Decision data model in virtual product development

Product development has become a focus of competition in many industries. Due to decreasing product life cycle, it is important to reduce the time and cost of product development. The product development process includes six main phases: product planning, concept development, system-level design, detailed design, testing and refinement, and production ramp-up [34]. Concept development process consists of four stages: identifying customer needs, establishing product specifications, and generating and selecting product concepts. Recent efforts have been made to improve the product development decisions [20], especially at the early stages of product development, since it has been recognized that nearly 75% of product life-cycle cost is committed by the end of concept development [26]. However, it is difficult to make product design decisions at the early development stages, because decision makers have to consider all life cycle issues [21, 22] with vague project information available.

The relationship between system theory and the product design, the process of product development has been described. It compared the merits and demerits of serial and parallel product development processes and, with the guidelines of system theory, put forward and analyzed the planning actions and corresponding necessity existed in the indistinct initial phase in product development process. It also analyzed the optimizing effect of planning actions in product design & development process. Thus, it obtained the model of product design & development process based on system theory so as to clarify the indistinct initial phase, shorten product development time and, improve the effectiveness of enterprise's product development.

The objective of this investigation was: (i) to develop a model that supports sustainable product development, considering the quality aspect and the environmental impact in the product life cycle, and (ii) to establish a framework to select the proportion of the share of these aspects during product development decisions. This research concentrates on achieving products that meet customer demand and have environmentally friendly life cycles. It also supports the implementation of design activities at an early stage of product development, positioning the share of quality in relation to environmental impact. The model is based on creating hypothetical prototypes of current products, and this approach concentrated on aggregating the quality (customer satisfaction) with life cycle environmental impacts (as in ISO 14040). The model was developed in five main stages, including: (i) defining product prototypes according to the modifications of quality criteria most desired by customers, (ii) assessing the quality of prototypes according to the Q quality index, (iii) prospective assessment of the environmental impacts of the life cycles of prototypes according to the LCA environmental index, (iv) methodical integration of the above-mentioned indicators into one quality and environmental indicator QLCA, and (v) analysis of possible production solutions and setting the direction of product development, taking into account both quality and environmental aspects. This research was extended with a sensitivity analysis of the QLCA indicator, after which a framework for selecting the proportion of the Q and LCA indicator’s share in product development decisions was established. The originality of this research is the ability of the developed model to facilitate eco-innovative product design and improvements while also selecting the share of qualitative and environmental aspects needed to develop sustainable products. The results provide a dynamic and effective tool for manufacturing companies; mainly designers and managers during qualitative and environmental prototyping of products commonly used by customers. The model will provide support in predicting a product that will be manufactured that will be satisfactory for customers and environmentally friendly based on LCA.

This contribution highlights the significance of support methods for the early stages of sustainable product development and culminates in the introduction of a comprehensive framework in this domain. The framework aims at assisting designers and product engineers in generating and evaluating ideas for the development of product systems with high sustainability potential. The multi-iterative framework, whose effectiveness has already been demonstrated in diverse workshops, leverages a fusion of creativity and evaluation techniques, identified through an extensive comparison of techniques.

Success in the market place is very much dependent on the ability to translate satisfaction into product properties and to do it as early as possible in the product development process. This paper addresses this translation process and problems of linking customer satisfaction to the early stages of product development. In the paper Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and a framework for linking internal quality and customer satisfaction are used as a theoretical basis for a case study from Volvo Car Corporation. The case study illustrates how QFD is used as a tool in the translation process and how Volvo by linking satisfaction to design in the improvement of the transmission system of the Volvo 850 achieved outstanding results.

Computer-Aided Design tools (CAX: CAD/CAE/CAM) have dramatically changed the structure and activities of the product development process used by companies to develop and deliver product. Recent developments in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategies and tools are also causing changes in the product development process. As important as the selection of the right product to develop, is the choice of the right process to develop it with. The proper process ensures that CAX tools and PLM strategies and tools are implemented and executed to the utmost advantage through product development deployment. Virtual product development is a process design and simulation strategy that provides techniques for preplanning the product development process and its deployment. Recent changes in the international market and business environments are also impacting product development processes. This paper presents research in methods to design and model the impact of global issues on potential product developmen...

The severe environmental degradation caused by human activities in recent decades has forced organizations, especially those related to the auto parts industry, to take actions and measures in order to reduce or eliminate the negative effects caused by industrial activities. Those measures aim to cover various aspects within companies, and require an appropriate measurement system for the verification of their effectiveness. In this sense, sustainability indicators have grown in importance because they allow assessing the level of sustainability from various entities, identifying the potential for improvement and the progress achieved. Despite the great variety of existing indicators, there are still unexplored areas, such as indicators for product development. The present paper proposed a set of sustainability indicators, aiming to contribute to the creation of more sustainable products and guiding the development process from the earliest stages of product development. This set of indicators, which were divided into product and design indicators, were defined based on the best practices and recommendations from various techniques such as design for environment and sustainability, and the study of existing sustainability indicators. While product indicators present a technical character, as they provide means for evaluating the product characteristics in a quantitative way, design indicators present a managerial approach, in order to assess whether the main aspects and techniques of design for sustainability are being considered throughout the development process, in a qualitative way. The result was a set of 23 product indicators and 26 design indicators, including metrics that were simplified and adapted according to the characteristics and requirements of each phase of a product development process. The proposed indicators were applied on the development of a new component for the auto parts industry and demonstrated to be very useful in guiding the development team to design sustainable products.

This chapter presents the overview of concurrent design process of green composite products with special focus on conceptual design stage of natural fiber composites product development. Design of green composites product especially during the early product development stage requires three main aspects in product design which are materials, design and manufacturing process to satisfy lower cost, high quality and fast development time requirements in order to ensure successful product launch into the market. In this chapter, the concurrent design process of green composite products are discussed involving several main stages in product development such as green composite materials selection for both natural fiber and matrix constituents, conceptual design development and concept design selection of green composite products, and green composites manufacturing process selection. In addition, discussion on life cycle assessment of green composites is also included in order to provide further insight of the sustainability design requirements to the overall product development process.

In the competitive landscape of startups, achieving product-market fit is essential for survival and growth. This article introduces an expanded framework called “Product-Content-Market Fit” (PCMF), which integrates content strategy into the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development process. Through case studies and existing literature, this study illustrates how strategic content creation aligns with customer needs and market demands, enhancing the effectiveness of MVPs. The research emphasizes the importance of a content strategy in the early stages of product development and its impact on market engagement and product validation.

This paper gives an overview of research that is expanding the domain of design for manufacturing (DFM) into new and important areas. DFM and assembly is widely used in industry, especially in product design and development process. to meet customer needs, companies are struggling with competitive markets to produce low cost products with high quality and faster to market. It becomes an important concept as the best time to find cost reductions, at design stage, rather than during manufacturing. The paper concludes with some general guidelines that suggest how manufacturing firms can develop useful, effective DFM. Overall goal with the paper is to aid designers, manufacturers, process planners in the practical industries on the ground and researchers in the mentioned area of study.

The early stages of product development are arguably the most important in the design of successful products. This paper describes different approaches to the conceptual design phase of product development, how they are taught to undergraduate engineering students, and how they are practiced in industry both in Germany and in the United States. The authors note that teaching the early stages of product development to future engineers at German Universities is more focused on methodology and processes. In the United States teaching design is more about being creative and overcoming individual constraints in order to find good and unconventional concepts. To understand how the conceptual phase is implemented in industry, the authors interviewed 16 companies in Germany and the United States. A thematic analysis was performed on the responses. In German industry, the authors observe uncertainty about how to apply process management in the very early stage of product development where different concepts are developed and evaluated. In U.S. industry most companies do not claim to follow a process during the early stage of concept development. Observing the differences between what is taught to engineering students in school and what is practiced in industry some conclusions recommendations are drawn. The observations demonstrate a weakness in process reliability during the early stage of product development both, in German and U.S. industry that should motivate academia to adapt its pedagogy in order to enable future engineers to create successful concepts.

Characteristics of food products are commonly assessed in series of sensory studies to gain insight which can be used, for instance, for product development. Sensory studies are very time‐consuming and susceptible to large sources of variation. Assessing information about (new) products by means of instrumental measurements would be very beneficial for numerous reasons, including repeatability, reproducibility and, most of all, the fact that instruments do not suffer from fatigue or adaptation. Measurements simulating sensory assessment of product properties can be performed at different stages of consumption and on different types of sensory attributes. In this study the relation between rheological parameters and creamy mouthfeel was investigated. The goal was to discover whether a model using a limited mechanical characterization, namely parameters describing bulk rheological behaviour, would suffice to describe the sensory attribute ‘creamy mouthfeel’, also called creaminess. The two main reasons for performing this study were (i) to investigate the possibility of using rheological measurements for high‐throughput screening of newly developed custard products without the need for involving sensory panels already at an early stage of product development and (ii) to gain knowledge about the correlation between rheological measurements and the multidimensional attribute creamy mouthfeel. The resulting model shows that prediction of creamy mouthfeel by means of rheological measurements is possible only to a certain extent ($Q_{\rm CV}^2=0.48$). Reasons that can be mentioned for deviations between measured creaminess and modelled creaminess are (i) variation in measured creamy mouthfeel scores (variation in y‐variable) and (ii) lack of description of surface properties of the food product by the rheological measurements used here. The results show that instrumental measurements are complementary to sensory analysis and can greatly facilitate the task for the practitioner at an early stage of product development, making high‐throughput screening of novel products feasible. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The identification and implementation of customer requirements in the early stages of product development are significant issues for successful product development. Two important factors in this context are: (i) the use of methods to identify customer requirements, and (ii) the use of product representations to support the communication with customers in early product evaluations. The aim of this study has been to investigate the use and perceptions of methods and product representations in Swedish companies, and its possible impact on problems associated with late-discovered customer requirements. The survey shows that most companies have good knowledge of different methods and that several different methods for identifying and analysing customer requirements are used. In addition, traditional product representations, such as construction design drawings and hand-made sketches, are commonly used. The number of companies that use rapid prototyping is surprisingly high. Furthermore, the study reveals that late discovered product requirements are fairly common. There are indications that the use of certain methods and product representations may reduce this problem. However, the study also shows that product development processes tend to be focused on time-related efficiency rather than customer-related activities for improved product quality.

In many industries, the survival of firms is increasingly determined by their success in new product development. At the same time, new product development is a risk and complex process. The main method of new product development that has been used by organizations for many years is team creation. At present, new product development teams are lack of effective ways to support creation. From the mid-1990s on, the infusion of information and communication technologies in product development has raised the importance of information technology in new product development. IT-enabled product development now has the potential to redefine the processes and outcomes of new product development. In this paper, we analyze the supports needed by new product development. Based on the requirement analysis, we design and realize the team creation support system for new product development. Moreover, the process of team creation support system application in new product development is analyzed.

For a rapid configuration of a given product development process, taking into account today unavoidable market’s requirements as is the integrated product, process and manufacturing system development considering their entire lifecycles, in this paper, an enterprise holistic framework, consisting in a three dimensional model, is described to support the model driven architecture (MDA) concept for global product development projects (GPDP). The holistic framework has been established based on the integration of three fundamental areas of research: concurrent engineering (CE), product lifecycle, and enterprise integration engineering (EIE). The integration of these three fields of knowledge, using a 3D holistic framework, generates a solid support for a model driven architecture. As a result, through a 3D matrix, more important elements of the product development process can be combined and modeled following their natural interactions through the project realization. Questions about a global product development project like: What needs to be developed? Who will develop it? Where will be developed? How will be developed? When is being developed? can be generated during the planning and execution of the project but, as part of this research effort, these questions are answered in an organized manner using the proposed enterprise holistic framework. The conceptual model (enterprise holistic framework) for the global product development project was established as a base to capture, store and configure a project including the integration of product, manufacturing process and manufacturing system development considering their entire lifecycles in the enterprise context.