3D Sketching in VR Changing PDM Processes

This paper reports on a case study of collaborative product development and knowledge management platforms for Small to Medium Enterprises. It has been recognised that current Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) implementations are document oriented, have a non-customisable data model and inter enterprise integration difficulties. To overcome these, an ontological knowledge management methodology using semantic web standards was added to a PLM and an open-source alternative. The client-server shortcomings have been overcome using a de-centralised architecture. This is implementable at low cost, the scale and accessibility of the system increases in line with user numbers.

An accurate forecast of the final manufacturing costs in the early product development phase is a key element, especially in mechanical engineering. An accurate and reliable prediction allows, on the one hand, estimating the economic feasibility and, on the other hand, deriving necessary cost reductions. It is essential to evaluate and monitor compliance with the cost target initially and throughout the entire development process. Most cost estimation methods are primarily based on simple heuristic and statistical approaches that provide only limited accurate predictions in the early development phase. Sufficiently precise cost estimations, especially for customer-specific developments, are only possible in the late phase of the development process using finely parameterized models and cost rates at the component level. The supporting use of Machine Learning (ML) has not yet played a major role in cost estimation in mechanical engineering. Therefore, this article shows the general applicability of ML for predicting manufacturing costs in mechanical engineering and that even in the early phase of product development, precise predictions with little known information about the final product are possible. In addition, we present a generic feature set for ML-based cost prediction regarding machinery. Furthermore, the quality of different created ML models was evaluated based on real data of a mechanical engineering use case, and high accuracy in predicting manufacturing costs was demonstrated

Mass customisation, increasing complexity and variety of new products as well as ongoing global competition force companies to use innovative manufacturing technologies. However, the way from a new and premature manufacturing technology towards its application in series production at the level of operational excellence is challenging. Recent examples in the automotive industry, such as alternative powertrains and new body concepts for lightweight design, have shown the necessity to integrate production research into the very early phase of product development – going far beyond established approaches of simultaneous engineering. This paper presents an optimisation method which enables companies to find the best point in time to start investing in a new premature manufacturing technology during product development. Therefore, a dynamic and stochastic model is used based on a Markovian decision process. Finally, the method is applied in an example of a manufacturing technology for the automotive industry.

Lean manufacturing accomplishments have led researchers and practitioners to consider extending lean to different engineering enterprise parts, including product and process development. However, in the early phases of product development, it is important to both reduce costs and improve a product's sustainability performance. This paper develops a framework to guide designers and manufacturing managers to design products that better meet customer needs and requirements for sustainable products and services. To achieve this, a critical review of the existing literature in the field of lean design, and eco-design was conducted to fill the research gap and then develop the proposed methodological framework. The integration aimed to create synergies to extend the integration benefits and promote rational use of resources and time to create value for customers by eliminating waste and unnecessary actions in the product development process. The main objective is to ensure the development of products with minimal negative impacts on the natural environment. To our knowledge, this is the first time in the literature that an integrated framework is bringing together lean design and eco-design principles, practices, guidelines, drivers, barriers, and success factors. The framework can potentially serve product designers, manufacturing engineers, sales/marketing personnel, in fact, anyone who has a vested interest in designing environmentally friendly products.

The Role of Early Prototypes in Concept Development: Insights from the Automotive Industry

A bilevel-optimization approach to determine product specifications during the early phases of product development: Increase customer value and reduce design risks

Chapter 6 - Achieving environmental sustainability with ecodesign practices and tools for new product development

Environmental assessments in pesticide product development are generally restricted to plant uptake and emissions of active ingredients. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) enables a more comprehensive evaluation by additionally assessing the impacts of pesticide production and application (e.g. tractor operations). The use of LCA in the product development of pesticides, in addition to the methods commonly applied, is therefore advisable. In this paper a procedure for conducting LCA in early phases of product development is proposed. In a case study, two plant-growth regulators from different product generations were compared regarding their application in intensive production of winter wheat. The results showed thatthe reduced emissions from active ingredients of the newer pesticide were compensated by higher impacts from the production process. The authors draw the conclusion that it is important to consider environmental objectives in the procurement of precursors, in addition to the classical goals of increasing the efficacy and reducing the nontarget effects of pesticides. Moreover, the case study showed that decisions based on uncertain results in early stages of product development may need to be revised in later stages, e.g. based on investigations of pesticides' effects on crop yield.

Over the last few years there have been substantial changes made to the media used and the work flow of the development of new products, due to the increased pressure in the product development departments and also the technical development of data processing. To a considerable degree, the designers of the computer tools (software e.g. CAD, input and output devices) gave the directions, and then the users of these systems followed these modifications. Since future technological development of these computer tools will have further substantial effects on product development, this article will deduce and discuss requirements, especially with respect to the design of three-dimensional objects. One main emphasis is on looking at the virtual-reality system from the view point of the early phases of product development.

In today's concept development, it is important to develop customer requirements in advance via prototypes with little effort. Some of these requirements can be pre-tested through virtual product development, although creating them with computer aided design (CAD) software can be time-consuming. In the context of this work, tools commonly used in animation design are adapted to the early phase of virtual product development. This is primarily to limit the time effort of prototyping in product development. However, the models must be led to non-intersecting 3D manifolds to ensure a transfer into computer aided engineering (CAE) or possible manufacturing. Therfore in this work, so-called procedural designs based on computer graphic applications are described and examined for their suitability for CAE.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive tool that supports sustainability by assessing products’ environmental impacts. It is both analytical and systemic. However, its integration in the early phases of product development remains challenging for industrial designers. How do industrial designers make sense of it? How do you move from LCA into the early stages of design? Particularly, the clash between the analytical, deductive, delimiting, and multi-criteria parameters of LCA with the divergent abductive reasoning of the fuzzy front end of concept development. In the paper, we present an example of an LCA design course, which was structured to meet the challenge of how to redesign a product. The course serves as an experimental example of integration and conversion from deductive, quantitative, and analytical LCA to an abductive, qualitative, design thinking process of reconceptualization. In this context, we identify patterns in the disparity across the level of design work. Two approaches, in particular, made a difference: 1) when SWOT factors were categorised according to life cycle stages, circular economy stages and/or circular product design methods, then it qualified the transition to mind mapping, 2) when the mind-map unfolded complexity in 4 or more levels, it enabled deeper insights on factors itself, implementation, relationships and trade-offs to other life stages, specific strategies and circular value propositions. In the case of both, the mind map served as a dynamic tool, used throughout concept development, to bridge the problem/solution space, as well as facilitate framing, rather than pre-stage guiding concept development.

A methodical approach for improved control of safety-related product properties in early phases of the automotive product development process

Product life cycle cost approach for modular lightweight design

The role of logistics in concurrent engineering

A modeling approach to logistics in concurrent engineering