Lean construction is a method applied in the process of project delivery and is based on a waste-minimizing and value-maximizing production management principle. The phrase "Lean Construction" was first coined by the International Group for Lean Construction at its inaugural meeting in 1993. In the construction industry, this principle acquires a still larger dimension in that the approach is adopted through the whole process of manufacturing process design, planning, supply management, and assembling (Shingo, 1989). Lean production as associated with management is a systemic approach to minimizing losses or waste and maximizing value creation so that the subsequent techniques are refined to achieve a degree of sophistication in preconceived management settings. The following four aspectual phases have been suggested in modern literature on the subject as more perceptive in terms of design, performance, delivery, and control.

• The construction facility and its delivery have to be designed and planned in a manner that takes into consideration the customer’s purpose and needs. The rationale for positive iteration is emphasized so that negative iteration is minimized as far as possible (Brookfield, & Skaysbrook, 2004).
• Designing the structural perimeters of the project in a manner to achieve value at the highest possible level and minimize waste at the delivery stage. This is essentially associated with process facilitation because when construction projects are designed processes become complex as the delivery phase comes closer.
• The total performance concept is emphasized as a measure aimed at improving the qualitative outcomes. Thus project performance as a whole is much more important than cost reduction measures and relative speed.
• Controlling processes and systems is central to the monitoring task in lean construction. Thus there is an essential effort to measure and improve the performance of these processes and systems.