PhD Defence by Georg Otto Müller
Georg Otto Müller will defend his PhD Thesis with the title "Modular Commissioning of Complex Products"
Complex products, such as factories, plants and ships, are developed following the Engineer-To-Order (ETO) approach. Here, product development aims to meet the specific requirements of individual customers, resulting in the design and manufacturing of one-of-a-kind products and services. In the ETO product development process, the delivery of commissioning services constitutes the final phase before the product’s handover to the customer. The commissioning service aims to test and verify the product’s safe and purposeful operation and is essential for the successful development of complex products.
Challenges related to the commissioning of complex products include a high degree of complexity and uncertainty in service design and delivery, resulting in a tendency to be under-resourced, as well as insufficient information and knowledge management. Despite its significance for the development of complex products, the design and delivery of commissioning services and related challenges have received little attention in the literature.
Past research efforts concerning product and service modularity have shown benefits that could improve the development of commissioning services. Thus, this thesis explores the application of modular principles to improve the design and delivery of product commissioning services.
In this research, a collection of methods and models were developed covering the analysis of commissioning services in the context of general ETO product development, as well as the modelling and implementation of modular commissioning services. The analysis is supported by frameworks and methods for the investigation of system variation in ETO companies and commissioning
design and performance. Based on the analyses, a modular commissioning architecture is created by utilizing the model for modular service architectures developed in this PhD project. Furthermore, the implementation of modular commissioning services in configuration systems is explored in this thesis.
The developed methods were tested in case studies, leading to benefits such as complexity reduction in the commissioning service structure, a faster commissioning specification process requiring fewer resources and increased quality for the resulting commissioning design. In combination, the proposed
methods enable an ETO company to successfully implement modular principles for the design and delivery of commissioning services.
Principal supervisor: Professor Niels Henrik Mortensen
Co-supervisor: Professor Lars Hvam
Examiners: Associate Professor Torben Anker Lenau, DTU Construct Professor Hans Petter Hildre, NTNU Faculty of Marine Technology and Operations Team Leader Antti Pulkkinen, VVT Technical Research Center of Finland
Chairperson at defence: Associate Professor Claus Thorp Hansen, DTU Construct
Complex products, such as factories, plants and ships, are developed following the Engineer-To-Order (ETO) approach. Here, product development aims to meet the specific requirements of individual customers, resulting in the design and manufacturing of one-of-a-kind products and services. In the ETO product development process, the delivery of commissioning services constitutes the final phase before the product’s handover to the customer. The commissioning service aims to test and verify the product’s safe and purposeful operation and is essential for the successful development of complex products.
Challenges related to the commissioning of complex products include a high degree of complexity and uncertainty in service design and delivery, resulting in a tendency to be under-resourced, as well as insufficient information and knowledge management. Despite its significance for the development of complex products, the design and delivery of commissioning services and related challenges have received little attention in the literature.
Past research efforts concerning product and service modularity have shown benefits that could improve the development of commissioning services. Thus, this thesis explores the application of modular principles to improve the design and delivery of product commissioning services.
In this research, a collection of methods and models were developed covering the analysis of commissioning services in the context of general ETO product development, as well as the modelling and implementation of modular commissioning services. The analysis is supported by frameworks and methods for the investigation of system variation in ETO companies and commissioning
design and performance. Based on the analyses, a modular commissioning architecture is created by utilizing the model for modular service architectures developed in this PhD project. Furthermore, the implementation of modular commissioning services in configuration systems is explored in this thesis.
The developed methods were tested in case studies, leading to benefits such as complexity reduction in the commissioning service structure, a faster commissioning specification process requiring fewer resources and increased quality for the resulting commissioning design. In combination, the proposed
methods enable an ETO company to successfully implement modular principles for the design and delivery of commissioning services.
Principal supervisor: Professor Niels Henrik Mortensen
Co-supervisor: Professor Lars Hvam
Examiners: Associate Professor Torben Anker Lenau, DTU Construct Professor Hans Petter Hildre, NTNU Faculty of Marine Technology and Operations Team Leader Antti Pulkkinen, VVT Technical Research Center of Finland
Chairperson at defence: Associate Professor Claus Thorp Hansen, DTU Construct