Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

Product development is becoming more and more complex. As a consequence of the increasing product complexity and the involvement of multi-disciplinary supply chains in product development, the modeling of requirements has become a highly significant part of the product development process. Requirements are often isolated and limited to certain development stages. A solution is the continuous integration of requirements into the product development process. This paper provides a concept for the consistent modeling of requirements in the product development process.

Designing a new product, in most cases, means a modification of an existing one. Both adopting known solutions in different products, that inserting new technological processes into a consolidated context, the most design effort must be dedicated to the early evaluation of the impact of needed engineering changes to achieve the final result, in terms of cost, quality and time. Such activity is particularly strategic in the modular product development. The aim of our research work is to develop a method and the related tools that enable designers to easily represent the product platform, to structure the relations between modules defined at different levels of detail and, hence, to simulate, analyze and evaluate the modifications impact during the new product variant definition phase. A multi-level product structure able to represent the product informative content at different levels of detail is presented.

This contribution demonstrates the importance of good industrial design engineering with regard to product development. The strong influence on the product gestalt in different industries (e.g. capital goods, consumer goods) and the added value of industrially designed products are shown in examples [6].

In the (mechanical) design process, the requirements specification is a formal registration of the conditions that are imposed on a new or altered product design, both preceding as well as during the corresponding product development cycle. For a long time, the use of technical specifications has prevailed in the establishment of such requirements specifications. However, gradually, there is an appreciation for the fact that sheer technical specifications may inadvertently fix constraints and possibilities too early in the process. Moreover, it is recognized that technical specifications are unsuitable to adequately address the role of unquantifiable aspects that play important roles in the development cycle. Using functional specifications and scenarios respectively may aid in addressing these problems. Considering the importance of having an effective requirements specification, the coherence, synergy and specifics of technical specifications, functional specifications and scenarios as part of the requirements specification are addressed. This publication focuses on the different roles, limitations and added values of the constituents of the requirements specification.

In the past it was often adequate to assemble an overall system from separately developed and optimized parts. However, recent developments in engineering show the need to integrate mechanical, optical, electrical, electronical and software components. This new quality of interdisciplinary collaboration requires new computeraided, phase- and domain-spanning tools for modeling, analysis, simulation and optimization of complex design objects particularly in the early phases of product development. The article covers the first intermediate results of the ongoing research concerning a phase-overlapping design system for heterogeneous systems that supports the transition from the solution principle to embodiment design.

Facing the increasing cost pressure, the decreasing product development time and demanded flexibility in today’s markets various strategies are conceivable. Within the area of high dynamic parallel robots the use of flexible modular systems for configuration and reconfiguration is one solution approach. In combination with an improved handling of requirements (i.e. a suitable structuring of requirements for the different phases of design process and hierarchy of product elements) and the modeling of inter-model relations (e.g. between requirement, structure and cost models) customer-oriented products can be build up fast.

The educational systems in the small Scandinavian countries are open to experiments and new education programmes. This paper presents such an initiative from Denmark, showing new interpretations of industrial needs, research insights, educational ideas and identification of core innovative competencies. We reflect on our efforts to produce a new type of design professionalism, pointing to new roles and identities for the professionalism of synthesis and innovation. Finally, we round up by articulating what we see as the future pattern of product development, which should be supported already today in our education programmes.

Collaborative product design is an approach for supporting designers connected by network, to participate in distributed and dynamic product development environment. Communication, negotiation, coordination and cooperation became essential for effective preparation and to follow-up design changes and conflicts. A collaborative environment requires a mechanism allowing the project actors to recognize and to resolve the interdependence-conflict among their respective terms. We suggest the use of constraint based system to facilitate and support the conflict resolution through synchronization process. This paper presents: (1) a framework to improve asynchronous as well as synchronous collaboration (2) a constraint based model for detecting design conflicts (3) a new notification mechanism for presenting conflict to all corresponding actors. These results should contribute to the improvement of collaborative design.

The pioneer product concept is a product creation concept which focuses on consequent reuse of existing and approved product components and partner networks. At the same time the concept is clearly focused on the differentiating and customer relevant product features. The main objectives of the pioneer product concept are reduced project lead time, cost and risk as well as improved project reliability. Those objectives are facilitated by several distinctive capabilities relevant for the pioneer product concept: cross functional teams, customer orientation, cost orientation, partner collaboration and process orientation.

The paper discusses the introduction of an innovative human-oriented Collaborative Manufacturing Environment (CME) into the next generation of digital manufacturing. Following an overview of the current state-of-the-art, the conceptual background of the overall CME has been given. The CME will provide support for data analysis, visualisation, advanced inter-action and presence, ergonomic analysis, and collaborative decision-making. The paper also focuses on the module supporting of the collaborative product and process design. The innovative aspect, being the seam-less integration of virtual reality and decision making principles is also analyzed. The module will help “define” the proper solutions to the design or re-conceptualization problems, based on collaborative interactions and testing, which can occur in virtual environments.