Lean Design Research Articles

Evaluation of Design Process of Commercial Construction Project Based on Lean Design Concept

To determine design reliability, this study paper evaluates the design process of commercial construction projects. To streamline design efforts, decrease needless design errors, and boost design reliability, a new design workflow will be developed using commercial building concepts. The suggested procedures will give team members input on the state of the design and enable ongoing development. One of the pioneering applications of the lean methodology to building project design will be the proposed processes. Labour overruns, inadequate monitoring, and control, a lack of competence on the part of the contractor's key staff, poor planning or scheduling, and poor planning and monitoring of the refurbishment project were the top 5 variables influencing the commercial construction design process.

New product development process and case studies for deep-tech academic research to commercialization

This research proposes a new product development (NPD) framework for innovation-driven deep-tech research to commercialization and tested it with three case studies of different exploitation methods. The proposed framework, called Augmented Stage-Gate, integrates the next-generation Agile Stage-Gate development process with lean startup and design thinking approaches. The framework consists of six stages and five gates and focuses on critical thinking to help entrepreneurs avoid psychological traps and make the right decisions. Early activities focus on scouting for potential socioeconomically impactful deep-tech research, developing a business case, market analysis, and strategy for problem–solution fit, and then, moving to a build–measure–learn activity with a validated learning feedback loop. Next, suitable exploitation methods are decided using weight factor analysis, developing intellectual property (IP) strategy, completing the university technology transfer process, and participating in fundraising. To pass each gate, the committee board members, consisting of tech, business, IP and regulatory, and domain experts, will evaluate the passing criteria to decide Go/No-Go. Applying the framework to the case studies results in successful university research commercialization. The model, case study, and lessons learned in this paper can be useful for other deep-tech incubator programs to successfully launch deep-tech research for commercialization. The case studies’ positive outcomes validate the Augmented Stage-Gate framework, yet their success is not entirely guaranteed due to external factors like regulatory constraints, entrepreneur characteristics, timing, and the necessary ecosystem or infrastructure, particularly in emerging markets. These factors should be taken into account for future research purposes.

DEVELOPMENT OF A NOVEL DIABETIC FOOT RISK ASSESSMENT FOR LOW-RESOURCE HEALTHCARE SETTINGS: A CASE STUDY OF LEAN DESIGN

AbstractInterest in applying a “lean” philosophy to design has been slowly growing in recent years, but there are still few broadly applicable methodologies and illustrative cases published in the literature to guide lean design processes. Lean approaches promise cost reduction and increased product value, which could be particularly beneficial in product development for low- and middle-income country markets, where value demands are high. We use the clinical need of efficient diabetic foot risk assessment in lowresource healthcare settings to present an example of lean early-stage design of a medical device. The background of existing medical literature and commercial products is intentionally leveraged throughout the design process to streamline development and minimize the need for independent validation of product strategies and design features. Our approach resulted in an efficient design process that generated a novel, purely mechanical plantar pressure evaluation device that can indicate high risk of diabetic foot ulcer in resource-constrained settings. This case provides a practical example of how design processes can be adapted to be leaner where there are large gains from minimizing design cycle time and cost.

Achieving unprecedented yield strength of 2.2 GPa with high ductility in formed parts using strain-aging

Ultra-high yield strength is important in extreme service conditions, but it severely deteriorates the ductility and also brings significant challenges for material forming. Here, we successfully developed a strategy involving the compositionally lean alloy design and strain-aging processing route to endow medium Mn steels with unprecedented ‘part performance’ of 2.0–2.3 GPa yield strengths and 8–14% uniform elongations. The significant bake hardening response with the maximum of 465 MPa higher than the most of existing researches is reported, which leads to the ultra-high yield strength above 2 GPa. By applying pre-strains, the morphology and volume fraction of retained austenite can be tailored, which affects the Lüders bands and the transformation-induced-plasticity (TRIP) effect. In the suitable pre-strain range, the film-like retained austenite with high stability can provide sustained TRIP effect, thus ensuring high uniform elongations in the strain-aged samples.

Guiding the Lean Design of a Hospital's New Laboratory: A Case Study.

To present the process used by a clinical laboratory to guide the design of their new facility, part of a major campus expansion at a pediatric hospital. The primary objective was to generate information about arrangement and allocation of laboratory space and functional flows in the early phases of the expansion project. Seattle Children's Hospital has increased the capacity of their primary campus in response to growing demand for specialized services. The clinical laboratory was identified as one of the functional groups that would move their operations to the new building. The clinical laboratory team agreed on a three-stage process to guide the development of their initial design specifications: formulate the concept, develop design alternatives, and evaluate those alternatives. The different tasks were executed successfully. The process defined-based on Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA)-provided a context for collaboration among sections of the clinical laboratory, reducing silo thinking, so common in the specialized sections within a large clinical laboratory. The process was developed to guide the lean design efforts, even when initial space and location parameters had not yet been decided and was sufficiently flexible to accommodate changes in the project constraints and emergent information generated by the concurrent design activities of other hospital functional groups to be included in the campus expansion. The three-stage process allowed the team to review each laboratory section's complexity, create multiple conceptual designs for review, and ultimately increase the likelihood of an efficient physical configuration that would satisfy a diverse group of stakeholders.

Reducing construction waste in the construction life cycle of industrial projects during design phase by using system dynamics

There is tremendous growth in the construction of industrial projects in Egypt, resulting in a substantial quantity of construction waste during the industrial projects construction life cycle (CLC). This research assumes that managing the factors of construction waste will inevitably reduce its quantity during the CLC using building information modeling (BIM) and lean design. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of two techniques (Designing Out Waste and Design Strategies) based on qualitative factors using the BIM/Lean design concepts in the design phase which could reduce construction waste in the CLC of industrial projects. To achieve this aim, the research presents a comprehensive analysis of the factors of construction waste using system dynamics. A model was proposed that serves as a decision-support tool to ensure construction waste reduction in the CLC. The model in this study includes eight causal loop diagrams giving the professionals better understanding for the objectives to reduce construction waste. This model has been processed using AnyLogic software with a stock-flow diagram to create the system dynamics model. Finally, the validation and implementation are demonstrated using a case study for the suggested model. The case study's findings improved the model's confidence in order to utilize it for quantitative analysis. It has been further assessed for its impact in two proposed scenarios to reduce construction waste. The system dynamic model in this study contributes to better practices and proper decisions in the construction field.

Smart factory mapping and design: methodological approaches

Several studies show a demand for further transfer of Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies into practice. This paper describes how companies can be supported methodologically to identify individual opportunities for optimization within their future smart factories. Existing methods are screened, recombined, and enhanced to create a sufficient demand-oriented approach, based on the lean value stream mapping and design. The final approach covers a mapping phase of the current state and a design phase of a future state. It follows the general principle of process optimization prior to digitalization. Being a highly visual method, it can be used to explain the needs and the motivation for the identified improvement initiatives to all involved parties, including non-IT-specialists. This paper also presents an exemplary result and several learnings from tests with three companies with discrete manufacturing processes.

Lean healthcare: Improving surgical process indicators through prioritization projects

Purpose: Implementing process management methodology through Lean Management and Design Thinking provides a new way to manage surgical blocks, maximize efficiency and adapt to the high variability of demand. This article presents our experience of implementing a set of improvement actions within the surgical process in the context of Lean Healthcare Processes. The project involved a total of 900 healthcare professionals over a 3-year period (2017-2019) and has impacted over 38,000 surgical patients each year at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain.The purpose of this article is to present a set of improvement projects within the surgical process and show the indicators that monitor its evolution. These projects have been implemented successfully in a hospital with high surgical complexity and indicate how health care professionals and process engineers can work together as a team to improve healthcare resources.Design/methodology/approach: To evaluate the effectiveness of the actions presented, we propose a series of standardized indicators showing how our findings increase the efficiency of the surgical process. We also indicate Lean projects that can reduce patient waiting times and increase capacity. Below is a management model for the surgical process that considers industrial production criteria such as resource planning, optimizing the use of operating rooms and professionals' time and generating the best surgery combinations.Findings: Projects that have increased efficiency in the surgical block the most have been standardized and converted into a model of action. This is designed to adapt to any level of complexity within the hospital process. The set of improvement projects has been divided into 6 stages: Programming, Material logistics process, pre-surgical stage, intra-surgical stage, post-surgical stage and transversal projects; each affecting a different area of the general hospital (not only the surgical unit). Furthermore, a visual flow chart was designed using the results of the project.Findings from the study have led to a 15% increase in surgical capacity without the need for new resources. The average hospital stay also dropped from 7.2 days to 4.1 days. The flow vision in the care process improves the experience of both patients and health care professionals, who see their participation as part of the whole health care process.Research limitations/implications: the projects were mainly developed at the Vall d'Hebron University Hospital. Although several of these projects have been carried out in other hospitals in Spain by the same team of process engineers, results may be biased when the team provides support within its own process department, compared to when it supports the local team in another hospital temporarily.Another important limitation is that it takes several months to implement and consolidate the improvement projects and demonstrate improved indicators in a sustainable way over time. This matrix of projects is more than a specific action, a cultural change with the entire surgical department.Originality/value: This study sets out a proposed practical example of applying surgery management tools in the surgical process. Our proposal can offer hospital managers and surgical coordinators an orderly, streamlined project guide for overall surgical performance indicators.The main results from developing the model include the degree of satisfaction shown by healthcare professionals and the determined commitment from the center’s management team to promote process management using Lean methodology. This commitment continued despite the challenges of shifting the organizational structure towards process management, which is a complex task requiring a period of adaptation and learning.Healthcare management has always prioritized increasing surgical patient safety and satisfaction. Patient flows are increased and resources used more efficiency by shifting the focus to the patient and the processes gone through during their hospital stay. This improvement project provides us with the best example of Lean methodology implementation if reinvested in bettering healthcare. This in turn increases the value perceived by patients, which is the ultimate purpose of the process.

Relationship between Lean and Green buildings in Egypt

There is a lack of awareness about the added environmental value of theintegration between Lean and Green building design. This study is investigatingthe relationship between Lean and Green building design represented in theEgyptian rating system (Green pyramid).The research clarifies Lean Construction concepts and principles whichreduce waste and increase the quality through enhance building performance.Also, focuses on analyzing the Egyptian rating system (Green Pyramid) whichwas established to ensure sustainability in Egypt, reduce the environmentalimpact of construction and raising the awareness toward the importance of greenbuildings to the Egyptian environment.Based on analyzing previous concepts, studying literature review andconsidering the principles of Lean Construction with the criteria of GreenPyramid for certification of environmental performance of buildings forunderstanding the results of their integrations and proposing recommendations tobe added at the Green pyramid Egyptian rating system as approach for greenbuilding design in Egypt.

Designing Lean Maintenance Using Total Productive Maintenance Method – A Case Study at Wiring Harness Production

Consumer demand for 4-wheeled and 2-wheeled motorized vehicles in Indonesia is increasing yearly. In 2022, car sales increased by 18.1%. At the same time, motorcycle sales increased by 3.24%. Automotive companies will compete with each other to meet the needs of consumers in the future. This is also true for automotive parts suppliers. PT XYZ is a company that supplies wiring harnesses for the needs of motorized vehicle components. Currently, the company is facing a problem with overtime of up to 4 hours in several production lines. The company missed the production target because the production plan had not considered any waste that happened on the production floor. Downtime of machines can stop production on the line. Downtime can occur due to machine failure. The company must choose the proper steps for resolution. If waste continues to be ignored, the company will struggle to compete with its competitors. This research aims to solve the waste problem through the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Method. Several steps are used to solve the problem: root cause analysis, determining the TPM pillars applied, RCM, and realization of TPM pillars. The research results are lean maintenance design from completing TPM pillars, such as autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, and development management.

Resilience of Lean Production Systems: A Systematic Literature Review

Manufacturing companies worldwide are facing increasing volatility on international markets. The ongoing digital transformation, characterized by the widespread use of information and communication technologies, is leading to a sharp increase in complexity along value chains and in production systems. Unpredictable events with a global impact, such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine, cause massive disruptions and even complete production stoppages in these complex systems. Established approaches to design production systems, such as the lean production approach, focus so far mainly on meeting customer requirements and the three targets quality, costs and time. In view of the political and economic developments, however, it is essential to also take into account resilience as a main target when designing future production systems. This paper evaluates the resilience of lean production systems. Based on a systematic literature review, it is investigated whether there is a correlation between the design of a production system according to lean principles and the resilience of this production system. A descriptive and a content analysis of the results of the systematic literature review is performed out and the results are graphically displayed. The current state of research in the field of resilient and lean design of production systems is highlighted and research gaps are identified. From this future research directions are derived and presented.

Flametube Evaluation of a Lean-Lean Combustor Concept Developed for Supersonic Cruise Aircraft

Abstract Gaseous emissions were measured in single-cup flametube tests of an advanced low-NOx combustor concept at simulated supersonic cruise conditions. The combustor concept is a low technology readiness level (TRL), lean front-end design developed under the NASA Fundamental Aeronautics/Supersonics project to minimize NOx emissions at supersonic cruise. The flametube conditions matched or approached combustor conditions at supersonic cruise, with combustor inlet temperatures up to 920 K, inlet pressures up to 19 bar, and combusted gas temperatures up to 2,120 K. Whether these conditions met or just approached supersonic cruise conditions depended on the type of engine the combustor would be installed in. Two types of engines were considered here: a “derivative” engine based on a current technology and an “advanced” engine with a higher operating pressure ratio and higher temperature limits. For the “derivative” engine, the combustor is expected to be at least close to meeting the NASA NOx emissions goal of 10 g-NOx/kg-fuel at supersonic cruise. However, with the higher combustor inlet and flame temperatures of the advanced engine, NOx emissions are expected to be well above the goal.

Performance Improvement of a Highly Loaded Transonic Centrifugal Compressor with Tandem Impeller and Freeform Blade Configuration

A highly loaded transonic centrifugal compressor is aerodynamically designed and numerically investigated. The objectives are to improve the compressor efficiency by using tandem impeller configuration and 3D free-formed blade design concepts. This approach has the potential to control both the transonic and distorted flows within impeller passages. The results suggest that employing the tandem impeller configuration can significantly improve the compressor efficiency by 1.4%. The efficiency gain is mainly contributed by the improved uniformity of the impeller discharge flow achieved when the newly generated inducer-shed vortices rearrange the secondary flow pattern. In addition, the location of the impeller passage shock moves downstream due to the potential effect within the tandem impeller and locally changes the back pressure of the inducer. These factors mitigate flow losses in the impeller and diffuser. Furthermore, the 3D design concepts of forward blade sweep and negative lean are employed in the tandem impeller configuration. The forward sweep design of the inducer weakens flow acceleration before the passage shock, and the negative lean design optimizes the secondary flow pattern, which yield an additional compressor efficiency improvement of 0.7%. The study conducted in this paper provides a valuable reference for future advanced transonic centrifugal compressor designs.

Optimal interconnection of three‐terminal tandem solar cells

AbstractThree‐terminal (3T) tandem solar cells require an adapted module integration scheme in order to explore their full efficiency potential. The three terminals allow to extract the power of the top and bottom cell separately. In a cell string, the wide bandgap top cells are interconnected in parallel to multiple bottom cells resulting in a parallel/series interconnection. This interconnection scheme affects the operation of the subcells, the resulting current path between the subcells, the layout of the cell interconnects, and the system level. Here, we analyze by simulations and experiments the aspects of the module integration of series‐ and reverse‐connected 3T cells with their practical impact on module processes and performance as well as the effect of varying voltage ratios on the string‐end losses. If the subcells are connected in series, the module integration requires insulation layers and significantly longer interconnects compared to devices with reverse‐connected subcells. Tandem devices with a reverse connection and a voltage ratio between top and bottom cell of 2:1 allow a lean interconnection design and low integration losses. We present an approach for the integration of bypass diodes for the protection against shading effects that allow to minimize string‐end and shading losses for a system of modules featuring 3T cells.

EVALUASI DAN REDESIGN WEBSITE STARTUP ENSIKLOTARI MENGGUNAKAN METODE SYSTEM USABILITY SCALE

Ensiklotari is a digital education startup, that provides a platform for dance performers and learners, where dance studios deliver virtual dance lessons in the form of coordinated, integrated, and directed video tutorials. Ensiklotari innovation is a blend of Design Thinking and Lean Startup strategies, or Lean Design Thinking. The strength of Design Thinking lies in the area of qualitative methods, which include details of ethnography, user research, and observation, while Lean Startup emphasizes quantitative methods that focus on metric-based analysis. Both ensure tests are conducted at each stage. The user-centered and customer-oriented implementation of the two strategies above accelerates the iterative process in the Ensiklotari software development stage. The results of the SUS measurement of the Ensiklotari application are 78 points. These results indicate that the overall usability level of the application is effective, efficient, and satisfactory for users in the promoter category or users who have the potential to give a positive response and promote the Ensiklotari website.

Research on reducing CWS value based on product lean design

The research on improving production efficiency and reducing labor cost by reducing production CWS is the focus of notebook computer manufacturing enterprises. This research breaks the traditional method of reducing CWS at the production end and chooses to find breakthroughs from the whole life cycle of products. Finally, innovatively based on product lean design, and from the product design side, explore the optimization opportunity to reduce the CWS value of product production, so as to achieve the purpose of reducing CWS. Firstly, laptop model S is selected as the research object, and its structure disassembly and analysis, assembly action research and station sequencing were carried out to preliminarily determine the product production process. According to the production bottleneck process time, the current CT of the production line was determined to be 13S, and the initial CWS value of the production line was calculated to be 0.2167. Then, based on the principles of lean product design, the CONN of FAN, Battery, Speaker and RCT are optimized to make their assembly easier. The SSD fixation method, I/O BKT and I/O modular design are optimized to eliminate the need for auxiliary BKT assembly. In addition, Center Hook and WLAN were integrated on MB, and their assembly was cancelled, so that the design of the optimized parts was more integrated and modular. Then, the optimized product was rearranged for production. The CWS value of the optimized product was 0.1589, which decreased by 27 % compared with that before optimization.

Development of an Introductory Course in Design Phase Management for Constructors

Collaborative construction delivery methods such as Design-Build (DB), Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), and Construction Management at Risk (CMR) have a need for a person that manages the design phase of a project made up of many different stakeholders. A course was recently developed for a construction-based Design and Construction Integration (DCI) program that focuses on the unique role of managing the construction project during the design phase. The course covers a number of issues including: 1) effectively building and managing a team that is made up of owners, architects, engineers, contractors, and sub-contractors that have diverse educational and experiential backgrounds, 2) building team expertise by bringing in key subcontractors and specialty designers under various contract methods, 3) risk management of the different types of delivery methods are explored along with the legal issues associated with the delivery methods, and finally 4) managing the design phase costs and how stakeholders are compensated during the design phase to ensure a quality designed project that will be on budget and has a feasible construction schedule. The course introduces many of these topics with the underlying concepts of lean design and construction best practices. This paper details the development of the course, class activities associated with the course, and lessons learned from implementing the course in a DCI program.

Evaluating Lean Facility Layout Designs Using a BWM-Based Fuzzy ELECTRE I Method

Selecting a suitable design for a lean facility layout has become a critical issue for a manufacturing company aiming to remove waste or non-value-added activities and implement the optimal facility arrangement. Many quantitative and qualitative criteria with different weights need to be considered in evaluating lean facility layout designs. To address the issue, a Best-Worst method (BWM) based on fuzzy ELECTRE I is introduced to determine the optimal lean facility layout design, in which the BWM is utilized for generating the criteria weights, and an extension of fuzzy ELECTRE I is introduced to identify the most suitable alternative. The signed distance method is employed to defuzzify the fuzzy numbers and obtain discordance matrix values. Based on the subtraction of discordance values from concordance values, a modified fuzzy ELECTRE I is introduced to evaluate alternative lean facility layout designs that can avoid missing information. A numerical example of the evaluation of lean facility layout designs for a manufacturing company is provided to show the potential of the suggested models. Comparative studies are investigated to illustrate the superiority of the suggested method.

Lean Design of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Patient Room for Efficient and Safe Care Delivery.

The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is an environment where seriously ill children receive complex care, delivered mostly by specialty-trained nurses (registered nurses [RNs]) who must perform multiple high-level tasks. With stressors on healthcare systems at an all-time high, design that optimizes RN workflow has taken on a renewed imperative. To employ a multimodal approach (1) to identify environmental factors in the PICU patient room that contribute to caregiver workflow inefficiencies, (2) to optimize safety by identifying high-touch surfaces that cause hospital-acquired infections, (3) to develop human-centered design recommendations. This mixed-method case study was conducted in a 23-bed urban hospital PICU. The activities, movements, and workflows of 13 RNs were recorded using spatial movement mapping, behavioral mapping, and clinical activity mapping. Frequency of RN contact with surfaces was documented to assess relative infection transmission risk. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with RNs to elicit their views on care delivery and their physical work environment. Direct patient care occupied 50% of RNs' time. Of the direct patient care workflow activities recorded, 26% were to prepare for care around the bedside, while 27% were for random travel between clean and soiled areas. The surfaces most frequently touched were (1) patient bedrails, (2) intravenous pumps and poles, (3) tubing and medical equipment, and (4) vital sign monitors. Value-added tasks account for only about 20% of nurses' work. Combining technology and strategic interior design to streamline workflow and enhance infection prevention optimizes efficiency and empowers frontline providers to maximize their time at the bedside performing value-added tasks.

Taking open answers seriously: gaining insights into the perilous undercurrent of organizational change

PurposeThis study aims to discuss the usefulness of free-text comments to gain insights into participants' opinions about an organizational change project.Design/methodology/approachA secondary analysis of 152 free-text answers to an open question in a questionnaire evaluating the implementation of lean facility design was conducted.FindingsThe authors identified three categories of responses to change: (1) dismissive – lean unrelated, (2) dismissive – lean related and (3) supporting – lean related. Notably, the large majority of the comments were dismissive by nature and unrelated to lean. Furthermore, critical responses also emanate from the most supportive group (critical friends).Practical implicationsQuintessential to change management is understanding how those involved perceive the changes. Free-text comments offer an opportunity to gain a view on these perceptions, particularly perceptions that often stay covert whilst having the potential to undermine change initiatives. At the same time, the comments may also be used to capitalize on constructive criticisms.Originality/valueThis study delivers a unique view on how free comments allow developing a broader understanding of hospital staff's responses to an organizational change initiative and particularly its “undercurrent” that may potentially have significant implications to change processes.