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Management of Cross-Domain Model Consistency during the Development of Advanced Mechatronic Systems

Gausemeier, Jürgen; Schäfer, Wilhelm; Greenyer, Joel; Kahl, Sascha; Pook, Sebastian; Rieke, Jan • 2009

proceeding: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED'09), Vol. 6
section: Design Methods and Tools
editor: Norell Bergendahl, M.; Grimheden, M.; Leifer, L.; Skogstad, P.; Lindemann, U.
pages: 1-12

abstract: The development of mechatronic systems demands the close collaboration of engineers from different domains. In the course of the development, this leads to the creation of a number of separate, but interdependent models which capture the domain-specific system aspects. Without harmonizing the domain-specific development processes, inconsistencies between the domain-specific models are likely to occur. If these inconsistencies remain undetected, the system integration will fail, which is leading to increased development time and costs. As a first step to prevent these problems, we propose a cross-domain system specification in the early conceptual design phase. Furthermore, as the novel contribution of this paper, we show how model transformation techniques can be employed to, firstly, derive initial domain-specific models for the subsequent domain-specific development and, secondly, to propagate domain-spanning relevant changes that may occur between those models. We show how the domain-spanning relevance of changes may be detected automatically and we discuss where expert decisions are indispensable. We implemented the approach in our development environment.

keywords: consistency management, domain-spanning system specification, domain-specific models, model transformation, automated change propagation

Innovation Networks – Approaches to Derive Nodes and Edges Systematically

Kain, Andreas Stefan; Kirschner, Rafael Johannes; Lindemann, Udo; Gunkel, Jennifer; Klendauer, Ruth; Wastian, Monika; Schneider, Michael • 2009

abstract: Companies do usually not develop highly complex products incorporating extensive product structures on their own. Interoperation beyond the company's borders widens the scope of innovation to innovation networks consisting of various companies and experts aiming at innovative products. Especially customers meet these products in various applications to fulfill their needs. Integration of proper participants in new product development (NPD) furthers the generation of really innovative conceptual designs, products, and services by incorporating specific knowledge and/or experience. The authors propose several approaches to reveal innovation networks by deriving participants and relations systematically. This framework will be applied to analysis an explorative study comprising 40 innovation projects. NPD process, product, and extended product application set the starting points to condense innovation networks systematically. Case studies illustrate the suggested approaches and demonstrate how awareness about innovation networks facilitates innovation.

keywords: stakeholder integration, innovation network, new product development

Matching the Voice of the Engineer to the Voice of the Customer: An Evolution of QFD

Short, Timothy David; Garside, John; Appleton, Ernie; Morris, Adrian; McEachran, Harriet; Beeley, Edward • 2009

abstract: Previous research has noted the need for engineers to understand the wants/needs of the customer if engineering enterprises are to remain commercially viable. It has also been shown that this commercial sustainability is a vital part of "Designing for Sustainable Development", rendering an understanding of the customer even more important. Traditionally, QFD has played the role of translating this Voice of the Customer into something that engineers can understand at a point in the design process when the target is still somewhat vague - the "Fuzzy Front End" of design. Unfortunately, QFD has not become as widely accepted as might be thought. This paper looks at some of the problems inherent in QFD and proposes a new methodology to fit into the Fuzzy Front End - "Voice of the Engineer/Voice of the Customer" (VoE/VoC). It goes beyond the pure analysis of QFD and the complexity that therefore ensues, to a method far simpler that has significant benefits. The method is described using the example of a mousetrap and then presents two commercial case studies, carried out by Durham University. Finally, the paper concludes that the new methodology has the potential to render QFD a relic of the past.

keywords: QFD, Voice of the Customer, Voice of the Engineer, New Product Development, Sustainable Development

A Direction of Ideas in Conceptual Design Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Miyashita, Tomoyuki; Satoh, Daisuke • 2009

abstract: In conceptual design phase, if designers are much more conscious of design objectives, they won't come up with various ideas about new product. On the other hand, using brainstorming allow to get various ideas, but to get a lot of unavailable ideas together. In this study, we propose the method that supports generating various and effective ideas in conceptual design. In the last our study, we have proposed conceptual design support method using Data Envelopment Analysis. The last method?s approach is using several evaluation values to fill the gap of palate frontier. But it was too difficult for subjects to use this approach in the experiment. Proposed method in this paper supplies key words. These key words are made of calculated component values using made nonlinear mathematical model of relation between component and evaluation of idea with Neural Network. We confirm that the method is useful in terms of simplicity of generating various and effective ideas.

keywords: Conceptual Design Support, Data Envelopment Analysis, Visualization of Ideas

Human Factor Early Involvement in Product Design Processes

Scaravetti, Dominique; Montagnier, Elisa • 2009

abstract: During the design of man-machine interfaces, Human Factor issues are a key element of the design process performance. However, Human Factor analysis is mostly performed a posteriori, when a prototype of the product can be manufactured. The Engineering and Human Factors communities still have communication difficulties and thus Human Factor approaches are not well integrated into Systems Engineering processes. The emerging concept of Human Views seems to be promising as it allows for a human-centered design process. Human Views were developed for large systems. However, in this paper the opportunity to use these Views in the traditional product design process is studied. We investigate the different artifacts generated during the product design process, and also the managed data. They are compared to the Human Views and their contents in order to see if a correlation is possible, particularly during the preliminary design phase.

keywords: Human Factors, Human Views, product design process, design artifact, man-machine interface

Development of an Evolutionary Based Design Method

Kittel, Konstantin • 2009

abstract: The Auto Genetic Design Theory (ADT) uses analogies between evolution and activities in the design processes to ensure, that the best possible solution can be found, within the given boundaries. These requirements and conditions can also contradict each other and change over time. The ADT interprets the product development as a continuous improvement process. The presence of self-similar activities and the existence of chaotic behavior are characteristics of the ADT. Based on previous work on the basics of ADT, the actual knowledge should be expanded and deepened; so that they have most activities during product development can be described from an evolutionary perspective. This should be processed by working on the following objectives: a product description from an evolutionary perspective, description of the solution space, development of a process model which describes the processes during an evolutionary product development.

keywords: Product development, biologic evolution, design method

Product Development in Manufacturing SMES: Current State, Challenges and Relevant Supportive Techniques

Singh, Baljinder; Matthews, Jason; Mullineux, Glen; Medland, Tony • 2009

abstract: Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) provide the backbone to the world's economy nowadays. These companies represent more than 90% of all the enterprises around the globe and are a major source for providing employment and entrepreneurship. They contribute as much value to the gross world product (GWP) as larger enterprises. However, when it comes to productivity growth, SMEs are falling behind. This paper aims at identifying and evaluating different approaches that have been proposed for supporting various product development activities within manufacturing SMEs. The work of several researchers in this area has been reviewed and various supportive techniques to improve product development practices of manufacturing SMEs have been discussed. The paper concludes by identifying the specific challenges in applying these approaches to address different aspects of SMEs needs and highlights the importance of ascertaining beforehand, the type of activities and businesses that a particular SME is engaged in.

keywords: SMEs, product development, supportive techniques/methods

Integral Design Method for Conceptual Building Design

Savanovic, Perica; Zeiler, Wim • 2009

abstract: Building design processes show a sequential involvement of disciplines. Architects traditionally make designs while engineers make those designs buildable. However, most important decisions in building design are taken during early design phases, making traditional approaches inadequate. In order to enhance team design in conceptual design phase, an integral design method is proposed. This ID-method is meant to support creation of building design concepts by integrating discipline-specific object-design-knowledge, based on the "knowledge space" and "concept space" notions as explained by the C-K theory. The ID-method itself was designed through a series of "learning-by-doing" workshops for experienced professionals, by iteratively adjusting both the method and workshop on basis of analysis and evaluations of the previous versions. The continuous development of workshops and the final design of the ID-method are presented in this paper. One of the main results achieved is the usability of the ID-method, indicated by workshop participants' positive comments and the inclusion of the method in the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects' Academy for permanent profession development.

keywords: Integral design, Design teams, C-K theory, Design knowledge, Building concepts

Morphological Analysis of Design Concepts Emergence in Design Meetings

Savanovic, Perica; Zeiler, Wim • 2009

abstract: There is no consensus within the design research community on how to analyse design meetings. We explored a notable controversy concerning science and design. More specifically, we were interested in exploring whether previously neglected "scientific" design methods can be adopted for use as analytic tools for design meetings. A specific method chosen for this purpose were morphological charts. Based on the definition of design by the C-K theory, which states that if there are no concepts there is no design, we have used morphological charts to reconstruct the emergence of design concepts in an architectural and an engineering meeting. This was done by analyzing video recordings of the both types of meetings. Our results indicate that morphological charts are useful for the analysis of design meetings. Besides being capable of presenting the development of design concepts, morphological charts proved to be effective in reducing the time needed to analyze a rich set of data. We believe this complexity reduction offers the possibility of doing research on more (complex) design meetings more effectively, which is beneficial for generalization of findings.

keywords: morphological charts, design meetings, design concepts, design research method

Efficiency Assessment of an Evolutive Design System of Car Contours

Cluzel, François; Yannou, Bernard • 2009

abstract: So as to create innovative car silhouettes, we propose in this paper a model based on an Interactive Genetic Algorithm using an encoding of a design solution by a Fourier analysis approach. This model permits the designer to browse through generations of car profiles from an initial population of existing silhouettes. By qualitatively assessing each individual, the user converge towards solutions complying with his/her requirements and so potentially create novelty. We describe here tests for assessing the efficiency of this innovative design platform. These tests are based on a similarity matrix, a similarity measure being the perceived distance between two cars silhouettes. The results show a really satisfactory behavior of the model and open perspectives thanks to its flexible and extensible aspects.

keywords: Interactive Genetic Algorithm, Evolutionary Design, user tests, similarity index, subjective evaluation

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