Aspects Of Product Design Research Articles

Biorefinery Design As A Case Study In Chemical Engineering Design

Biorefinery Design As A Case Study In Chemical Engineering Design

The importance of usability in product choice: A mobile phone case study

Usability has become established as an important aspect of product design. This paper describes an investigation that was carried out to identify the importance of usability in product choice related to other product attributes. Interviews were initially carried out to identify possible attributes that contribute to product choice. Experiments were then undertaken using the methods of active information search, structured preference elicitation, ranking and interviews in order to find out what attributes were important to people when choosing an example product – mobile phones. It was found that usability is indeed important in product choice but perhaps not as much as users themselves believe. Other attributes that were found to be more important were features, aesthetics and cost. The process of product choice was found to be complex and it may be the case that people have come to expect usability in their products. Further research is needed to understand more fully the changing role of usability in product choice and to further improve the quality of the user–product relationship.

Product semantics and wine portfolio optimisation

Semantics is an important aspect of product design. Quantitative models of product semantics can enhance product decisions and positively contribute to a product's market position. This paper demonstrates the value of linking product semantics, design, pricing and manufacturing decisions in a wine-making optimisation problem. A manufacturing model of the wine-making process allows manipulation and optimisation of wine flavours. Wine bottle shapes are designed using conjoint analysis to convey semantic messages of wine flavour. The shape and flavour models are combined to maximise profitability of a portfolio of wines with different flavours, price points, quantities produced, and matching bottles. Semantics are shown to enhance the portfolio, including profitability.

Experimental Study for Computer Aided Affective Product Styling

In addition to a product's functionality, the emotional responses invoked by the product styling also play a role in deciding whether it appeals to the end users. This can be seen from many marketing campaigns attempting to bring out the affective values of products such as how they reflect a user's personality and enrich his/her lifestyle. A number of ergonomic studies have been carried out to explore these emotional aspects of product design. However, the results obtained often focused on individual features or only provided qualitative insights. In this paper, we utilize factorial experiment to systematically analyze how certain shape factors individually and interactively influence the user's impression of glasses frame. This approach not only allows us to identify various shape features and their combinations, but also to derive computational models for computer aided affective design. The experimental findings confirm some common perceptions of glasses frames. More information is revealed when considering the interactions between shape features.

EMG and GSR signals for evaluating user's perception of different types of ceramic flooring

Most product evaluations rely on questionnaires to convert subjective data, or user opinion, to objective data. However, some users may feel inhibited or unable to decide in cases where product differences are very subtle. Other techniques such as physiological measurements can contribute to the understanding of perceptions by incorporating measurements that do not involve conscious processes. This paper presents the results of a research project concerning the use of three biosignals for evaluating user perception: electromyography (EMG) activity of the zygomaticus major, EMG of the corrugator supercilii, and galvanic skin response (GSR). These signals were recorded in the subjects while three calibration images (neutral face, smiling face and frowning face) and eight ceramic flooring images were being projected. The results revealed that types of ceramic tile flooring can be differentiated by GSR values, creating two groups elicited by the users’ emotional response. On the other hand, significant differences were found in the EMG signals, especially in the zygomaticus major, elicited by the calibration images. The results indicate that the analysis of this type of signal has a potential use in the understanding of product perception. The results provided by the recording of zygomaticus major signals while subjects observed the calibration images show that the smiling face image elicited positive activity of the zygomaticus major. Relevance to industry Identification of the aspects of product design that are considered to be the most important to potential users is an essential field for many industries. Numerous methodological techniques have been developed to try to understand these processes, nearly all of which are based on user opinion. However, it seems clear from a scientific point of view that subconscious processes play an important role in the aspects relating to perception and decision-making. This paper proposes a feasible approach using non-invasive physiological measurements.

휴대전화기 평가 사례를 통한 유니버설디자인 평가 도구 개발 프로세스

The concept of universal design has recently emerged as an important aspect of product design. Universal design is considerably analogous to ergonomic design in a way that it takes the capabilities and limitations of users into consideration during the product development process. However, relatively few studies have been devoted to reflect the practical use of ergonomic principles on universal design. This research attempts to develop a universal design index for mobile phone design to quantify how well a product complies with principles of universal design. The research also emphasizes on ergonomic principles as a basis of evaluation. A generation of the evaluation items was done by cross-checking among the personal, activity and product components. Personal components consist of human characteristics including age, physique, perceptual capacity, life-style, etc. Activity components were derived from those scenarios of mobile phone use while product components were composed of the parts to which a user interacts. Further analysis systematically generated a universal index from relationship matrices among the three components. The index was then used to test its suitability by applying to the evaluation of mobile phones currently on the market. This study demonstrates a development process through which evaluations can be made possible for universal design. The research suggests an improved approach to the appraisal of how well mobile phones are universally designed based on ergonomic principles.

Development of a product audit tool

The creation of new products that satisfy both the needs of customers and of the company is widely acknowledged as an important contributor to a firm's ongoing success. In principle, the design process, as part of the wider new product development (NPD) process, should result in products that are ‘well designed’, but what does a well-designed product look like? This paper presents a tool to enable a design team to evaluate their products against a range of criteria, with a view to targeting design improvements. This ‘product audit’ tool is based on literature and has been iteratively developed using a mixed research approach, including detailed exploratory cases and application in action research mode. Previous assessment tools have tackled a narrow set of product issues, such as usability. This tool addresses the ‘whole product’ and captures aspects of product design in a concise and usable form. The product audit does not seek to be a benchmarking tool. Aspects such as novelty, desirability, usability, and producibility are expanded as simple checklists, to enable perceptions towards product characteristics to be assessed. This novel assessment tool encourages greater consideration of design issues within the wider context of NPD. By focusing attention on the tangible output of the design process ’ the product ’ practitioners are better able to understand the way in which design decisions influence product usability, desirability, and producibility. Case evidence confirms both the value and originality of this tool.

Development of a Universal Design Index for Automobile Interior Design

The concept of universal design has recently emerged as an important aspect of product design. Universal design is considerably analogous to ergonomic design in a way that it takes the capabilities and limitations of users into consideration during the product development process. However, relatively few studies have been devoted to reflect the practical use of ergonomic principles on universal design. This research attempts to develop a universal design index for automobile interior design to quantify how well a product complies with principles of universal design. The research also emphasizes on ergonomic principles as a basis of evaluation. A generation of the index was done by cross-checking among the personal, activity and product components drawn from the scenarios of vehicle use. Personal components consist of human characteristics including age, physique, perceptual capacity, reach, etc.. Activity components were derived from those scenarios of vehicle use while product components were composed of interior parts to which a user interacts. Further analysis systematically generated an universal index from relationship matrices among the three components. The index was then used to test its suitability by applying to the evaluation of passenger cars currently on the market. This study demonstrates a development process through which evaluations can be made possible for universal design. The research suggests an improved approach to the appraisal of how well cars are universally designed based on ergonomic principles.

Modeling and simulation of product's surface design

Surface design and structure design are two aspects of product design. Product information can be perfectly described only if both of them are organically united. The impact of a product's appearance on its performance and decoration has been given much attention in engineering and on the market. The existing CAD system does not suffice for surface design, which is still designed with experience and handicraft. This case does not accommodate new market development. To grapple with this problem, a representation of appearance features, an aided design of the figure and the surface design, which is based on mapping, are detailed in this paper. A design system of surface design and an instance of its application are given at the end of the paper.

Informing decision-makers in product design and manufacture

Although the advances in the use of computer systems in product design and manufacture have been significant in recent years, there are many issues as yet unresolved. The potential of information technology to provide improved information support to the decision-makers involved in the many aspects of product design and manufacture is immense, given that the rapid availability of appropriate information can vastly improve competitiveness through enhanced decision quality and reduced design and manufacture costs and lead times. However, the problems to be overcome to realize this potential are substantial. This paper focuses on the concept of data model driven design and manufacture, where the information relevant to the design and manufacture is stored separately from the applications that use it. This concept has many potential benefits in computer integrated manufacture, including data integrity, rapid flexibility, life cycle support and vendor independent systems. However, the concept relies on the definition of information models that can support the full range of activities involved in design and manufacture. The significant investment in worldwide research efforts to date has provided only very narrowly targeted solutions. This paper discusses the limitations of existing approaches and offers a view of how future systems can be constructed to deal with the range of types and views of information necessary as well as providing flexible systems that can be readily maintained with up-to-date information.

Simultaneous optimal selection of design and manufacturing tolerances with different stack-up conditions using genetic algorithms

Tolerance design is one of the most critical aspects of product design and development process as it affects both the product's functional requirements and manufacturing cost. Unnecessarily tight tolerances lead to increased manufacturing cost, while loose tolerances may lead to malfunctioning of the product. Traditionally, this important phase of product development is accomplished intuitively to satisfy design constraints, based on handbooks' data and/or skill and experience of the designers. Tolerance design carried out in this manner does not necessarily lead to an optimum design. Research in this area indicates that, in general, tolerance design is carried out sequentially in two steps; (1) tolerance design in CAD to obtain design or functional tolerances and (2) tolerance design in CAPP to obtain manufacturing tolerances. Such a sequential approach to tolerance design suffers from several drawbacks, such as more time consumption, suboptimality and unhealthy working atmosphere. This paper reports on an integrated approach for simultaneous selection of design and manufacturing tolerances based on the minimization of the total manufacturing cost. The nonlinear multivariable optimization problem formulated in this manner may result in a noisy solution surface, which can effectively be solved with the help of a global optimization technique. A solution methodology using genetic algorithms and applying penalty function approach with proper normalization of the penalty terms for handling the constraints is proposed. The application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated on a simple mechanical assembly with different tolerance stack-up conditions.

Social and environmental supply-chain management: an overview

What are major companies doing to address environmental and social issues in their supply chains? This article describes how companies are responding to pressures on their brand reputation and the effects of reputation on consumers, investors and employees. In some cases they need to work with suppliers to meet laws regarding environmental aspects of product design. It is often a huge task for a company to discover the extent of its supply chain and to identify the issues within it. This article describes the range of approaches being developed for driving and measuring improvements, some in co-operation with trade unions and pressure groups. Communication with interested parties, and giving assurance to them is critical. The future of environmental and social supply-chain management depends on whether external pressure on companies is maintained. Sustained pressure is likely to drive greater integration and co-operation along the supply chain. Suppliers will have to be able to supply their customers with greater assurance about their social and environmental performance, but should also be aware that good practice is a commercial strength which they should value in negotiations with their clients.

Application of multimedia in the industrial sector

The areas in which the industrial sector in general, and manufacturers of equipment and machinery in particular, can utilise the advantages and features of multimedia are highlighted. The range of multimedia applications that emerge for an engineering or industrial product manufacturer, where the selling process involves an across the table explanation of intricate aspects of product design and advantages that a superior technology provides to the user, are: training of marketing executives; demonstration of functionalities of inner parts of industrial plants and machinery; erection of machinery and onsite troubleshooting; classroom training of maintenance staff; Web enabled parts catalogue and order processing; product catalogues; and simulation. The possibilities of application of multimedia are innumerable and limited only by one's imagination.

Concurrent Product and Process Design in Hot Forging

The long and costly lead times necessary in developing new forged products motivate the application of concurrent engineer ing principles and knowledge-based computer software systems in hot forging. Design engineers can benefit significantly from such sys- ' tems, particularly if they incorporate both product and manufacturability knowledge. An Automated Concurrent Engineering Software (ACES) for part design and manufacturing has been developed at the Design and Manufacturing Institute (DMI) at Stevens Institute of Technology. This system combines deterministic and empirical knowledge about a variety of aspects of product design and manufactur ing, and thus, it provides potent reasoning and decision-making power that enables the engineer to reduce drastically the time between product conception and final production. This paper reports on the development of the prototype of a knowledge-based module for hot forging processes.

Modeling Concurrent Product Design: A Multifunctional Team Approach

A satisfaction-driven, multifunctional team approach is presented with application to concurrent product design. This team ap proach is based on optimization formalism in which different teams are responsible to perform their specified functions by controlling the individual sets of design variables. The functions of each team should characterize different aspects of product design in the collabora tive product development. In particular, the preference of each team against a design alternative is formalized using fuzzy set theory to seek the most favorite design that best fulfills the team goal. Two fuzzy set operators—"min" and "geometric mean"—are extended to ag gregate team's satisfaction metrics to describe the non-compensative and compensative relationships between teams. Team aggrega tion is based on the strategic team paradigms derived from game theory and the concept of responsibility and controllability. As a result, five design models are explored to reveal typical team interactions in design computing and then illustrated through the study of a de sign example.

An efficient CNC programming approach based on group technology

Abstract Many studies and reports support the significant impact of the application of group technology on various aspects of product design and manufacturing. The fact that group technology is the common solution to similar problems is the main source of such impact. In this paper, one of the less frequently utilized features of CNC technology known as parametric part programming is used to implement the common solution feature of group technology in processing a set of similar parts. Using three part families, the advantages of blending the concept of group technology and parametric programming for CNC machining operations are illustrated. The efficiency improvement due to the use of parametric programming in terms of number of setups and size of program is discussed.

The Manifestation of Meaning. A Discussion of the Environmental, Social and Spiritual Aspects of Product Design

The cultural aspects of product design are considered here in terms of significance and meaning. Industrial design, from its early Modernistic roots to the present, is briefly discussed in order to consider its positive and negative impacts, and the application of the principles of sustainability to the field is described. Development of the discipline, to embrace and articulate ethical, spiritual and environmental sensibilities is considered as a way of overcoming the instrumental and often vacuous nature of much contemporary product design. Re-establishing a sense of connection, in process and product, is suggested as a way of creating more environmental, socially responsible and meaningful objects. ‘Meaning’ itself is also described, and differentiated from ‘acquired significance’, in order to consider a more insightful and mature approach to the design of ‘the material’.

The Influence of Unity and Prototypicality on Aesthetic Responses to New Product Designs

Unity and prototypicality are important visual aspects of product design. These design principles were operationalized by modifying line drawings of existing products. The results of four experiments provide evidence that these two factors positively affect aesthetic response. These effects were strongest when visual properties were the sole basis of judgment and when design variations were easily compared. However, they persisted when aesthetic aspects were combined with other product information and when comparing design features was difficult. The effect of unity was found to be superadditive, suggesting that it has a relational, “all-or-none” character. Finally, regression analyses show that direct effects of the design modifications on aesthetic response exist in addition to possible indirect effects that are mediated by perceived typicality.

Managing Design in Small High‐Growth Companies

Cost‐cutting measures may keep investors happy, but such belt‐tightening does little for a company's long‐term growth. In an era of ever‐shrinking product life cycles, effective product design skills are essential to any company's ongoing vitality. To remain competitive, even the largest manufacturers must learn to replicate the entrepreneurial drive and innovativeness that characterize small, high‐growth firms.To foster a better understanding of the product design skills of small, high‐growth firms, Peter Dickson, Wendy Schneier, Peter Lawrence, and Renee Hytry describe the results of a survey of CEOs from companies that have been included in the Inc. 100 or Inc. 500 lists. On average, 50% of the sales for these companies came from new products launched during the past 3 years. The survey addresses three fundamental questions. First, which aspects of design management do the CEOs of small, high‐growth firms believe they manage well, and which give them difficulty? Second, to what extent are the CEOs involved in design decisions? Finally, how important is good product design to these firms?The respondents face the most difficulty in making the transition from sequential to concurrent engineering and design. Many cite a need for improved management of such skills as design for manufacturability, involvement of suppliers in the design process, estimation of costs during the design process, and the use of computer‐aided design tools during the design process. In contrast to these engineering‐related aspects of product design, the respondents are more confident in their ability to handle such marketing‐related tasks as generating new design ideas and involving customers in the design process.The survey results indicate that CEOs of small, high‐growth firms are deeply involved in design decisions. In over half the companies surveyed, CEOs indicated they had primary responsibility for design decisions. Most respondents also reported increasing their investment in design, with approximately 75% increasing their investment in product/service design over the past 3 years and almost 50% increasing their investment in packaging design.CEOs of Inc. 100 and Inc. 500 firms clearly recognize the importance of design. Approximately 70% of the respondents believe that design issues will be of increasing importance for U.S. firms' competitiveness in the coming years, and the majority feel it is important that their managers be knowledgeable about design. Approximately 75% of the CEOs believe that adopting new, fast‐track approaches to new product design would improve their firms' competitiveness.

Planning product disassembly for material recovery opportunities

SUMMARY This paper addresses an increasingly important aspect of product design and its relationship to life-cycle costing: disassembly for material recovery opportunities (MRO). MRO is defined as an opportunity to reclaim post-consumer products for recycling, remanufacturing and re-use. The authors have developed a methodology which can be used to identify and assess cost-effective characteristics of disassembly for the recovery of products. The central focus of this paper is aimed at improving the efficiency of the disassembly planning process and generating an optimal disassembly sequence. Four criteria are established to optimize the generation of the disassembly sequence: (1) material compatibility, (2) clustering for disposal, (3) concurrent disassembly operations, and (4( maximizing yield. In this paper we define the ‘disassemblability’ of a product as the ability to optimize the design and disassembly process for removal of specific pans or materials in a manner which will minimize costs. Steps ha...