CBCPLM

Center for Building Competence in Product Lifecycle Management

[Opportunities Available for Doctoral Research; Guide: Dr. Kaushik Sahu]

About PLM@KIIT University: The Center for Building Competence in Product Lifecycle Management was established in the School of Management, KIIT University with the support of Dassault Systemes (DS) in 2009. The center aims to promote multidisciplinary interactions at UG and PG levels – by supporting courses offered to both engineering and management students of various disciplines. It extends support to courses, such as, product lifecycle management, product design and development, digital manufacturing and virtual factory, customer response to manufactured products, project management, quality management and supply chain management. These are largely governed by design thinking and systems thinking.

In terms of research output the first doctoral scholar in design technology management was awarded degree by KIIT University in 2013. Part of this research focuses on understanding why it is difficult to absorb PLM technologies in Indian industrial and academic settings. The work has been appreciated by the reviewers and the design deficit model introduced in this research needs to be now institutionalized. Interested doctoral scholars can undertake promising research in the broad area of Design Theory and Methodology governed by Design Thinking; Sub-areas include: Knowledge-Based Systems in Design and Manufacturing, Design Automation; Manufacturing Automation Management, Concurrent Engineering (CE), Design Technology Management, Design for Supply Chains, Design for sustainability, Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), and Product Lifecycle Management.

The PLM platform is also available to assist industries including the small and medium sector to help plan and implement effectively their product design and process planning activities, as also to foster concurrent product and process development initiatives. It is an extension of the work begun earlier in 1990s and supports most of the objectives of the earlier AICTE funded Computer Aided Product and Process Development lab established in year 2000 (Click here). Here is a summary of the impact assessment study.

Opportunities for Doctoral Work: As mentioned in the impact assessment study, we are searching for candidates to take up doctoral work in two broad areas: (i) Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD) and (ii) Supply Chain Management and Integration.

IPPD deals with successful product development, which involves various "Design for X" methodologies to assist the designers (either experienced or inexperienced) by addressing up-front all possible downstream concerns of a production and distribution process. Computer simulation of the downstream process is carried out to aid the design process where necessary. Researchers are investigating issues ranging from narrow ones like design for analysis to broader issues of design for environment. For most Indian companies, however, the product development process badly needs the state of the art computer support and know-how. Therefore, the Indian business environment provides a lot of opportunities and challenges where these concepts can be applied. IPPD, therefore, provides an interesting career path and doctoral students can pursue various projects relevant to the Indian industry for a more effective and experiential learning of the subject. Our research in this area, however, focuses on the development of more intelligent design systems for supporting advanced IPPD initiatives. We are currently exploring avenues for modeling intent. A conceptual framework has been developed for capturing the customer’s intent while preserving the designer’s (or domain expert) intent.

In the second area of investigation, the thrust of our research is on the product development function and its impact on the supply chain configuration. Thus, the research aims to address issues related to design for supply chains. The focus is on enhancing front-end capabilities for helping firms challenge more aggressive supply chain strategies, such as, Early Design Involvement of Suppliers, Supplier Development, and Inter-organizational cross-functional team participation. One major issue is that of inter-operability, which adds up to massive rework costs in supply chains. Our allied research efforts under IPPD aim to have a suitable front-end representation that can reduce such inter-operability problems. Interested doctoral students will be encouraged to pursue research related to design for logistics. The product design activity will be primarily supporting strategies, such as, postponement and mass customization. The domain test-beds currently identified are (a) the housing industry, (b) consumer durables and (c) handicrafts from rural India. An important objective here is to assist Industrial development by protecting environmental norms governed by the sound principles of design-for-environment.

This area of research provides interesting application oriented avenues in product development with the help of concepts, such as, design for logistics and design for environment that enable delayed differentiation. Doctoral candidates may follow these links (IPPD and SCM) to find more about the available areas of research.

Related Links: Extending PLM Platform for MSMEs

Further queries: Dr. Kaushik Sahu (kaushik@ksom.ac.in, kaushiksahu@gmail.com )

Original: 26 Sep 2015; Revised: 26 Sep 15