Durham E-Theses A design framework for agile virtual enterprise collaboration Lomas, Christopher David William How to cite: Lomas, Christopher David William (2009) A design framework for agile virtual enterprise collaboration, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2094/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk mm VDurhai University A Design Framework for Agile Virtual Enterprise Collaboration The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. Christopher David William Lomas School of Engineering February 2009 A thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Durham School of Engineering 2 2 MAY 2009 Declaration Except where otherwise stated, this thesis is the result of my own research and does not include the outcome of work done in collaboration. This thesis has not been submitted in whole or in part for consideration for any other degree or qualification at this University or any other institute of learning. This thesis contains 45,862 words and 19 figures Christopher D W Lomas Durham University February 2009 Abstract Keywords: Agility, Responsiveness, Agility Measurement, Engineering Design, Design Process, Design Tools, Collaboration, Turbulent Environment, Unexpected Events The market in which engineering companies must operate is increasingly turbulent and unpredictable, largely due to the global nature of the engineering industry in the 21st century. This turbulent environment is further exacerbated by the increasing focus on customisation for individual consumers, rather than the mass manufacturing market of the past. In order to thrive in this turbulent environment companies are increasingly focussing on their core competences, and building strategic alliances with complementary partner companies to satisfy the overall needs of an individual project. This is true of the design as well as manufacturing stages of product development. The increasing levels of collaboration and the requirement for companies to be agile in their response to unexpected events are the background to this research. Specifically, this research addressed the ability of collaborating groups of companies to respond to unexpected events during the design stages of product development. The hypothesis was that through the specific implementation of a novel collection of tools and techniques the agility of collaborative design projects can be increased. A multi-method approach was adopted for the research, beginning with an industrial survey identifying those tools and techniques from the literature which are linked to an increased level of agility. These results form the basis for the definition of the Agile Design Framework which takes the form of a series of implementation steps carried out by a collaborative design team to put in place tools and techniques for increasing their responsiveness to unexpected events. i The second stage of the research tested the Agile Design Framework in a controlled laboratory environment with both an experimental and control group undertaking the same collaborative design project. Unexpected events were introduced and the responses of both groups are analysed. The experiment group using the Agile Design Framework had a Key Agility Index score of 0.04 compared with a score of 0.13 for the control group. A low score on the Key Agility Index indicates a higher level of agility while high scores tending to 1 have a lower agility level. The results supported further calibration of the Agile Design Framework for the final stage of the research which was an implementation of the framework in industry for a real-life collaborative design project. This industrial implementation showed an improvement in the agility of the collaborative design project using the Agile Design Framework, improving the Key Agility Index from 0.54 to 0.43. The research makes three novel contributions to knowledge in this field. The first is the Agile Design Framework which is a set of tools and techniques with a specific implementation process, which has been shown to increase agility for collaborative design projects. Secondly, a four-level classification scheme for unexpected events will be presented which allows categorisation of unexpected events into Trivial, Minor, Major and Fatal, based on specific criteria. Finally, through the use of easily obtainable data the Key Agility Index is validated as a meaningful quantitative metric for the measurement of agility at the project or departmental level. ii Acknowledgements Firstly, I wish to thank my two supervisors, Prof. Paul Maropoulos for the early inspiration he provided, and in particular Dr. Peter Matthews without whose constant support, guidance and open door I would not have achieved this work. For their expert assistance with the questionnaire thanks must go to Dr. Christos Tsinopoulos and Dr. Charlene Yauch. Similarly, for taking part in my pilot studies of both the questionnaire and protocol study I must thank Chris Russell, Neil Donnelly, Phil Snelgrove, Gary McGee, Gareth Ayre, Paul Jaquin, Gareth Bird and Neal Wade. To the people from industry who have spent many meetings and hours of precious time taking part in my industrial experiment and protocol study, your efforts were most appreciated and I couldn't have done it without you: Roger Allcock, Dave Wall, Gary Thompson, Michael Mulroy, John Hartas, Jennifer Udeh, Peter Lee, Darren Nicholls, Katy Neumann-Kromer, Rhiannon Ingram and Matt Owen. The Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Royal Academy of Engineering for their faith and generosity in awarding me with travel grants to present my work at multiple conferences and discuss it with like-minded academics. To Northern Defence Industries and in particular Karl Ward, for their support, funding and access to information, without which this research could never have been undertaken. To the many people with whom I have shared an office and many happy times over the last five years: Nikos Armoutis, Peter Chapman, Karl Paramor, Belen Solano, Defen Zhang, Denny Cheung, Paul Baguley. You have been the sounding board for so many iii ideas and your support and feedback have been most appreciated. Also, to my friends in the School of Engineering who are too many to name individually but who have created an enjoyable environment in which to work, and have offered many distractions outside of the office when it has been needed. To the staff of the School of Engineering at Durham University, in particular John Garside who has been an inspiration and source of great enthusiasm and passion for this subject over the 9 years I have known him, also Tim Short, Hui Long, Qing Wang and Graham Coates who have all helped along the way. To my family, my mum Margaret, dad Ray, and sister Ruth who have always supported me in everything I do. They have been at the end of the phone when things have been tough, and have helped me to keep life in perspective while always encouraging me to keep going. And to my wife Miriam, who has put up with me over the last five years of research, never wavering in her support and encouragement, and without whom I could never have achieved my dreams. This is for them. iv Publications This research has been published in the following conferences, journal publications and book chapters: Conferences "An Extended Virtual Enterprise SMARTEAMEngineering Project". Forrest Arnold, Nathan Moody, William Reiter, Cary Maunder, Brian Rogers, Paul Baguley, Peter Chapman, Chris Lomas, Defen Zhang, Paul Maropoulos. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on DET. Seattle. 13-15th Sep 2004. "Agile Design and Manufacturing in Collaborative Networks for the Defence Industry". Paul Maropoulos, Nikolaos Armoutis, David Bramall, Chris Lomas, Peter Chapman, Brian Rogers. Proceedings of the IFAC Conference on Manufacturing, Modelling, Management and Control. Athens. 21-22nd Oct 2004. "Foundations of an Agile Design Methodology". Peter Matthews, Chris Lomas, Nikos Armoutis, Paul Maropoulos. Proceedings of the International Conference on Agile Manufacturing (ICAM). Helsinki. 27-28th Jul 2005. "Partner Profiling to support Agile Design ". Nikos Armoutis, Peter Matthews, Chris Lomas, and Paul Maropoulos. Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production (CARV). Munich. 22-23rd Sep 2005. "Verification of event impact levels for an Agile Design framework". Chris Lomas, Peter Matthews, Nikos Armoutis, Paul Maropoulos. Proceedings of International Conference on Manufacturing Engineering (ICMEN). Thessaloniki. 5-7th Oct 2005. v Publications