Product Design Practices Research Articles

A Form Generation System Based on Design Thinking Patterns

Generative design system is a complex system that often focus on the technical and complex details thus away from building a system from the product designer’s thinking patterns. In addition, by focusing on the mechanism, the system is hard to construct and difficult to use for practical situation. Horizontal/vertical design thinking patterns are often used in product design practice, thus how designers make decision affect the generation reasoning. With the cognitive design researches on design thinking patterns, two research stages (experiment and implementation) are conducted and policy/generation rules are discovered during the experiment with 30 5-year design experts as focus group. An experimental system called thinking pattern-based generation system, a.l.a. ThinkGen is developed for testing the hypothesis.

Heterogeneous Knowledge Integrated Management Based on Topic Maps in Collaborative Product Development

. Successful collaborative product development depends on the ability to effectively manage and share engineering knowledge and experience throughout the entire development process. This paper presents a distributed heterogeneous engineering knowledge management approach for the practice of collaborative product design. Firstly, a XTM based heterogeneous knowledge integration model in collaborative product design is proposed; Then, a knowledge management framework in collaborative design process is developed; Finally, a knowledge management system in collaborative design is constructed.

Fuel costs and supply chain decisions

The affect of rising fuel costs on the individual consumer is well documented in current media. Consumers are paying more for their basic necessities. Fuel surcharge, transportation cost, and logistics have become house hold words. The rising cost of crude oil creates an increase in fuel cost, and this creates an increase in the cost to transport products from one location to another. Managers, who are responsible for acquiring products and delivering them to customers, are also feeling the impact of higher fuel prices. This article will outline three significant areas where fuel prices are affecting U.S. supply chain decisions. Sourcing decisions, transportation modes, and product design and packaging practices are all currently being influenced by the cost of logistics.

Monitoring Changes in Capital and Hedge Effectiveness Under Fair Value Accounting Principles

In the early 1970s Richard G. Horn established a methodology for analyzing the earnings of a life insurance company that reflected, at that time, the types of products underwritten and the accounting principles that were in effect. This methodology became to be known as a “sources of earnings analysis.” With the exception of term life insurance, most life insurance and annuity products underwritten today have significant equity risk. Furthermore, fair value accounting principles are replacing historical-based accounting principles. Finally, life insurance companies have sophisticated risk management policies and procedures to manage risk. The purpose of this paper is to extend Horn’s “sources of earnings analysis” to reflect the evolution in product design, accounting standards, and risk management practices. In particular, under fair value accounting principles, the capital account becomes the primary focus of attention. Accordingly, this paper develops a methodology to perform an “analysis of the change in capital” that would replace a traditional “sources of earnings analysis.” In addition, most life insurance companies have hedging programs to manage the embedded equity risks in the types of products they have underwritten. Thus, an important focus of this analysis is to monitor the effectiveness of these hedging programs.

Integrating Creativity in IT Product and Service Development Into Ergonomic Design Practices

It is creativity that ultimately triggers innovations and their commercial success in information technology products and services. Previous research in ergonomic design considers only issues regarding functionality, safety, usability, and affectivity. We first propose a conceptual framework for ergonomic design that highlights the central role of creativity in achieving synergy of the four preceding design dimensions. Then, a conceptual model of the creative design process for IT products and services is proposed based on the literature in creative cognition and engineering design. The discussion provides insights into how to increase creativity and profitability of IT products and services.

Creative Destruction and Destructive Creations: Environmental Ethics and Planned Obsolescence

Three decades ago, planned obsolescence was a widely discussed ethical issue in marketing classrooms. Planned obsolescence is topical again today because an increasing emphasis on continuous product development promotes shorter durables replacement and disposal cycles with troublesome environmental consequences. This paper offers explanations of why product obsolescence is practiced and why it works. It then examines the ethical responsibilities of product developers and corporate strategists and their differing responses to this problem. Pro-environment product design and marketing practices and innovative government policies may alleviate the problem over time. However, given the current lack of understanding about consumer replacement and disposal behavior, it is questionable as to whether these practices and policies will be sufficiently informed to be effective. Thus, marketing scholars have a significant opportunity to contribute to sustainable durables product development.

Enabling collaborative product design through distributed engineering knowledge management

Collaborative product design (CPD) is a knowledge-intensive process that encompasses conceptual design, detailed design, engineering analysis, assembly design, process design, and performance evaluation. Each task involves various areas of knowledge and experience. However, successful collaborative product design depends on the ability to effectively manage and share engineering knowledge and experience throughout the entire development process. Consequently, the realization of distributed engineering knowledge management, which not only supports collaborative product design but also accumulates and utilizes corporate memory situated at various locations, has become one of the key tasks managed by industries. This paper presents a distributed engineering knowledge management approach for the practice of collaborative product design. In developing the proposed approach, a CPD-based engineering knowledge management methodology is first proposed under the concepts of knowledge management and collaboration. This methodology includes a knowledge management-oriented engineering management work model, a distributed engineering knowledge management framework, and rules and methods for managing engineering knowledge. The CPD-based engineering knowledge management system framework is designed, on the basis of this proposed methodology. Finally, a CPD-based engineering knowledge management system is developed using unified modeling language (UML) modeling techniques.

Beyond theory: An examination of lean new product introduction practices in the UK

Interest is growing around the application of lean techniques to new product introduction (NPI). Although a relatively emergent topic compared with the application of ‘lean’ within the factory, since 2000 there has been an exponential rise in the literature on this subject. However, much of this work focuses on describing and extolling the virtues of the ‘Toyota approach’ to design. Therefore, by way of a stock take for the UK, the present authors' research has set out to understand how well lean product design practices have been adopted by leading manufacturers. This has been achieved by carrying out in-depth case studies with three carefully selected manufacturers of complex engineered products. This paper describes these studies, the detailed results and subsequent findings, and concludes that both the awareness and adoption of practices is generally embryonic and far removed from the theory advocated in the literature.

ON ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGY, SYSTEM FRAMEWORK AND ENABLING TECHNOLOGY FOR COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT DESIGN

ABSTRACT Given the increasing-growing global competition, collaborative product design (CPD) is a highly promising business strategy for increasing the competitiveness of enterprises. The essence of collaborative product design lies in a distributive and collaborative process, in which people in different disciplines and from different enterprises cooperate to design products and develop related processes via remote coordination, communication, and process control. This paper describes a distributed engineering knowledge management approach for the practice of collaborative product design. In developing the proposed approach, a CPD-based engineering knowledge management methodology is first proposed under the concepts of knowledge management and collaboration. Based on the proposed methodology, a CPD-based engineering knowledge management system framework is then designed. Finally, several enabling technologies involved in the engineering knowledge management system framework are identified and developed, followed by prototype construction of a CPD-based engineering knowledge management system. Results of this research will enable the practice of collaborative product design and subsequently help engineering designers quickly and efficiently develop high quality products.

Education for sustainability as a transformative learning process: a pedagogical experiment in EcoDesign doctoral education

The paper presents details about a doctoral-level EcoDesign course, as an education for sustainable development experience, in relation to pedagogic theory. The aim was to promote transformative learning in order to facilitate more productive use of environmental knowledge in product and business development. The course included interdisciplinary dialogue founded in real world experiences presented by lecturers from business, government and NGOs, as well as study visits and group work on the drafting of journal papers. The key pedagogical objective was to widen the perspective to embrace more humanly engaging concerns and to enhance the student's overall understanding about relations between sustainable development priorities and product design practices.

안전한 제품을 설계하기 위한 새로운 제품위험분석 방법

Today we are observing a lot of injuries. casualties. and property losses that are mainly caused by the defects of products. In order to derive safety designs. which minimize the possibility of such product liability-related accidents. we need to take intoaccount the user-product interaction as an important part of the danger factor analysis. Existing risk analysis techniques. however. have some limitations in detecting comprehensive danger factors that are peculiarly involved in human errors and the functional defects of products. Researches on danger factor analysis regarding the user-product interaction have been carried out actively in ergonomics.br/ In this paper. we suggest a novel product risk analysis technique. which is more objective and systematic compared to the previous ones. by combining a modified TAFEl (Task Analysis For Error Identification) technique with SASA (Systematic Approach to Accident Scenario Analysis) technique. By applying this technique to the product design practice in industry. corporations will be able to improve the product safety. consequently strengthening the competitiveness.br/

A study of operations management constructs and their relationships

This paper describes an exploratory research effort to analyze and classify emerging operations management practices in US manufacturing. Using a survey of senior materials and operations management professionals in the United States, this study investigates manufacturers' supplier assessment practices, new product design and development practices, just‐in‐time practices, and quality practices. This study also identifies practices that share common variance‐covariance characteristics and to what extent the observed practices are linked to their underlying factors by means of exploratory factor analysis. Finally, bivariate correlation analysis is used to examine the relationships of the factors.

Ambiguities in decision-oriented Life Cycle Inventories The Role of mental models

If the complexity of real, socio-economic systems is acknowledged, life cycle inventory analysis (LCI) in life cycle assessment (LCA) cannot be considered as unambiguous, objective, and as an exclusively data and science based attribution of material and energy flows to a product. The paper thus suggests a set of criteria for LCI derived from different scientific disciplines, practice of product design and modelling characteristics of LCI and LCA. A product system with its respective LCI supporting the process of effective and efficient decision-making should ideally be: a) complete, operational, decomposable, non-redundant, minimal, and comparable; b) efficient, i.e., as simple, manageable, transparent, cheap, quick, but still as ‘adequate’ as possible under a functionalistic perspective which takes given economic constraints, material and market characteristics, and the goal and scope of the study into account; c) actor-based when reflecting the decision-makers’ action space, risk-level, values, and knowledge (i.e. mental model) in view of the management rules of sustainable development; d) as site- and case-specific as possible, i.e. uses as much site-specific information as possible. This rationale stresses the significance of considering both (i) material and energy flows within the technosphere with regard to the sustainable management rules; (ii) environmental consequences of the environmental interventions on ecosphere. Further, the marginal cost of collecting and computing more and better information about environmental impacts must not exceed the marginal benefits of information for the natural environment. The ratio of environmental benefits to the economic cost of the tool must be efficient compared to other investment options. As a conclusion, in comparative LCAs, the application of equal allocation procedures does not lead to LCA-results on which products made from different materials can be compared in an adequate way. Each product and material must be modelled according to its specific material and market characteristics as well as to its particular management rules for their sustainable use. A generic LCA-methodology including preferences on methodological options is not definable.

A generic model and design representation technique of service products

Service businesses have developed into an important economic force. Provision of various quality service products to more demanding customers is the key for organizations to retain a competitive advantage. Design is important for making such intangible products “visible” and manageable, and is considered as the key to service quality. A good understanding of the architectural aspects and a design representation technique of service products are needed to facilitate the product design practice and effective production and marketing. What constitutes a unit of service product and how is the product represented (depicted) formally? These questions remain unanswered. The fuzziness in identifying service product construction and the lack of an appropriate design representation method are recognized as the main reasons for the undeveloped design tradition for service products. In this paper, the architectural perspectives from which to view service products are provided by proposing a generic model based on the concept of customer service experience, which delineates the elements involved in specifying a service product design. Based on the model, an approach to the design representation of service products is proposed. The implications for service management are also presented.

Comparison of ANSI/IEEE and IEC requirements for metal-clad switchgear

In the emerging global marketplace, differences in product standards and design practices in different parts of the world are coming to the forefront as nontariff trade barriers. This paper discusses the differences between metal-clad switchgear designed and applied in accordance with ANSI/IEEE standards and related practices, which are normally used in North America, and the same equipment designed and applied in accordance with IEC standards and practices, which are normally used in Europe. Other parts of the world may use either or both of these two standards, often depending on the source of the funds for a particular project or the commercial relationships between the host country and the equipment suppliers. The paper covers differences in ratings, features and design testing.

Designing a green policy

A pressing area of concern is the future competitiveness of the electronics industry. Design For Environment (DFE) is a method by which environmental considerations and constraints can be integrated into existing process and product design practices. It involves considering the environmental impact of all materials and processes that are involved in the entire life-cycle of the product. The life-cycle of a product is from materials extraction to production, use, and disposal. DFE can be broken into smaller subgroups involving designing for such things as pollution prevention, product disassembly and recyclability, environmentally sound processing, materials recyclability, maintainability, and other factors. Accounting practices and organizational issues need to be addressed as well in order to fully implement DFE within a corporation. A company that institutes DFE in its practices minimizes waste, energy, materials, and hazardous substances in its product and its manufacturing, and maximizes overall environmental friendliness in its design.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The use of best design practices: An analysis of US navy contractors

Rapid and successful introduction of new products is a potentially significant source of competitive advantage for manufacturing firms. Organizations need to identify and manage those critical elements of the product development process (PDP) that have a positive influence on new product success. This research identifies the distinctive product development and design practices, policies and tools currently followed by companies (Navy contractors) that participated in an empirical research study known as the Best Manufacturing Practices Program. A summary of practices reported in the case studies is compiled using content analysis techniques, and the most interesting practices by individual companies are highlighted. We find numerous examples of sophisticated CAD techniques being used to enhance the development process, including expert system design advisers, computer simulation, and design databases. Companies are emphasizing the design policies of concurrent engineering and teamwork, and documenting design process knowledge into design manuals. Company effort still appear focused primarily on the phase of detailed design rather than the concept selection phase.

Incorporating environmental principles into the design process

The effects of our everyday actions on the environment are coming under increasing scrutiny. Every product we produce, use and dispose of has a profound effect on the balance of the ecological systems around us. This problem is increasing at a considerable pace and something must be done soon. The practice of engineering is one of the largest contributors to the environmental problem and if something is to be done product design practices will have to adapt. This paper looks at the problems faced by designers in attempting to integrate environmental concerns into the design process. Existing design practices along with documented principles and frameworks are observed, the environmental considerations which need to be taken into account are outlined and mechanisms for attributing environmental cost to product life-cycles are defined. By showing how traditionally independent disciplines may be integrated into concurrent engineering practices this paper attempts to demonstrate the principles of Design for the Environment.

Systematic and innovative design of a mechatronic product

This paper describes the experiences gained in product design practice by the firms participating in the subproject Systematic Design of a Mechatronic Product of the Finnish Mechatronics Research Program. A practical design guide for the task definition and conceptual design phases was compiled on basis of these experiences. The sub-method combinations and a number of choice supporting practices which were found to be the most feasible ones under actual working conditions are also described and critically analyzed. This paper describes how the combination of several methods, metamethodics, may be applied to improving the quality and put-through-times in product development and as part of the overall strategy of a company.

Organizational Adaptation and Perceived International Marketing Effectiveness

American business faces a future of world wide competition for markets. Effective global marketing has been associated with the adaptation of domestic marketing, product design, financial, and personnel practices in the professional marketing literature. Perceived effectiveness in international markets, is correlated with a corporate culture oriented to global markets in the opinion of a sample of American executives.