Improve Product Design Research Articles

“Partners in perfection”: Human resources facilitating creation and ongoing implementation of self‐managed manufacturing teams in a small medium enterprise

AbstractSmall medium enterprises (SMEs) continue to grow, survive, and prosper throughout the world. Although the management of SMEs feel more positive and confident about their relationships with employees, they also continue to encounter a greater number of challenges than their larger multinational counterparts. These problems are inherent in their structure and predominantly emanate from human resources, outdated business models, and lack of strategic planning. Total Quality Management (TQM), long recognized as a major cultural change strategy for profitability and competitive edge, embraces the concept of total employee involvement in the form of teams. SMEs, however, have been slow to include employees in any ongoing collaborative work environment initiatives. Behind the shortage of sustained team formulation is uncertainty about its long‐term durability, which can be directly related to lack of a continuing centralized organization and facilitation of the process itself. Human resources, often ineffectively used in SMEs, has the skills and knowledge to lead an ongoing breakthrough strategy of self‐managed work teams in an effort to create a sustained high‐performance work system. This article reviews the challenges human resource management faces in SMEs. The authors also present an example of how a human resource department led a lasting change management initiative of facilitating self‐managed work teams throughout a manufacturing SME, which resulted in continuous and sustainable improvements in productivity, quality, turnover, absenteeism, health, on‐time delivery, safety, and product design.

Strategies for Enhancing Competitiveness of Indian Small and Medium Plastic Products Manufacturing Units in Post WTO Regime

In the present era of technology, the use of plastic products has become an integral part of most of the manufacturing industries. Asia has been the world’s largest plastics consumer for several years, accounting for 30 per cent of the world’s total consumption. The Top 10 Trading Partners for Indian Plastic products include USA, UAE, Italy, UK, Belgium, Germany, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, China and Hong Kong. In India, the Plastic Sector has been exhibiting a consistent export growth rate of 10 to 12% over the past few years.This paper examines the issues of pressures and constraints, strategies for investments, competencies development, cost reduction, quality improvement for enhancing competitiveness of Indian small and medium plastic products manufacturing units in the post WTO regime. The key findings of the study have been - (a) need to upgrade the technology in the Indian Plastic Industry (b) need for a strong and supportive Financial System to facilitate easy access to funds (c) quality improvement, cost reduction and innovations to increase product variety (d) inadequate Government support (e) Improvements in maintenance, process capability, and product design

A Hybrid Quality Loss Function–Based Multi-Objective Design Optimization Approach

ABSTRACT In the globally competitive market, design engineers are continually challenged to improve product design, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction. It unsparingly compels them to strive hard to design high-quality products at competitive costs. The increasing challenge to satisfy multi-design criteria or goals at early design stages makes their task ever more complex. This article presents a modified multi-objective optimization approach that predominantly addresses quality loss issues while incorporating customer aspirations at the early design stages of the product development. The article classifies deviational variables as desirable and undesirable variables and advocates their use in defining the hybrid quality loss function (HQLF)-based objective function to seek tradeoffs among various quality characteristics together with quality loss issues. The proposed HQLF-based multi-objective optimization has been tested with a leaf spring example to demonstrate how the role of the desired as well as the undesired deviations can be sought to obtain an efficient solution. The HQLF-based objective function forces the model to minimize the undesirable deviation variables and maximize desirable deviation variables to track the efficient design points for control parameters. The benefit of the proposed approach has been demonstrated by comparing with existing goal programming methods.

To defeat feature fatigue the right way, understand it first

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine feature fatigue with products and how to deal with it.Design/methodology/approachThe paper looks at feature fatigue and how products perform on the market. It then suggests the right and wrong ways of defeating fatigue.FindingsThe paper reveals the problem of too many features in a product leading to fatigue. However, it suggests that, with increasingly demanding consumers and ever‐shortening product life cycles, firms should attempt to defeat feature fatigue not by reducing features, but by improving product designs that reduce the fatigue. Otherwise their products can disappoint consumers and perform poorly on the market, opening an opportunity for competitors.Originality/valueThis paper presents useful information on ways to deal with customer fatigue with product features.

Accessing insight: visual impairmentdiabetes technologies

Jennifer Jesso will facilitate discussion and hands-on demonstrations about experiences using diabetes technologies with a visual impairment. Participants will: •learn about visual impairments and their affect on vision, •understand how impaired vision affects the use of diabetes technologies, •gain insight into how people with visual impairments use diabetes technologies, •learn easy-to-implement suggestions on educating people with visual impairments in the use of diabetes technologies, •hear Jennifer's personal experiences with diabetes technologies, and •hear (and identify!) suggestions for improvements in product design and accessibility.

Function performance evaluation and its application for design modification based on product usage data

In this study, we propose a new method to analyse newly gathered data for product design improvement. The proposed method provides the transformation from usage data gathered in the middle-of-life (MOL) phase to information for design improvement in the beginning-of-life (BOL) phase. To this end, we first define function performance, function performance degradation and the behaviour of function performance degradation changed during MOL. The proposed definitions help product design engineers to understand components/parts' working status during the usage period of a product. Based on the evaluation of components/parts' working status, critical components/parts can be discriminated. For the found critical components/ parts, their working status are examined and correlated with field data which consist of operational and environmental data. The correlation provides the engineers with critical field data which have main effects on the worse working status of products. To verify our method, we have carried out a locomotive case study.

The use of reliability‐oriented field feedback information for product design improvement: a case study

AbstractIn the innovative industry, four major trends are found to influence product quality and reliability: the increase in product complexity, the strong pressure on time to market, the increasing global economy, and the decreasing tolerance for quality problems. Thus, it becomes more difficult to anticipate all potential failures during the product development process. In this context, an efficient field feedback process should be in place to react to the unanticipated deviations in product performance. Based on a case study made in an innovative company, this paper shows that the problem is not so much in the information collection as in the inherent quality of the information and in the manner the information is processed. Therefore, a new method, presented in this paper, was developed to classify and prioritize field data and to upgrade it into information that can be used for design improvement according to the dominant classes of failures using the four‐phase roller coaster model. Although this newly generated information is richer than raw field data it is not yet detailed enough to allow direct design optimization. Therefore, a second upgrading stage, based on design of experiments, was developed. It uses a method that combines physics‐of‐failure (bottom‐up) and field information (top‐down). As traditional DoE mainly deals with largely time‐independent quality data obtained during the manufacturing process the approach had to be modified to deal with time‐dependent reliability data. Case study results show that it is a promising approach for characterizing and resolving failure mechanisms also in innovative companies. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Robust design for multiple dynamic quality characteristics using data envelopment analysis

AbstractThe Taguchi method is extensively adopted in various industries to continuously improve product design in response to customer requirements. The dynamic system of the Taguchi method is frequently implemented to design products with flexible applications. However, Taguchi's dynamic system can be employed only for individual quality characteristic, and the relationship between the quality characteristic and the signal factor is assumed to be linear. Because of these restrictions, Taguchi's dynamic system is ineffective for multiple quality characteristics or when the quality characteristic has a nonlinear relationship with the signal factor. This study describes a novel procedure for optimizing a dynamic system based on data envelopment analysis. The proposed procedure overcomes the limitations of Taguchi's dynamic system. Two cases are analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure. The results show that the proposed procedure can enhance multiple dynamic quality characteristics. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Strategic Responses to Environmental Regulation in the U.K. Automotive Sector: The European Union End-of-Life Vehicle Directive and the Porter Hypothesis

As of 1 January 2006 all automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and component manufacturers operating within the European Union will need to comply with the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (referred to hereafter as the EU ELV Directive). The EU ELV Directive compels all OEMs to take back and dismantle all motor vehicles for domestic use at the end of their useful lives. Each component part will then be either reused or recycled. To this end, the ultimate goal of the EU ELV Directive is that all motor vehicles for domestic use will have a reuse or recyclable content of 85% at the end of their useful lives, moving toward 95% by 2015. The burden of the EU ELV Directive falls on both the OEMs and their component manufacturers, forcing them to innovate and “design for disassembly.” This being the case, it offers a unique real world example with which to test the Porter Hypothesis. Porter asserts that strict, correctly formulated environmental regulation can offer a firm secondary benefits through improved product design and the reduction of waste. This in turn allows the firm to offset the cost of compliance. Because the EU ELV Directive has been fashioned to force firms into a process of innovation and redesign, the magnitude of these so-called offsets can be judged. This article employs Rugman and Verbeke's 1998 strategic matrix of firm response to environmental regulation to examine qualitative details of the strategic response of automotive component manufacturers and OEMs in the United Kingdom to the demands of the directive to judge the volume of offsets generated. This analysis shows no support for the Porter Hypothesis and challenges the assumptions of Rugman and Verbeke's model.

A versatile virtual prototyping system for rapid product development

This paper presents a versatile virtual prototyping (VP) system for digital fabrication of multi-material prototypes to facilitate rapid product development. The VP system comprises a suite of software packages for multi-material layered manufacturing (MMLM) processes, including multi-toolpath planning, build-time estimation and accuracy analysis, integrated with semi-immersive desktop-based and full-immersive CAVE-based virtual reality (VR) technology. Such versatility makes the VP system adaptable to suit specific cost and functionality requirements of various applications. The desktop-based VR system creates a semi-immersive environment for stereoscopic visualisation and quality analysis of a product design. It is relatively cost-effective and easy to operate, but its users may be distracted by environmental disturbances that could possibly diminish their efficiency of product design evaluation and improvement. To alleviate disturbance problems, the CAVE-based VR system provides an enclosed room-like environment that blocks out most disturbances, making it possible for a design team to fully concentrate and collaborate on their product design work. The VP system enhances collaboration and communication of a design team working on product development. It provides simulation techniques to analyse and improve the design of a product and its fabrication processes. Through simulations, assessment and modification of a product design can be iterated without much worry about the manufacturing and material costs of prototypes. Hence, key factors such as product shape, manufacturability, and durability that affect the profitability of manufactured products are optimised quickly. Moreover, the resulting product design can be sent via the Internet to customers for comments or marketing purposes. The VP system therefore facilitates advanced product design and helps reduce development time and cost considerably.

Skin interaction with absorbent hygiene products

Skin problems due to the use of absorbent hygiene products, such as diapers, incontinence pads, and feminine sanitary articles, are mostly due to climate or chafing discomfort. If these conditions are allowed to prevail, these may develop into an irritant contact dermatitis and eventually superficial skin infections. Skin humidity and aging skin are among the most significant predisposing and aggravating factors for dermatitis development. Improved product design features are believed to explain the decline in observed diaper dermatitis among infants. Where adult incontinence–related skin problems are concerned, it is very important to apply a holistic perspective to understand the influences due to the individual's incontinence level and skin condition, as well as the hygiene and skin care measures provided. Individuals with frail, sensitive skin or with skin diseases may preferably have to use high-quality products, equipped with superabsorbent polymers and water vapor–permeable back sheets, to minimize the risk of skin complications.

Extant objects: designing things as they are

This paper describes a design exploration that addresses the re-use of low-value, discarded mass-produced objects. The exploration is an attempt to deal with a variety of sustainable concerns associated with contemporary mass-produced material culture. Two rather distinct, but interrelated approaches to sustainable design are recognised and discussed. One contributes to improving product design within the current product production system, the other is a more fundamental approach that begins to redefine the role of the product designer, and offers opportunities that are not available to, or much more difficult to address within, conventional industrial design practice for mass-production.

Knowledge Codification Helps Innovation and its Diffusion: A Stable State of Codified Knowledge Also Signals New Innovation

The connection between knowledge and innovation is inseparable. For every innovation there underlies a knowledge-base from a specific discipline; or the knowledge-base could borrow from multiple discipline. Even though the conventional wisdom would imply that it is usually the manufacturers of certain product that is primarily responsible for creating the innovation and its underlying knowledge-base, however, there is ample evidence in the literature that other constituents of a product (e.g. users, suppliers, distributors, insurers, etc) often have their contribution in generating novel ideas that result in new product design (i.e. innovation) or significant improvement of a current product. These contributions from other constituents highly depend on the state of the knowledge that underlies the product innovation. Some knowledge might be in a highly codified state, some others could be uncodified. Some knowledge might be easily codifiable; some others might be non-codifiable depending on the intrinsic nature of the knowledge. Codified knowledge is easy to transmit and therefore easy to share with other constituent. However, knowledge does not diminish if shared with others that make it distinct from most other commodities that economists usually deal with. Codification of knowledge depend not only the articulation of certain information, but sometimes it also implies history, experience and intrinsic qualities and capabilities of the holder of knowledge. In order to enable other constituents of a product innovation to participate into the process, all the parties have to have a common language to interact that permits them to exchange ideas and expertise gained from their respective roles in the innovation process. We argue here that the existence of common language depends on the status of the codification of knowledge that underlies the product innovation in question. When the knowledge reaches a relatively stable state, all the constituents are able to communicate with relative ease, users and buyers can make informed decision and the adoption of innovation increases. Also, a mature state of codification of the knowledge-base that underlies a product innovation would also inspire innovators to look for new ways of doing things, resulting in new innovation; often replacing the current product in the market.

Integrating Suppliers into New Product Development

OVERVIEW:New product development is becoming increasingly risky, expensive and reliant on disparate knowledge bases spread across multiple firms. Many organizations are devolving design responsibility to their suppliers in order to meet these challenges, yet may lack appropriate knowledge of “best practice” in managing supplier integration. For example, how to adjust their management practices to the timing of supplier integration and the degree of design responsibility award to suppliers. A survey of 134 global industrial organizations, and their efforts to integrate suppliers into their new product development processes, shows that early assessment of supplier capabilities and setting joint technology goals can improve the effectiveness of NPD project teams, and lead to improved product design and financial outcomes for the firm.

Strategic, Financial, and Design Implications of Extended Producer Responsibility in Europe: A Producer Case Study

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation, making producers responsible for financing and organizing take‐back and recycling of waste batteries, packaging, end‐of‐life vehicles (ELVs), and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), has been or is currently in the process of being implemented in 29 different countries in Europe following introduction of European Union directives. This article reviews the potential impacts of EPR for waste batteries, packaging, and WEEE on producers distributing products in Europe through a case study of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE)—responsible for marketing and distribution of PlayStation products.There are presently more than 250 producer responsibility organizations (PROs) established to meet EPR obligations in Europe, which contrasts to the single national recycling schemes founded in the late 1990s. SCEE estimates it avoided anetcostof €408,000 in 2005 by introducing competitive review of PRO services (against a total net take‐back cost of €401,000).To meet increasingly extensive compliance obligations, SCEE has initiated new activities, with considerable implications for the company's legal, sales data administration, procurement, accounting, and product and packaging approval practices.Considering the ultimate aim of EPR to establish economic incentives for improved product design, several significant political and practical obstacles are described from SCEE's case and industry situation. Although the principle of EPR is indeed interesting, its practical application in Europe may require refinement. Producers, given adequate support by policy makers, still have opportunities to develop new processes under the WEEE Directive to facilitate design for the environment.

Integrating sustainable development in the supply chain: The case of life cycle assessment in oil and gas and agricultural biotechnology

It is widely accepted that firms play an important stewardship role in addressing sustainable development concerns. A key challenge in this role is to balance the often conflicting pressures created by sustainable development—firm-level economic performance versus environmental degradation and social disruption. Drawing on complexity theory, risk management, stakeholder theory and the innovation dynamics literature, we discuss the problems of integrating sustainable development concerns in the supply chain, specifically the applicability of life cycle assessment (LCA). Many authors have emphasized the importance of the “cradle to grave” approach of LCA in optimizing closed-loop supply chains, improving product design and stewardship. Based on two case studies (an agricultural biotechnology and an oil and gas company) with supporting data collected from key stakeholders, we argue that sustainable development pressures have increased complexities and presented ambiguous challenges that many current environmental management techniques cannot adequately address. We provide a framework that addresses these deficiencies and discuss implications for practitioners and management theory.

Environmental regulation and innovation driving ecological design in the UK automotive industry

AbstractThe theory of ecological modernization asserts that economic and environmental goals can be integrated within a framework of industrial modernity. Its central tenet is that environmental regulation can stimulate the application of ‘clean’ technologies or techniques. Ecological modernization also contends that environmental regulation can offer business benefits from innovation through improved product design and economic performance. The EU End of Life Vehicles Directive (ELVD) reflects many of these principles, as it compels all car manufacturers to ‘take back’ and dismantle vehicles at the end of their useful lives and to remove the hazardous substances from the production process. Each component will then be either reused or recycled. The legislation forces designers to introduce ‘clean design’ and ‘design for disassembly’ practices. In light of this, we examine the impact of the directive on UK automotive component manufacturers. We find limited evidence that the EU ELVD Directive has driven product innovation beyond short‐term, incremental technological trajectories. We therefore conclude that a more radical approach, in line with the ‘dematerialization’ thesis by Dobers and Wolff (1999), is needed to generate more radical, ecological design solutions within the UK automotive industry. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Process development: a theoretical framework

There have already been a number of review articles that focus on product development, but none on process development. Process development is technically difficult, time-critical and competitively important, thus worth being explored as a distinct unit of analysis. This paper develops a theoretical framework to fill this gap in knowledge based on a comprehensive literature review. Five objectives for process development are summarised to align with the goal of product realisation, and 12 enablers (including intra-functional enablers, inter-functional enablers, and learning enablers) are identified and discussed. The authors first locate process development in the product realisation process (including product design, process design, process execution and process improvement) and draw necessary parallel factors between product design and process design as a foundation. Then the attributes of all relevant literature are organised and general principles for successful performance of development projects are used to infer the enablers. The developed framework offers opportunities to further verify the new enablers and theoretical links in future studies. One implication is that process development should be viewed as a strategic function for competitive edge and as such specific measures should be set to create an environment that is conducive to successful performance.

A fuzzy optimization model for QFD planning process using analytic network approach

In both the quality improvement and the design of a product, the engineering characteristics affecting product performance are primarily identified and improved to optimize customer needs (CNs). Especially, the limited resources and increased market competition and product complexity require a customer-driven quality management and product development system achieving higher customer satisfaction. Quality function deployment (QFD) is used as a powerful tool for improving product design and quality, and procuring a customer-driven quality system. In this paper, an integrated framework based on fuzzy-QFD and a fuzzy optimization model is proposed to determine the product technical requirements (PTRs) to be considered in designing a product. The coefficients of the objective function are obtained from a fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) approach. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is also used in the proposed framework. An application in a Turkish Company producing PVC window and door systems is presented to illustrate the proposed framework.

Improved product design as an alternative to outsourcing manufacture and assembly

Purpose – Highlights growing concerns, raised from both direct company experience and research, about the present industry trend for outsourcing manufacture and assembly to overseas manufacturers, and illustrates the importance of employing “best practice” product design methods.