Reverse Engineering

Reverse engineering
Currently, product enterprises are constantly seeking new ways to shorten lead
times for new product developments that meet all customer expectations.
Reverse engineering (RE) is now considered one of the technologies that
provide business benefits in shortening the product development cycle.
Historically, Reverse engineering was often used during the Second World
War and the Cold War. (why)
Reverse engineering can be viewed as the process of analyzing a system to:
✓Identify the system's components and their interrelationships
✓Create representations of the system in another form or a higher level of
abstraction
✓Create the physical representation of that system
What Is Reverse Engineering?
Engineering is the process of designing, manufacturing, assembling, and
maintaining products and systems.
 Reverse engineering
Reverse Engineering: a systematic methodology for analyzing the
design of an existing device or system, either as an approach to study
the design or as a prerequisite for re-design.

Reverse Engineering helps you to:

• Develop a systematic approach to thinking about the design of
devices and systems
• Acquire a mental data bank of design solutions
 Reverse engineering
There are two types of engineering, forward engineering and reverse
engineering.
Reverse engineering is the process of duplicating an existing part, subassembly
or product, without drawings, documentation, or a computer model.
OR
The process of obtaining a geometric CAD model from 3-D points acquired by
scanning/ digitizing existing parts/products.
The process often involves disassembling something (a mechanical device,
electronic component, etc.) and analyzing its components and workings in
detail.
 Why Reverse Engineering in Manufacturing
The application of reverse engineering has gained considerable momentum, and the
integration of CAD tools has further amplified its dominance.
Here are a few reasons that signify the widespread usage of reverse engineering in
product innovation.
❑Filling Up the Voids in Design Information
More commonly, reverse engineering is applied widely to discover the potential
design data that might not have been documented; or rather develop full design
information about obsolete components.
❑ Figuring Out the Reasons of Product Failure
The use of reverse engineering is also profound in product failure investigation and
extending the product’s functional life cycle period.
❑Improving Manufacturing Processes
It is also focused on making a product easy and fast to manufacture without
compromising on its performance and quality.
Identifying the most efficient way to manufacture components is essential for lean
manufacturing, and proves beneficial to the organization in terms of cost savings and
quality control.
 Reverse engineering
❑ Fans Healthy Competition in the Market
While it is applicable to say that manufacturers take advantage of reverse
engineering to study the products manufactured by their competitors, the likely
advantage remains is the existence of competition in the market.

❑ Encourages Innovation
Engineers need not reinvent the wheel, they can just iterate, improve, and
innovate an existing design.
Hence, engineer products that have better functionality, give higher
performance, have a small footprint and have an improved maneuverability.
 Reverse engineering process
Reverse engineering enables the duplication of an
existing part by capturing the component's physical
dimensions, features and material properties.

Reverse engineering is typically cost effective only if

the items to be reversed reflect a high investment or
will be reproduced in large quantities.
 Reverse engineering
Reverse engineering of a part may be attempted even if it is not cost effective,
if the part is absolutely required and is mission-critical to a system.
The following are the steps of the reverse engineering process:
❖ Prediction
✓ What is the purpose of this product?
✓ How does it work?
✓ What market was it designed to appeal to?
✓ List some of the design objectives for the product.
✓ List some of the constraints that may have influenced the design
❖Observation
✓ How do you think it works?
✓ How does it meet design objectives (overall)?
✓ Why is it designed the way it is?
❖Disassemble
✓ How does it work?
✓ How is it made?
✓ How many parts?
✓ How many moving parts?
✓ Any surprises?
 Reverse engineering
❖ Analyze
Carefully examine and analyze subsystems and develop annotated sketches
that include measurements and notes on components, system design, safety and
controls.
❖ Test
✓ Carefully reassemble the product.
✓ Operate the device and record observations about its performance in terms of
functionality (operational and ergonomic) and projected durability.
❖ Documentation
✓ Inferred design goals
✓ Inferred constraints
✓ Design (functionality, form (geometry), and materials)
✓ Schematic diagrams
✓ Lists (materials, components, critical components, flaws, successes, etc.)
✓ Identify any refinements that might enhance the product’s usefulness.
✓ Upgrades and changes
What are the limitations of using Reverse engineering?
❖Legal Issues: Reverse engineering may violate copyright, patent,
trademark, or trade secret laws depending on the context and
purpose.
❖Ethical Issues: Reverse engineering may expose sensitive
information, vulnerabilities, or backdoors that could harm the
users, developers, or owners of the products.
❖Technical Issues
❖Learning Issues
❖Career Issues: You should not use reverse engineering as a way to
cheat, plagiarize, or copy the work of others. You should also not
use reverse engineering as a way to harm, sabotage, or attack the
products or organizations you work for or with.
❖Community Issues: You should not use reverse engineering as a
way to boast, brag, or show off your skills or achievements. You
should also not use reverse engineering as a way to insult, criticize,
or mock the products or developers you analyze.
Benchmarking
 Benchmarking
What is a benchmarking?
Benchmarking is a management process to achieve continuous improvement
that will eventually delight the customer.
Generally, it involves assessing, adopting, and improving upon “best” practices
that have been shown through measurement.
The central ideas in benchmarking include the following:
✓It is a type of continuous quality improvement.
✓By improving continuously, you will not merely exceed your current levels
of performance but exceeding customers expectation.
✓Involves thinking more in terms of the attributes of products and services
that customers of are buying.
✓Best performances reflect the best customer outcomes
✓Involves comparing performances of different organizational units
✓Identifying best practices associated with best performers
 Benchmarking
Different types of benchmarking
Due to the vast differences in resource investments and possible outcomes
associated with different types, management must make the decision and
identify which type the benchmarking team is to use.
There are four primary types of benchmarking:
❑Internal
❑Competitive,
❑Functional, and
❑Generic.
1:Internal benchmarking
Internal benchmarking is a comparison of a business process to a similar
process inside the organization to acquire the best internal.
Benefits
✓ most cost efficient
✓ relatively easy
✓ Fast
 Benchmarking
Challenges
✓limits options for growth
✓low performance improvement
✓internal bias
✓may not yield best-in-class comparisons
2: Competitive benchmarking
Competitive benchmarking is a direct competitor-to-competitor comparison of
a product, service, process, or method.
This form of benchmarking provides an opportunity to know yourself and
your competitor better; combine forces against another common competitor.
Benefits
✓ comparing like processes
✓ know your competitor better
✓ useful for planning and setting goals
 Benchmarking
Challenges
✓difficult legal issues
✓limited by trade secrets
✓may provide misleading information
✓competitors could capitalize on your weaknesses
3: Functional benchmarking
Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices
within the same or similar functions outside the immediate industry.
Functional benchmarking might identify practices that are superior in your
functional areas in whatever industry they may exist.
Benefits
✓provides industry trend information
✓quantitative comparisons
✓better improvement rate;
 Benchmarking
Challenges
✓great need for specificity
✓not invented here. syndrome
✓common functions can be difficult to find
✓takes more time than internal
✓must be able to visualize how to adapt the best practices
4: Generic benchmarking
Generic benchmarking broadly conceptualizes unrelated business processes or
functions that can be practiced in the same or similar ways regardless of the
industry.
The focus is on being innovative and gaining insight into excellent work
processes rather than on the business practices of a particular organization or
industry.
 Benchmarking
Benefits
✓high payoff;
✓noncompetitive/nonthreatening
✓broad, new perspective
✓Innovative
✓high potential for discovery
Challenges
✓difficult concept
✓can be difficult to identify best-in- class
✓takes a long time to plan
✓class organizations in your process
 Benchmarking
Prerequisites for benchmarking
There are three prerequisites for successful benchmarking;
❖Leadership
Complete reorientation of the organization from thinking about resources,
production, and activities to thinking;
✓about the maintenance products and services that are important to
customers and
✓the efficiency and effectiveness with which those products and services are
delivered.
This reorientation requires the strongest support from the leader.
Without the leadership to bring about this change, benchmarking will not
succeed.
The time, effort, staff resources, and attention to detail required of the
organization cannot be underestimated.
 Benchmarking
❖Culture
The culture must support the idea of continuous quality improvement.
Customer-driven benchmarking requires a culture that is not satisfied with the
status quo.
Before benchmarking begins, the maintenance organization must have made
a substantial transformation toward continuous improvement and must be
looking to others for better ways to serve its customers.

❖ Agreed-upon measures.
It is much easier to reach agreement on measures if an agency plans to
benchmark internally than externally.
Indeed, a major effort will be required by participating organizations to forge
agreement on the measures to be used.
 Benchmarking
Scope of benchmarking
❖ Products and services
You will be focused on a certain number of products and services.
In this guide, you will learn
✓ how to define maintenance products and services and
✓ to identify their attributes and corresponding customer-oriented outcome
measures.
It is desirable to concentrate on one or two products or services when doing
customer-driven benchmarking for the first time.
❖ Maintenance activities.
A specific set of maintenance activities results in an outcome associated with
a product or service.
One of the things you will have to do when benchmarking is gather labor,
equipment, and material data for each relevant maintenance activity.
 Benchmarking
❖External partners
If you are doing external benchmarking, the scope will include each
organization outside yours.
Each partner will have to benchmark at a level of the organization that is
mutually agreed upon.
❖ Time frame.
Most maintenance activities tend to be seasonal, and customers only gain a
perspective over time.
An appropriate time period for comparing performance and practices is
annually.
But planning to undertake customer-driven benchmarking for the first time
will likely take at least 2 years.
The Figure below provides a time line for customer-driven benchmarking for
organizations that are beginning this activity for the first time.
Benchmarking
 Tutorial Questions
1) What are the steps when undertaking a benchmarking activity
2) How will the company or organisation benefited by employing
benchmarking?
3) Explain the following tools in waste elimination
✓Visual management
✓The 5S
✓ANDONS
✓KAIZEN
✓KAIKAKU
✓JIDOKA
✓POKA-YOKE
✓KANBAN
 Tutorial Questions
4)Explain the following key issues when implementing lean
manufacturing
✓Value stream
✓Inventory flow
✓Value pull
✓Striving for perfection
5) Explain the following levels with their role in six sigma certification;
✓White belt
✓Yellow best
✓Green belt
✓Black belt
✓Master black belt
6) Explain for justification on when a six sigma approach is to used
 Tutorial Questions
7) Explain six central ideas of benchmarking
8) Explain the following types of benchmarking with their benefits
and challenge White belt
✓Generic
✓Internal
✓Competitive and
✓Functional
9)Explain the scope of benchmarking