A Case Study Approach on the Development of Design Chain Operations Reference-model in the Mold Industry

For those traditional industries or the hi-tech industries, precise as well as reliable dies and molds are indispensable for mass production. The development of dies and molds in a timely and cost-effective way impacts on the product quality and schedule very much. As industrial technology is progressing, demands on products are getting complicated and product lifetime is shortening. There is, therefore, a need to reengineer a new product development (NPD) process in the mold industry, which is a basic and important segment to support product design and production functions in many industries. A reference model developed by Supply Chain Council (SCC) to define the NPD processes, so called Design Chain Operations Reference-model (DCOR), is a common methodology among design chain partners to identify the metrics used to manage the related processes, and associated best practices. The concept of DCOR is useful not only for offering an industrial standard that enables next-generation design chain management, but also for using current practices for further improvement. The DCOR is too general to be served as the benchmark of any specific industry. The purpose of this paper is to extend Design Chain Operations Reference-model into the mold industry (in short, M-DCOR) based on literature study and a case study. The framework of NPD metrics and best practices in design chain are developed through in-depth discussion of a large mold company. Further applications of M-DCOR are also discussed.