Product Design Decisions Research Articles

Nanotoxicology and nanomedicine: making development decisions in an evolving governance environment

The fields of nanomedicine, risk analysis, and decision science have evolved considerably in the past decade, providing developers of nano-enabled therapies and diagnostic tools with more complete information than ever before and shifting a fundamental requisite of the nanomedical community from the need for more information about nanomaterials to the need for a streamlined method of integrating the abundance of nano-specific information into higher-certainty product design decisions. The crucial question facing nanomedicine developers that must select the optimal nanotechnology in a given situation has shifted from “how do we estimate nanomaterial risk in the absence of good risk data?” to “how can we derive a holistic characterization of the risks and benefits that a given nanomaterial may pose within a specific nanomedical application?” Many decision support frameworks have been proposed to assist with this inquiry; however, those based in multicriteria decision analysis have proven to be most adaptive in the rapidly evolving field of nanomedicine—from the early stages of the field when conditions of significant uncertainty and incomplete information dominated, to today when nanotoxicology and nano-environmental health and safety information is abundant but foundational paradigms such as chemical risk assessment, risk governance, life cycle assessment, safety-by-design, and stakeholder engagement are undergoing substantial reformation in an effort to address the needs of emerging technologies. In this paper, we reflect upon 10 years of developments in nanomedical engineering and demonstrate how the rich knowledgebase of nano-focused toxicological and risk assessment information developed over the last decade enhances the capability of multicriteria decision analysis approaches and underscores the need to continue the transition from traditional risk assessment towards risk-based decision-making and alternatives-based governance for emerging technologies.

User-Generated Content and Competing Firms’ Product Design

Firms employ various techniques to obtain information about consumer taste/location and valuation prior to making product design decisions. User-generated content has become an important information source. The vast variety and volume of user-generated content makes firms better informed about consumers (precision-improving effect), and the common and public nature of user-generated content makes firms’ information more correlated (correlation-increasing effect). We examine the impact of user-generated content in a setting in which two competing firms that are uncertain about consumer location or valuation design and sell horizontally differentiated products. We find that user-generated content has very different implications for competing firms’ location decisions and quality decisions. When firms are uncertain about consumer taste and choose their product locations, whether firms and/or consumers benefit from the user-generated content depends on which of the two effects dominates. We find that only when the correlation-increasing effect is moderate, a win–win scenario for both firms and consumers occurs, but the society always benefits from user-generated content. Stronger consumer preference strengthens the overall impact of user-generated content. In sharp contrast, when firms face uncertain consumer valuation of quality and choose product quality, they do not benefit from user-generated content, but consumers may benefit or lose from it. When the correlation-increasing effect is significant, both firms and consumers, and therefore the society, are hurt by user-generated content. Stronger consumer preference mitigates the negative impact but amplifies the positive impact of user-generated content in this case. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2839 . This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

A product centric examination of PD/SC alignment decisions at the nexus of product development and supply chains

PurposeThis study applies a product centric view to examine three product development (PD) decisions that relate to a new product and its supply chain (SC): product design, sourcing strategy and product delivery strategy (PDS). The purpose of this paper is to expand the understanding of alignment decisions in this area to include concurrent compatibility between product design, SC strategy and market conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe study leverages existing theory to identify the key dimensions of alignment between product design, SC strategy and market conditions in a conceptual model. Using survey data from 124 new PD projects collected from various industries, the authors then empirically test the impact of multiple alignment decisions on new product introductions (NPIs) performance.FindingsThe results suggest that one specific project-level design parameter (interface intensity) is a key alignment dimension for product design decisions. Specifically, the authors find that alignment between interface intensity and sourcing strategy, as well as between interface intensity and clock-speed improves NPI performance. Additionally, the authors find evidence that three-way alignment between PDS, interface intensity and market volatility will benefit NPI performance.Research limitations/implicationsBecause the study is cross-sectional and conducted at the project level, future work should continue this line of inquiry with longitudinal exams and across a families of development projects.Practical implicationsThe findings inform the deliberate management of the PD/SC interface and provide managers with quantitative benefits of concurrent alignment decisions.Originality/valueThis study identifies and addresses important deficits in the understanding of concurrent alignment between product design, SC strategy and market conditions.

Performance, Reliability or Time-To-Market? Innovative Product Development and the Impact of Government Regulation

Consider a firm that is developing an innovative product. We study the trade-offs associated with its product design decisions in regards to product performance (the function of the product), product reliability (whether the product will perform its function) and product time-to-market (the development time for the product). Specifically, while a more innovative product may deliver better product performance, without sufficient development time, the product may not be as reliable given that innovations require a time buffer to conduct many iterations of product testing and improvement. We further examine the impact of a government-imposed minimum product reliability standard on the firm, the product, and on social welfare. We find that contrary to common belief, a minimum product reliability standard set by the government may induce more unreliable products or hurt consumer surplus and social welfare. We also find that regulation, besides being a cost burden to the firm, can serve as a credible commitment for product reliability typically not observable to the customers when they are making purchasing decisions. Correspondingly, the regulation may have the surprising effect of increasing firm profit or prompting product innovation. Our work is useful in informing regulators in different industries of how decisions concerning government regulation could impact product reliability.

Life cycle assessment needs predictive spatial modelling for biodiversity and ecosystem services

International corporations in an increasingly globalized economy exert a major influence on the planet’s land use and resources through their product design and material sourcing decisions. Many companies use life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate their sustainability, yet commonly-used LCA methodologies lack the spatial resolution and predictive ecological information to reveal key impacts on climate, water and biodiversity. We present advances for LCA that integrate spatially explicit modelling of land change and ecosystem services in a Land-Use Change Improved (LUCI)-LCA. Comparing increased demand for bioplastics derived from two alternative feedstock-location scenarios for maize and sugarcane, we find that the LUCI-LCA approach yields results opposite to those of standard LCA for greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption, and of different magnitudes for soil erosion and biodiversity. This approach highlights the importance of including information about where and how land-use change and related impacts will occur in supply chain and innovation decisions.

Impact of Core Competencies in Product Design Decision

A result of the growing challenges facing companies today and the sharp changes in the internal and external environment and the rapid developments that have resulted in companies seeking to attract those with outstanding skills and rare that have the core competencies to make them the point starting and an important source to achieve competitive advantages and to entrepreneurship in all its designs The research sought to highlight the impact of intrinsic capabilities as an independent variable in product design decision as an approved variable. The problem of field research is reflected in the limited exploitation and development of workers' skills and core competencies, which is reflected in the design of their products as well as their competitive role in the market. The research also aimed at clarifying the role of the core competencies possessed by the company in improving the design of its products to invest and develop them to provide products in a manner that distinguishes them from competitors by using the correct techniques for product design. The descriptive analytical approach was used and the questionnaire was used as a tool for collecting research data and information,. It was distributed to a sample of 98 managers and officials in the General Company for Hydraulic Industries (AL Hydraulic Plant,AL Plastic Factory) and using the statistical program (Spss.V.24) ) To process data in the applied side of the study: simple regression analysis to measure the effect of intrinsic determinants on product design decision, t-test, Guttman LA correlation coefficient to determine the persistence of the questionnaire, Spearman Relationship between variables. A number of conclusions were reached, the most important of which is the need for the company to consolidate and integrate all its workforce within the company to benefit from the diversity of knowledge and to ensure the exchange of information among them which positively reflect their business and achieve the company's objectives. The most important recommendations of the research are the need to adopt the company management of the strategies to be among the priorities in the protection of the environment in accordance with the standard ISO 14000 in the design of its products, and the need to know and rely on the specifications adopted by international companies and taking into account when adopting strategies to protect the environment .

Mining product problems from online feedback of Chinese users

PurposeAnalyzing the sentiment orientation of each product aspect/feature might be sufficient to assist the customer to make purchase/usage decisions, but such level of information obtained by sentiment analysis is not detailed enough to assist the company in making product improvement or design decisions. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a novel method to extract more detailed information of the product.Design/methodology/approachThis paper proposed to use a set of trivial lexical-Part-of-Speech patterns to prepare candidate corpus and then adopted a topic model to find the optimal number of topics and get the words distributions in each topic. Finally, combined a priori analysis and compactness rules, the authors found out the expected strong rules in each topic, which make up the final problems.FindingsExperimental results on a real-life data set from Xiaomi forum showed the proposed method can extract the product problems effectively. The authors also explained the errors of experiment, which suggested the direction for future research.Originality/valueThis paper proposed a novel method to obtain information of product problems in detail, which will be useful to assist companies to improve their product performance.

The Role of the Global Marketer in Market Segmentation, Product Design Decisions and Global Brands Success

The Role of the Global Marketer in Market Segmentation, Product Design Decisions and Global Brands Success

Embedded heterogeneous feature selection for conjoint analysis: A SVM approach using L1 penalty

This paper presents a novel embedded feature selection approach for Support Vector Machines (SVM) in a choice-based conjoint context. We extend the L1-SVM formulation and adapt the RFE-SVM algorithm to conjoint analysis to encourage sparsity in consumer preferences. This sparsity can be attributed to consumers being selective about the attributes they consider when evaluating alternatives in choice tasks. Given limited individual data in choice-based conjoint, we control for heterogeneity by pooling information across consumers and shrinking the individual weights of the relevant attributes towards a population mean. We tested our approach through an extensive simulation study that shows that the proposed approach can capture the sparseness implied by irrelevant attributes. We also illustrate the characteristics and use of our approach on two real-world choice-based conjoint data sets. The results show that the proposed method has better predictive accuracy than competitive approaches, and that it provides additional information at an individual level. Implications for product design decisions are discussed.

Examining the Roles of Product Complexity and Manager Behavior on Product Design Decisions: An Agent-Based Study Using NK Simulation

In practice, product design decisions in a buyer–supplier setting can be either centralized or decentralized. Yet, it is unclear in what circumstances either of these settings can result in higher new product performance. In this study, we show that the choice of the level of centralization of product design decisions should be made contingent to the product complexity and behavioral factors of project managers involved in the decisions. In particular, we examine the influence of the cognitive ability, resistance to change, and cognitive effort of the project managers on the choice of the level of centralization of product design decisions. A methodology coming from complexity science is adopted and a simulation analysis is carried out. Results confirm that product complexity affects the relationship between the level of centralization of the product design decisions and product performance. Furthermore, we show that the benefit of centralized product design decisions is influenced by the level of cognitive effort, cognitive ability, and resistance to change of project managers. The analysis is performed in two different contexts characterized by varying levels of trust between the buyer and supplier. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice.

A HYBRID KANSEI ENGINEERING SYSTEM USING THE SELF-ORGANIZING MAP NEURAL NETWORK

Kansei Engineering (KE), a technology founded in Japan initially for product design, translates human feelings into design parameters. Although various intelligent approaches to objectively model human functions and the relationships with the product design decisions have been introduced in KE systems, many of the approaches are not able to incorporate human subjective feelings and preferences into the decision-making process. This paper proposes a new hybrid KE system that attempts to make the machine-based decision-making process closely resembles the real-world practice. The proposed approach assimilates human perceptive and associative abilities into the decision-making process of the computer. A number of techniques based on the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) neural network are employed in the backward KE system to reveal the underlying data structures that are involved in the decision-making process. A case study on interior design is presented to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in developing an intelligent KE system which is able to combine human feelings and preferences into its decision making process.

Peer-to-Peer Sharing of Private Goods: Sellers’ Response and Consumers’ Benefits

AbstractWe study how the presence of consumers’ peer-to-peer sharing option in addition to exclusive ownership affects sellers’ pricing and product design decisions, as well as consumers’ benefits. We identify the conditions in which a seller would accommodate or hinder sharing by pricing the product appropriately. The seller’s profit can be enhanced by accommodating sharing when consumer valuation heterogeneity is neither too high nor too low. Second, sharing does not always improve consumers’ access to goods, and consumers’ access is the most constrained in product categories of medium intrinsic value. Third, existing consumers who seek exclusive ownership may end up being worse off in markets where, without the sharing option, the seller would price the product such that sharing consumers could afford to own the product. Finally, sharing enhances the seller’s incentive to improve product quality in markets where sharing consumers cannot afford to own the product if sharing is precluded.

How a product’s design hierarchy shapes the evolution of technological knowledge—Evidence from patent-citation networks in wind power

We analyze how a product's design hierarchy shapes the focus of inventive activity and the expansion of the underlying body of knowledge, building on the complex-system perspective on technological evolution. This perspective suggests that the design hierarchy of a product can have an ordering effect on the evolution of commercialized artifacts, in particular when product design decisions on high levels of the design hierarchy set the agenda for subsequent variation and experimentation on lower levels. We extend this literature by analyzing the design hierarchy's effect on the evolution of the industry's knowledge base, using the case of wind turbine technology over the period 1973–2009. We assess the technological focus of patents along the core trajectory of knowledge generation, identified through a patent-citation network analysis, and link it to a classification of technological problems into different levels in the design hierarchy. Our analysis suggests that the evolution of an industry's knowledge base along a technological trajectory is not a unidirectional process of gradual refinement: the focus of knowledge generation shifts over time between different sub-systems in a highly sequential pattern, whose order is strongly influenced by the design hierarchy. Each of these shifts initiates the integration of new domains of industry-external knowledge into the knowledge base, thus opening windows of competitive opportunity for potential entrants with strong knowledge positions in the new focus of inventive activity. We discuss implications for the understanding of the competitive advantage of specific knowledge positions of firms and nations and technology policy for emerging technologies.

Market Effects in Lifecycle Assessment: A Framework to Aid Product Design and Policy Analysis

Researchers have developed several methods to assess lifecycle environmental impacts of decisions in product design and policymaking. A major challenge is that whether impacts are reduced or exacerbated depends on market effects such as how the design change or policy influences the demand, use, and end-of-life of the relevant product and other products. However, little guidance is available to determine when market effects matter and how to model them. This paper identifies four categories of market effects and presents a framework to help researchers identify a priori whether these effects significantly influence environmental impacts and select an appropriate method.

Information Management Platform for the Application of Sustainable Product Development Methods

A multitude of information is required to address sustainability aspects in product design decisions. However, information required for applying methods in the field of sustainable product development often overlaps. Moreover, specific improvement measures can primarily be identified if method results can be traced back to data origin. This paper presents a concept and implementation of an information platform which is integrated into a PLM system and integrates an ontology based knowledge model and a semantic wiki. The information platform shall avoid double work, improve documentation of information and assist in understanding the data basis of method results. This paper discusses requirements and solution elements and presents findings from applying the methods Lifecycle Design Strategies (LiDS) Wheel and the Product Sustainability Index.

Data mining for the global natural resources funds development

After the financial crisis in 2008, easy money policy and fiscal policy implemented by countries have managed to aid the recovery of the global economic. Recovering economic activities and infrastructure projects have also increased the demand for raw material, pushing up commodity prices. Under these related demand drives, the exceptional performance of natural resources funds has proven its investment value. However, it is difficult to select proper funds or make investment choice with limited funds. Therefore, this study implements the big data analysis, the association rules, using SPSS Modeler as a tool to discover the co-movement knowledge of global natural resources fund market. This provides investors with feasible suggestions while creating their investment portfolios as well as different ways of investing their funds. On the other hand, from investment corporations' point of view, this study provides three sets of natural resources funds combinations for possible product design and investment decision making.

An integrated supply chain configuration framework for modular product architecture

Owing to the complex nature of cross-disciplinary interaction, members of the engineering and operations supply chain do not focus on the importance of concurrent product design and supply chain decisions. Misalignment of the product architecture and the supply chain would not only lead to significant inefficiencies, but also costly decision reversals. In this paper, a weighted multi-objective optimisation model of supply chain design is presented which brings together both aspects of the supply chain. The model makes use of production, inventory and logistics costs to achieve a minimal cost goal. To incorporate the subjective nature of selecting suppliers and the cost of modularity index (for making product architecture choices, i.e., standard or NTF components), at every stage of the supply chain, fuzzy logic was employed. The genetic algorithm module in MATLAB was used to solve the optimisation model. A bulldozer supply chain case study is presented to validate the model.

An integrated supply chain configuration framework for modular product architecture

Owing to the complex nature of cross-disciplinary interaction, members of the engineering and operations supply chain do not focus on the importance of concurrent product design and supply chain decisions. Misalignment of the product architecture and the supply chain would not only lead to significant inefficiencies, but also costly decision reversals. In this paper, a weighted multi-objective optimisation model of supply chain design is presented which brings together both aspects of the supply chain. The model makes use of production, inventory and logistics costs to achieve a minimal cost goal. To incorporate the subjective nature of selecting suppliers and the cost of modularity index (for making product architecture choices, i.e., standard or NTF components), at every stage of the supply chain, fuzzy logic was employed. The genetic algorithm module in MATLAB was used to solve the optimisation model. A bulldozer supply chain case study is presented to validate the model.

Analysis of Information Interdependencies Between Product Development and Manufacturing System Planning in Early Design Phases

Manufacturing system planning (MSP) and product development (PD) are two highly interdependent domains of the product engineering process (PEP). Product design decisions impact on tasks and alternative solutions of the corresponding manufacturing system and vice versa. According to the “rule of 10” in quality management, especially within early design phases decisions highly impact on the accuracy of the overall result. Even today, PD and MSP are commonly processed sequentially without integration or interlinkage between the two domains. Existing integrative approaches aren’t successfully implemented in most companies.An innovative approach for integrating PD steps and tasks of MSP aims at an early conceptual design of the manufacturing system. While within PD, a conceptual view on the product exists, within MSP no early conceptual design is performed. Thus, a conceptual design for manufacturing systems is needed for a better integration of the two domains. In this context an integration of the process phases specification and concept design from PD together with preparation and structure planning from MSP is auspicious. For the integration of these early phases some preliminary analyses have to be performed.This paper presents the results of the interdependencies and information exchange analysis between PD and MSP in the phases named above. The information content is outlined and an approach for the information classification is given. The information is distinguished by the way it is used within the two domains and conclusions from the analysis are drawn for the concept to develop.

Design Incentives Under Collective Extended Producer Responsibility: A Network Perspective

A key goal of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation is to provide incentives for producers to design their products for recyclability. EPR is typically implemented in a collective system, where a network of recycling resources are coordinated to fulfill the EPR obligations of a set of producers, and the resulting system cost is allocated among these producers. Collective EPR is prevalent because of its cost efficiency advantages. However, it is considered to provide inferior design incentives compared to an individual implementation (where producers fulfill their EPR obligations individually). In this paper, we revisit this assertion and investigate its fundamental underpinnings in a network setting. To this end, we develop a new biform game framework that captures producers’ independent design choices (noncooperative stage) and recognizes the need to maintain the voluntary participation of producers for the collective system to be stable (cooperative stage). This biform game subsumes the network-based operations of a collective system and captures the interdependence between producers’ product design and participation decisions. We then characterize the manner in which design improvement may compromise stability and vice versa. We establish that a stable collective EPR implementation can match and even surpass an individual implementation with respect to product design outcomes. In particular, we show that when the processing technology efficiency and product recyclability are substitutes (complements), a recycling network where processor capacity pooling leads to sufficiently low (high) cost reduction will lead to superior designs in the collective system and maintain its stability, and we propose cost allocation mechanisms to achieve this dual purpose. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2897 . This paper was accepted by Serguei Netessine, operations management.