Incorporação da gestão dos custos do ciclo de vida ao processo de desenvolvimento do produto da EMBRAER.
Resumo
The Product Development Process (PDP) is one of the fundamental
business processes of an organization and therefore should be conducted harmonically
with the other company processes, as well as with the established strategies for
competitiveness and profitability. One of these strategies is to offer the market products
at reduced costs, which is a result of development, manufacturing, operation,
maintenance and even discarding products once they have reached the end of their life
cycle.
These costs, called Life Cycle Costs (LCC), are closely related to
Product Development, since the decisions taken during its process define costs in each
phase of the product s life cycle. A Product Development Model should include a
definition of the activities, information and responsibilities regarding the impact that
each engineering decision has on the product s Life Cycle Costs. This definition leads to
a LCC Management Model, considered, then, a sub-model of PDP.
The objectives of this research were as follows: (a) to incorporate LCC
management activities into the PDP of a company, with the participation of people that
work with Product Development; (b) based on the literature and the case study
developed, to prepare guidelines with recommendations for companies interested in
implementing a similar project.
The Action-research method was used in the study, and the LCC
Management Model was developed at EMBRAER Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica
S/A (a Brazilian aeronautics company).
The main conclusions of our research indicate that the involvement of
the people that participate in the PDP is crucial when preparing the LCC management
models. However, these people should be adequately prepared to take part in a project
of this nature, enabling real management and the implementation of a company culture
concerning LCC. The results have also shown that the Action-research method is
effective in identifying the opportunities of improvement of the Product Development
Process and in proposing Life Cycle Costs management practices.