Tool For Product Development Research Articles

Strategic Considerations in Designing Food Solutions for Seniors

The demographic shift towards an aged population calls for targeted nutrition strategies to support healthy aging and bridge the gap between life expectancy and a healthy life span. Older adults face various nutritional deficiencies, particularly in protein, vitamins (B12, D), minerals (calcium, iron), and dietary fiber. This work delves into the EAT4AGE project efforts that strategically aimed to develop age-oriented food products (European Joint Programming Initiative “A Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life” JPI HDHL). Currently, manufacturing of age-tailored food products presents significant complexities, from challenges of commercialization to the generation of acceptable and palatable food choices. As a first step, a literature-based comprehensive checklist has been developed to facilitate product development. This tool provides an integrated approach, ensuring that all critical aspects of product development are addressed systematically. Secondly, we describe the application of the tool in the development of a series of products, such as plant-based protein-rich cereals, reformulated dairy products, processed meat, and enriched spreads; all combining high nutritional values with adaptations to the physiological and sensory needs of seniors. Overall, this work offers insight into the current needs of seniors and a tool for product development that can be utilized for prospective product development, such as the ones detailed herein. Thus, the EAT4AGE hopes to set an example that will stimulate the fabrication of effective, well-received nutritional solutions, ultimately improving health outcomes for older adults.

Prediction of Temporal Liking from Temporal Dominance of Sensations by Using Reservoir Computing and Its Sensitivity Analysis.

The temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) method has received particular attention in the food science industry due to its ability to capture the time-series evolution of multiple sensations during food tasting. Similarly, the temporal liking method is used to record changes in consumer preferences over time. The conjunctive use of these methods provides an effective framework for analyzing food taste and preference, making them valuable tools for product development, quality control, and consumer research. We employed the TDS and temporal liking data of strawberries that were recorded in our earlier study to estimate the temporal liking values from sensory changes. For this purpose, we used a reservoir network, a type of recurrent neural network suitable for time-series data. The trained models exhibited prediction accuracy of the determination coefficient as high as 0.676-0.993, with the median being 0.951. Further, we proposed two types of sensitivities of each sensory attribute toward the change in the temporal liking value. Elemental sensitivity indicates the degree that each sensory attribute influences the temporal liking. In the case of strawberries, the sweet attribute was the greatest contributor, followed by the attribute of fruity. The two least-contributing attributes were light and green. Interactive sensitivity indicates how each attribute affects the temporal liking in conjunction with other attributes. This sensitivity analysis revealed that the sweet attribute positively influenced the liking, whereas the green and light attributes impacted it negatively. The proposed methods offer a new approach to comprehensively analyze how the results of TDS are linked to those of the temporal liking method, serving as a step toward developing an alternative system to human panels.

Development of an optimized SEC method for characterization of genome DNA leakage from adeno-associated virus products.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors are widely used to deliver therapeutic transgenes due to their superior safety, relatively low immunogenicity, and ability to target diverse tissues. AAV gene therapy products are typically formulated as frozen liquid and stored below - 60 °C, and therefore are subjected to multiple freeze/thaw cycles during manufacturing and administration. Recent studies have shown that genome DNA leakage could be induced by freeze/thaw stress. DNA leakage from AAV capsids has been reported to potentially impact product stability, induce immune responses, and compromise product efficacy. Thus, further characterization to improve the understanding of genome DNA leakage is necessary for mitigating the risks associated with genome DNA leakage during AAV product development. In this work, we developed an optimized size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) method for quantifying the leakage of genome DNA across multiple different AAV serotypes and demonstrated satisfactory assay performance in sensitivity, precision, and linearity. Furthermore, we showed that this method could also be applied to quantifying additional quality attributes of AAV, including the percentage of full capsids and quantification of AAV dimers. By using this optimized SEC method, we demonstrated that significantly increased free DNA was observed with increasing freeze/thaw cycles or at a temperature approaching the onset temperature for genome DNA ejection, which was effectively mitigated by the addition of 1.5% w/v sucrose in the AAV formulation. Thus, this optimized SEC method can serve as an invaluable tool for AAV formulation, product, and process development in ensuring the quality and stability of AAV gene therapy products.

A customer-driven quality function deployment approach for intelligent product design: A case of automatic-dishwasher

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is one of the very effective customer-driven product development tools. With automatic dishwashers entering the Chinese market, manufacturers can use QFD to develop products that meet the unique Chinese customer requirements and explore the Chinese market. To help manufacturers maximize profits by developing automatic dishwashers to China’s market situation and competitive environment, this paper proposes an improved QFD model considering competitive learning and cost analysis based on market information analysis with Product Life Cycle (PLC) theory. On the one hand, the improved QFD model determines the life cycle stage of the product by analyzing the characteristics of the market. The improvement rate of customer requirements (CRs) determined by competitive learning in different stages has different influence on the importance weights of CRs, so that the new products developed based on design requirements (DRs) converted from CRs can better adapt to the current market environment. On the other hand, the cost strategy will also change according to different PLC stages. In cost analysis, different cost criteria weights will be determined in different life cycle stages to deal with product development risks in different market environments and help enterprises achieve better sustainable development. Finally, we take Chinese HE company’s automatic-dishwasher design as an example to show the specific application of the proposed model. The proposed model identifies the important DRs and their relative importance ranking for the product development. Comparison with existing QFD models shows the ranking obtained through the model is better integrated with market information, enabling the development of products that are better suited to the market, and helping companies to achieve sustainable development.

International Comparison of Qualification Process for Medical Product Development Tools

IntroductionQualification of medical product evaluation tools is underway in the United States, Europe, and Japan to reflect the advancements in the basic science of medical products. In Europe and the U.S., Guidance of Guidances (GoG) policies that clarify regulators’processes, tasks, and methods of sponsor involvement are adopted to issue tool guidance. However, in Japan, a non-GoG type policy focusing on supporting the research and development for tools without defining a tool guidance-making process has been adopted.MethodsIn this study, an analytical framework for the lifecycle of development tools was constructed, including pre- and post-tool qualification processes, to compare the two above-mentioned approaches. For this study, Japanese cases were selected as experimental cases, whereas Western cases served as controls. The progress of tool qualification and composition of deliverables were analyzed.Results and ConclusionsIt was indicated that in the GoG type policy, in which processes are defined, and involvement methods are clarified, tool qualification can progress more smoothly than in a non-GoG type policy. This policy indicates that deliverables may have a consistent composition. Contrastingly, GoG-type policies alone present challenges in connecting upstream tools for R&D support.

Review on Nanotechnology in Cosmetics and Dermatology

Nanotechnology is a cutting-edge technology that involves the manipulation of atoms and molecules on a microscopic scale. The cosmetic industry was the first to embrace this technology in their product development, and it has since become one of the most widely-used and capable technologies of the 21st century. It is a safe and effective method for creating innovative drug delivery systems. Nanomaterials, which contain active substances, carriers, and aids, are used in the development of haircare, oral care, and dermatological products that aim to enhance the user’s appearance. The cosmetic industry uses various types of nanomaterials, such as nanosomes, fullerenes, liposomes, ectosomes, and solid lipid nanoparticles. Due to the superior qualities of atoms at the nanoscale level, nanotechnology is increasingly being utilized in the fields of cosmetics and dermatology. Overall, nanotechnology is an excellent option for improving the quality of cosmetic products. Its effectiveness and safety have been proven, making it an indispensable tool in modern product development.

Material extrusion of SEEPS blended isotactic PP for possible application as automotive bumper: Performance analysis through Finite Element Simulation

3D processing of isotactic polypropylene or PP based composites through material extrusion is evolving globally as an advanced product development tool for highly specialized sectors like aerospace, biomedicals and automobiles. Conversely, pristine PP shows a severe drawback of exhibiting higher warping compared to other thermoplastics following higher crystalline shrinkage. These have prohibited the wider acceptance of virgin PP in 3D processing for product development. The current investigation is primarily aimed to overcome these disadvantages through mixing with amorphous Poly (styrene-co-(ethylene-co-(ethylene-co-propylene)-co-styrene)) or SEEPS in various mass percentages starting from 10 wt% to 30 wt% in melt before printing. The target was to make a tougher PP with retention of its original strength by reducing the shrinkage; In addition, it is also aimed to predict the usability of such material by virtual testing as a potential alternative to pristine PP for constructing an automotive bumper, designed using an AutoCAD. The printed product (dumbbell) demonstrated a higher toughness and resistance to shrinkage than pristine PP but the tensile strength and modulus decreased significantly beyond 10 wt% loading of SEEPS. Parallelly, at 10 wt% loading, the tensile strength and toughness of the printed products were found to be superior than the compression molded sample. In addition, the printed sample at this loading also possessed lower specific heat (4.79 J/g °C) than the pristine one (5.83 J/g °C) and was more thermally stable (lower degradation rate) than both the pristine and the corresponding higher blend compositions. Due to partial similarity in chemical structure between SEEPS and PP, the former had produced autonomic compatibilization with PP and formed a partially miscible blend. A car bumper was designed from this blend composition (10 wt%) using AutoCAD and its resistances to withstand against the collision stress at high (60 km/h) and low (45 km/h) car speeds were evaluated and compared virtually through Finite Element Simulation (FES) with virgin PP. Due to advantageous properties like retention of tensile strength, higher toughness and thermal stability and lower specific heat, the 10 wt% composition exhibited lesser tendency towards failure by predicting higher deformation than virgin PP. Thus it was found suitable as a bumper material which can be prototyped/finally prepared using materials extrusion technique.

The Impact of Digital Transformation on New Product Development with the Mediating Role of Organizational Intelligence

Objective: This article aims to investigate the impact of digital transformation on new product development (NPD) with the mediating role of organizational intelligence. Methods and Materials: The research employs a descriptive-correlational design, utilizing questionnaires and field studies to collect data from 100 experts in the rubber manufacturing industry, specifically from Barez and Artavil Tire companies. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to assess the validity of the questionnaire, with structural equation modeling (SEM) conducted using Smart PLS software to test the hypotheses. The reliability and validity of the constructs were evaluated through composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), and discriminant validity measures. Findings: The study found that digital transformation significantly affects NPD performance (path coefficient = 0.586, t-value = 9.849), and organizational intelligence strongly mediates this relationship (path coefficient = 0.817, t-value = 12.838). Additionally, digital transformation directly enhances organizational intelligence (path coefficient = 0.296, t-value = 2.865). The R² value for NPD was 0.717, and for organizational intelligence, it was 0.688, indicating strong explanatory power. Conclusion: Digital transformation significantly impacts NPD success, particularly when supported by high levels of organizational intelligence. Companies that invest in digital infrastructure and knowledge management systems are better equipped to handle the complexities of NPD, leading to more innovative and competitive products. Organizational intelligence serves as a key enabler in leveraging digital tools for successful product development.

Interact: A visual what-if analysis tool for virtual product design

Virtual prototyping is increasingly used by businesses to streamline operations, cut costs, and enhance daily operations. This often includes a variety of modeling techniques among which, complex, black-box models. The path from model development to utilization in applied contexts is yet long. Domain experts need to be convinced of the validity of the models and to trust their predictions. To be used in the field, model capabilities need to be affordable, that is, allow rapid and interactive scenario building, even for non-experts. Complex relations governed by statistical interactions must be unveiled for users to understand unexpected predictions. We propose Interact, a model-agnostic, visual what-if tool for regression problems, supporting (1) the visualization of statistical interactions between features, (2) the creation of interactive what-if scenarios using predictive models, (3) the evaluation of model quality and building trust, and (4) the externalization of knowledge through model explainability. While the approach applies in various industrial contexts, we validate the application purpose and design with a detailed case study and a qualitative user study with engineers in the tire industry. By unraveling statistical interactions between features, the INTERACT tool proves to be useful to increase the transparency of black-box machine learning models. We also reflect on lessons learned concerning the development of visual what-if tools for virtual product development and beyond.

Introducing VR personas: an immersive and easy-to-use tool for understanding users

Abstract Personas have been established as an indispensable tool in software and product development. They continuously accompany the development process and seek to build empathy and establish an emotional relationship between developers and users. However, this does not always succeed, with the reasons for failure often lying in the personas themselves. If they do not have a sufficient level of detail or do not reflect everyday people, they lose credibility and therefore their purpose of representing the user. Poor communication of personas is another reason they are quickly forgotten. In this paper, we present a new approach to experiencing personas beyond traditional means such as posters or slides. With the help of virtual reality, we create immersive, three-dimensional personas that can be visited in their own living room. The basis of the implementation is a comprehensive dataset, containing aggregated data from over 8000 detailed face-to-face interviews. We base the layout of the apartment, the furniture, and the characters themselves on the archetypal characteristics of their corresponding user group. In the future, we plan to validate whether this approach can be successful in creating a deeper and more sustainable connection between personas and developers and designers.

Revolutionizing product development: The growing importance of 3D printing technology

Product development through 3D printing has revolutionized the manufacturing industry. With the advancement in technology, 3D printing has become more accessible and affordable, providing an efficient and cost-effective way of prototyping and producing new products. This paper explores the process of product development through 3D printing, focusing on its benefits, limitations, and applications in various industries. The paper discussed the advantages of 3D printing, such as faster prototyping, customization, and reduced waste. The work also examines the limitations of 3D printing, including size and material constraints. Additionally, it is highlighted with various applications of 3D printing in industries such as healthcare, aerospace, and automotive. This paper underscores 3D printing's transformative role in manufacturing, emphasizing its cost-efficiency, customization, and diverse industry applications. It concludes that 3D printing is a valuable tool for agile product development.

Verif: A Weather-Prediction Verification Tool for Effective Product Development

Abstract Verif is an open-source tool for verifying weather predictions against a ground truth. It is suitable for a range of applications and designed for iterative product development involving fine-tuning of algorithms, comparing methods, and addressing scientific issues with the product. The tool generates verification plots based on user-supplied input files containing predictions and observations for multiple point-locations, forecast lead times, and forecast initialization times. It supports over 90 verification metrics and diagrams and can evaluate deterministic and probabilistic predictions. An extensive set of command-line flags control how the input data are aggregated, filtered, stratified, and visualized. The broad range of metrics and data manipulation options allows the user to gain insight from both summary scores and detailed time series of individual weather events. Verif is suitable for many applications, including assessing numerical weather prediction models, climate models, reanalyses, machine learning models, and even the fidelity of emerging observational sources. The tool has matured through long-term development at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and the University of British Columbia. Verif comes with an extensive wiki page and example input files covering a wide range of prediction applications, allowing students and researchers interested in verification to get hands-on experience with real-life datasets. This article describes the functionality of Verif version 1.3 and shows how the tool can be used for effective product development.

Mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor) and crickets (Acheta domesticus) show high total protein in vitro digestibility and can provide good-to-excellent protein quality as determined by in vitro DIAAS.

Edible insects, such as mealworms (Tenebrio molitor larvae; TM) and crickets (Acheta domesticus; AD), are a sustainable, protein-dense novel food with a favorable amino acid profile, which might be an alternative to animal proteins. To assess the protein quality of TM and AD, we assessed the digestible indispensable amino acid scores (DIAAS), considering individual amino acids and their ileal amino acid digestibility, using an in vitro model based on the INFOGEST digestion protocol. In addition, we evaluated if various processing and food preparation steps influenced the in vitro digestibility of individual amino acids and the in vitro DIAAS values of TM and AD and compared them to chicken breast as a reference of excellent protein quality. The total protein in vitro digestibility ranged from 91 to 99% for TM and from 79 to 93% for AD and was negatively affected by oven-drying and, to a lesser extent, by chitin-reduction. The in vitro DIAAS values were 113, 89, and 92 for chicken, blanched TM, and blanched AD, respectively, when considering the indispensable amino acid (IAA) requirements of young children between 6 months and 3 years. Across different processing and food preparation methods, the in vitro DIAAS values ranged between 59 and 89 for TM and between 40 and 92 for AD, with the lowest values found in chitin-reduced insects. Due to their similarities to chicken regarding protein composition, total protein in vitro digestibility, and in vitro DIAAS values, TM and AD might be an alternative to traditional animal proteins, provided that suitable processing and food preparation methods are applied. Our in vitro DIAAS results suggest that TM and AD can thus be considered good-quality protein sources for children older than 6 months. The DIAAS calculations are currently based on crude protein (total nitrogen × 6.25), resulting in an overestimation of insect protein content, and leading to an underestimation and potential misclassification of protein quality. The in vitro model applied in this study is a valuable tool for product development to optimize the protein quality of edible insects. Further studies are required to assess the in vivo DIAAS of insects in humans.

Advances in the Preparation Techniques of Floating Microspheres with Exploration of AI Tool in Product Development

This review paper focuses on recent developments in gastroretentive drug delivery systems for controlled release oral drug administration. Gastric emptying’s variability presents challenges to drug delivery systems, making gastroretentive drug delivery systems increasingly popular for retaining drugs in the stomach and ensuring gradual release. Traditional oral delivery systems often fail to overcome gastrointestinal obstacles, resulting in incomplete drug release, decreased efficacy. Thus, achieving prolonged gastric residence times is crucial, particularly for drugs with upper small intestine absorption windows. Gastro retentive drug delivery system provide for prolonged drug release in the upper digestive system, improving bioavailability for drugs with narrow therapeutic windows, extending dosing intervals, and enhancing patient compliance. The purpose of this review is to discuss recent advancements in the preparation techniques for floating drug delivery systems and highlights the incorporation of AI-Enabled design and optimization in drug release behavior. These technologies enhance precision and efficiency in gastroretentive drug delivery systems development, promising further improvements in drug delivery effectiveness and patient adherence.

Modelling Based Approaches to Support Generic Drug Regulatory Submissions-Practical Considerations and Case Studies.

Model informed drug development (MiDD) is useful to predict in vivo exposure of drugs during various stages of the drug development process. This approach employs a variety of quantitative tools to assess the risks during the drug development process. One important tool in the MiDD tool kit is the Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modelling (PBPK). This tool is extensively used to reduce the development cost and to accelerate the access of medicines to the patients. In this work, we provide an overview of PBPK modelling approaches in the generic drug development process, with a special emphasis on the bio-waiver applications. We describe herein approaches and common pitfalls while submitting model based justifications as a response to the regulatory deficiencies during the generic drug development process. With some in-house case studies, we have attempted to provide a clear path for PBPK model based justifications for bio-waivers. With this review, the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application of modelling and simulation tools for generic drug product development could be potentially reduced.

The relative influence of sustainable product design strategies for polymer products

There is a general, vernacular perception that polymers are not sustainable materials, and therefore could not be used in a product that is designed to be sustainable. Qualitative strategies, including the use of natural materials, have been long been defined to guide more environmentally friendly product development. Quantitative life cycle assessment tools indicate that there are cases in which polymers, which may not be considered natural, can be less ecologically impactful materials to use in a product. Whether qualitative or quantitative product development tools are used, if the choices made by new product creators are not consistent with the perceptions of a product’s customers, they may not influence the purchase of a more sustainable product over a less sustainable product. The objective of this study is to assess how people perceive the sustainabilities of polymer products. A set of ten, nearly identical, injection-molded drinking cups was given to research subjects for a Kansei engineering analysis regarding their perceptions of the products’ sustainabilities. Participants evaluated the cups on ten qualitative design strategies for sustainability, including durability, preciousness, recyclability and toxicity. Results show that perceptions of four of the ten attributes: durability, degradability, rawness and naturalness, most strongly influence the overall perception of the product’s sustainability. Four other attributes: expense, luxuriousness, preciousness and rareness influence the product’s overall perception of worth, which is conversely connected to a product’s perception of sustainability. The attributes of polymer products that people recognize as affecting sustainability can be used by product developers, as well as chemists and material engineers, to develop and specify more appropriate and accepted sustainable products and polymers.

Building Evidence for Principles to Guide the Development of Products for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Extreme Low Literacy-A Product Development Tool.

This article presented a new product development tool for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People with IDD who also have extreme low literacy (ELL) have unique communication needs; public health communicators often face challenges developing effective communication materials for this audience. To support CDC communication specialists with the development of communication products for adults with IDD/ELL, CDC, with its partners RTI International and CommunicateHealth, created a product development tool for this audience through literature review, expert input, and interviews with adults with IDD/ELL and caregivers of adults with IDD/ELL. To build evidence around the principles described in the tool, RTI conducted interviewer-administered surveys with 100 caregivers who support people with IDD/ELL. During the interviews, we presented caregivers with stimuli (portions of a communication product) that either did or did not apply a single principle and asked which would be easier for the person they support to understand. Across all 14 principles tested, the caregiver respondents indicated that the principle-based version would be easier for the person they support to understand compared with the non-principle-based version(s). These findings provide additional evidence to support the principles included in CDC's Tool for Developing Products for People with IDD/ELL.

Lean Product Development Tools for Promotion of Sustainability Integration in Product Development

This article aims to enhance existing understanding of incorporating sustainability aspects during the product development and seeks to fill the gaps regarding the relationship between LPD and sustainability aspects. An up-to-date literature review was performed. More specifically, the expansion of current knowledge covers finding instances in earlier studies that explain the meaning of a sustainability aspect, such as environmental, social and economic aspect. Also, this article focuses on exploring various sustainability aspects using lean product development (LPD) tools and practices. LPD tools and practices that would enable the achievement of sustainability objectives are presented. The findings suggest that the chance for the integration of sustainability in product development comes when integrating sustainability aspects in LPD methods and tools that are used in companies daily. An analysis of the impact of every single LPD tools on individual aspects of sustainability is lacking. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.

Sensory discrimination of single hop beers by using sorting combined with profiling and intensity rating

AbstractSensory methodologies are continuously being optimized based on industry needs. Sorting is a widely used sensory method; however, it provides limited information about the uniqueness of individual products. The present work was performed on nine single‐hop beers using a combination of sorting with profiling and intensity rating (SPIR) rating to highlight the intra‐group variability and individual characteristics. Results have shown that SPIR can effectively highlight the intra‐group differences. It has also shown that a higher frequency of citation did not always correspond to a higher attribute intensity. For the considered application, the results highlighted the role of hop varieties on the sensory profile of beers. Overall sensory similarities were found between Mosaic (MO), Citra (CI), and Celeia (CE) hops. However, the use of SPIR highlighted differences between CE and the other hops. Amarillo (AM) hops showed the most distinctive profile in all cases.Practical applicationsThe use of sorting in combination with profiling and intensity rating (SPIR) rating can be a valuable tool in new product development. It is not only important to understand the overall sensory similarities and differences between groups of samples, but also unique aspects compared to similar products. The present work has shown that adding intensity to sorting and profiling can highlight the inner characteristics of individual products in a group of samples with an overall similar sensory profile.

A Data-Driven Approach for Improving Sustainable Product Development

A product’s impact on environmental issues in its complete life cycle is significantly determined by decisions taken during product development. Thus, it is of vital importance to integrate a sustainability perspective in methods and tools for product development. The paper aims at the development of a method based on a data-driven approach, which is dedicated to identifying opportunities for improving product sustainability at the design stage. The proposed method consists of two main parts: predictive analytics and simulations. Predictive analytics use parametric models to identify relationships within product sustainability. In turn, simulations are performed using a constraint programming technique, which enables the identification of all possible solutions (if there are any) to a constraint satisfaction problem. These solutions support R&D specialists in finding improvement opportunities for eco-design related to reducing harmful impacts on the environment in the manufacturing, product use, and post-use stages. The results indicate that constraint-satisfaction modeling is a pertinent framework for searching for admissible changes at the design stage to improve sustainable product development within the full scope of socio-ecological sustainability. The applicability of the proposed approach is verified through an illustrative example which refers to reducing the number of defective products and quantity of energy consumption.