Digital design and manufacturing process comparison for new custom made product family – a case study of a bathroom faucet

Abstract

The demand to fulfil a wider range of customer requirements is increasing constantly as well as the need for the customizable production tools. At the same time, the product life cycle as well as the lead time for product development shortens. To respond these changing needs, digital product development enables faster development of complex products but challenges the communication and the data management. Digital design methods and manufacturing processes enable this development and decrease the need for expensive prototyping. In this research, digital design and manufacturing process means such a process where design and manufacturing can be done even over long distances between physical location of designers and the production line. An empirical case study of a configurable bathroom faucet was performed. The digital design for manufacturing using sand casting and laser additive manufacturing as alternative digital manu- facturing technologies were researched in this study as possible methods for manufacturing these configurable products.