Product Development Innovations as Driving Force for Retail and Printing Businesses Advancing Monozukuri Innovation from Customers’ Standpoint EGUCHI Takeshi Toshiba Tec Corporation’s Activities toward Productivity Improvement in Development of Retail and Printing Products SATO Katsutoshi / MORIMOTO Jun / HAYAMA Shuichiro In response to the market demand for retail and printing products such as point of sales (POS) systems and multifunctional peripherals (MFPs), there is an increasing need for the sophistication of product development methods in order to shorten development periods to satisfy the rapidly changing requirements of customers and further improve product quality, as well as to realize products with diverse functionality and greater complexity. With the aim of becoming a solution partner to solve issues faced by its customers at the sites, Toshiba Tec Corporation has been taking the initiative in providing solutions to meet the requirements of individual customers by using POS systems installed at retail stores and MFPs introduced in offices as the solution platform. This makes it necessary to maximize product development productivity to achieve the timely introduction of and improvements in the quality of products with high cost-competitiveness. We are therefore tackling the reform of product development methods by means of “monozukuri innovation” activities, based on the Japanese concept of monozukuri encompassing the art and craft of manufacturing. Multiproduct, Variable-Quantity Production of POS Systems and MFPs Based on Integrated Product Launch Planning and Hardware Platform Development MORIMOTO Jun / IIZUKA Toshiaki / SHISHIKURA Kenichiro In the retail and printing businesses, both increased global competition and the growing diversity of and changes in customer requirements are driving demand for the realization of multiproduct, variable-quantity production that can flexibly respond to market needs in terms of production lineup and volume, replacing conventional mass production. Toshiba Tec Corporation has been expanding its lineup of point of sales (POS) systems and multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) in accordance with its motto of “customer-oriented manufacturing.” For the timely introduction of optimal products to meet various requirements, we have achieved multiproduct, variable-quantity production for POS systems and MFPs through integrated product launch planning to determine their specifications from a long-term, total optimization standpoint, as well as the development of hardware platforms for the efficient execution of design, manufacturing, and maintenance services. Design FMEA to Implement Quality Risk Assessment Accompanying Development of Products Using Hardware Platform IIDA Yoshinori / IIZUKA Toshiaki In line with the progress of hardware platform technologies to improve the efficiency of product development by means of common units, it is necessary to take adequate measures to prevent both the occurrence of unexpected malfunctions caused by different usage environments and expansion of the range of effects of such a malfunction. However, it has become difficult to take a wider variety of usage environments into consideration using conventional design methods. As a solution to this issue, Toshiba Tec Corporation has constructed a scheme for design failure mode and effect analysis (design FMEA) to implement quality risk assessment based on a newly developed master model, which organizes the relationship between platform components and risks, at each stage of product development from the specification review phase to the start of mass production. This design FMEA continuously assures product quality by elucidating design issues from a wider perspective and ensuring the inheritance of knowledge between products and generations. Application of 1DCAE to Improve Efficiency of Early Design Processes for MFPs SUZUKI Yasuhiro / KAMANO Tadao / KOJIMA Takahiro The expanding complexity of requirement specifications for retail and printing products in recent years has made the timely provision of a diverse lineup of products indispensable in order to satisfy the needs of individual users. Toshiba Tec Corporation has been actively focusing on the improvement of design productivity through the introduction of innovative design processes to the development of laser exposure equipment for multifunctional peripherals (MFPs). We have applied the 1DCAE design framework, in which equipment is divided into functional units and the feasibility of a design is demonstrated using these functional units, to the early design processes for laser exposure equipment, thereby allowing even an inexperienced optical engineer to swiftly perform quantitative evaluation of laser exposure positions according to the misalignment of optical parts. 1DCAE makes it possible to improve design productivity and ensure design quality based on evaluations under various conditions. Application of Numerical Analysis Technology to Product Development to Ensure Design Quality HASEBE Yoshifumi / MORIMOTO Jun With the extensive dissemination of three-dimensional computer-aided design (3D CAD) in recent years, computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysis based on 3D shape data has become widely adopted in the field of product development. Accordingly, demand has recently arisen for design evaluation technologies that can eliminate the need for the fabrication of prototype models. Toshiba Tec Corporation has been promoting the effective utilization of CAE to assure design quality in the upstream processes of product development as part of its efforts for the improvement of design productivity. As part of this approach, we have developed an automated tool for multi-posture drop analysis, which can evaluate the weakness of a dropping posture and the shatter resistance in this posture and enhance durability against dropping impact, in order to reduce the occurrence of process retrogression. We have applied this tool to the development of a portable printer and confirmed that it increases robustness against dropping impact. Software Evaluation System Enhancing Software Development Productivity by Reducing Dependence on Actual Equipment MINOURA Yusuke / SATO Naoya / YAMAHIRA Yoshifumi Customers' requirements for multifunctional peripherals (MFPs) and point of sales (POS) systems are becoming increasingly diversified and complicated, with the result that conventional software development entailing the use of actual equipment including prototypes and peripheral devices has recently been facing various issues including the need for long working hours and increases in costs. To rectify this situation, Toshiba Tec Corporation has developed a software evaluation system that reduces the dependence on actual equipment and has been making efforts to enhance software development productivity. We have applied this software evaluation system to the development of software for our POS systems and confirmed that, in comparison with previous manual operations, it can shorten the product development period and improve product quality through highly reliable automated tests under a wide variety of conditions. Product Development Support System Allowing Closer Collaboration among Multiple Development Bases HAYAMA Shuichiro / SUGIYAMA Takahide / KUMANO Kazuhiro In Japanese industries, the relocation of product development activities to overseas bases due to the workforce shortage and the introduction of automated design processes supporting workstyle reforms have become issues of vital importance. With this as a background, Toshiba Tec Corporation is aiming at product development innovations under the banner of "monozukuri innovation" (monozukuri is a Japanese concept encompassing the art and craft of manufacturing). As part of these efforts, we have constructed a product development support system that allows designers at different bases to develop high-quality products through collaboration on designs based on the sharing of digital design data for hardware platforms and modules employing computer-aided engineering (CAE) in a virtual space. This system has been applied to the development of multifunctional peripherals (MFPs), and is contributing to the imsprovement of development productivity through the simultaneous advancement of product development using the latest digital data from each base and the efficient execution of automated design processes. |