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Byline: R.J. Holt, C.J. Barnes Design for Manufacture (DFM) techniques suffer from two limitations: each addresses only one perspective, with no link to the design's overall needs; guidance suitable for the early stages of design is qualitative and unstructured. This paper argues that a formal approach based on decision analysis can be applied from the earliest stages of design, as a way of providing structure even with qualitative and uncertain information. The relationships between DFM and design decision-making are discussed, and a process for comparing incomplete designs against qualitative DFM guidelines is presented. The process is demonstrated with an illustrative example, and the paper closes by discussing further areas for developing this approach.

Byline: Philip Farrugia, Franklin Balzan, Jonathan C. Borg Despite that paper-based freehand sketching is still widely used during the conceptual design phase, few are the tools available that allow designers to exploit sketches resulting from this activity at a later design phase. This paper reports the ongoing research on a prototype tool nicknamed mX-Sketch, which addresses this lack of support by linking freehand paper-based sketches with Computer-Aided Design (CAD) technology. Given that paper-based sketching is also used by designers outside their office to express their ideas, the rapid transfer and automatic generation of 3D virtual models from such sketches provide real-time design collaboration. Since a paper-based freehand sketch is inherently vague, the 3D form idea is clarified by means of symbols representing 2D geometric constraints (e.g. perpendicularity). As a result, mX-Sketch produces a parametric 3D virtual model, which can be potentially used downstream in the design process and exchanged in real time in collaborative design scenarios.

Byline: Sergio Terzi, Abdelaziz Bouras, Debashi Dutta, Marco Garetti, Dimitris Kiritsis This paper is a result of comprehensive consultation among the authors, with the scientists and leading actors in the area of PLM, which is a reference term for a list of phenomena currently ongoing in the industrial community. This paper discusses the pervasive concept of product lifecycle management (PLM), starting from its history to its constituent elements and its role in the current industry. The authors propose and elaborate their vision for the future steps of the PLM in terms of emerging issues and topics that industrial practitioners and researchers need to address.

Byline: Peter R. Magnusson, Per Kristensson, Christiane Hipp Managers aiming to utilise the potential of involving ordinary users in ideation for innovation receive very little guidance from the existing literature with regard to how to do so in a satisfactory way. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by contributing to a better understanding of how users contribute to the ideation process of technology-based services, as well as how users may satisfactorily be managed within it. This is accomplished by identifying and investigating different ideation patterns and their effects on the created ideas' characteristics in the context of mobile telephony services. The current paper is based on a quasi-experimental study lasting 12 days and involving 56 ordinary users and 12 professionals as idea creators. Three different groups of users and one reference group of professionals were used. The paper inductively identifies four different ideation patterns leading to different types of ideas with regard to their innovativeness (incremental/radical). These are further related to the existing literature. The paper concludes with the managerial implications concerning how to manage user involvement for ideation to obtain either more incremental or more radical ideas.

Byline: Martin Stacey, Claudia Eckert The nature of novel idea creation in design depends on the nature of the design challenge: how requirements and constraints not only determine what is acceptable but also shape thinking. This paper explores how overconstrained and underconstrained problems are tackled in fundamentally different ways, using engineering design, knitwear design and software development as exemplars. Problem framing as well as the iterative reformulation of the design problem is crucial in all fields but is done very differently. However, designers face a variety of problem types, including problems resembling those typical in other industries; this paper argues that a wider awareness of the creative thinking methods used in other industries would aid designers in many fields to tackle unfamiliar problems.

Byline: Terence L. Van Zyl, Elizabeth M. Ehlers, Emil Marais The paper reports on the original concept of introducing Resource-Negotiating (RN) agents into telemanufacturing. Human users submit a design file that they want manufactured. The machine that will be selected to manufacture the design file has to fall within the user's constraints. An agent visits several processing facilities called Distributed Manufacturing Resources (DMRs) and negotiates with an agent at each location for the most suitable machine. The agents use a plan to find resources and use negotiation skills to acquire the most suitable manufacturing resource. The entire process is done in a secure environment as the design files could contain valuable information such as early prototypes of products. Experience gained from the negotiations should be stored to allow future agents to benefit from previous negotiations. The components that are needed to implement the above and the results of the implementation are discussed in this paper.

Byline: Giorgio Colombo, Franco De Angelis, Luca Formentini This work presents the results of a research project that evaluated the possibility to carry out ergonomic analyses on virtual prototypes that permitted tactile interaction. We propose an approach based on Virtual Reality (VR) and haptics: the former to improve visual rendering of a digital model, the latter to permit tactile interaction. The products considered were control boards. Atomic components such as knobs, sliders and buttons are employed. The paper presents the architecture of an ergonomic workstation and its first implementation based on commercial systems and ad hoc haptic devices specifically developed for the purpose. Major problems related to a VR environment, such as visualisation and human body tracking, are discussed; the architecture of haptic devices and technical solutions to achieve a satisfactory haptic rendering are presented. Finally, the paper proposes a test procedure and presents the results of tests on the behaviour of ergonomic workstation components. Work in progress and future developments conclude the paper.

At present, a wide range of stakeholders including consumers, regulators, shareholders and public bodies are demanding that companies address sustainability in a more comprehensive way. However, even if a company actually wishes to innovate its processes for improving the way to account for sustainability, it will face relevant difficulties to deal with different guidelines, tools and methods currently addressing the matter from various points of view. The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesise literature on sustainability from an operational point of view with the objective to help companies to answer to three main questions: What is sustainability? (How it has been defined), How can sustainability of processes and products be achieved and measured? (What are the different existing means and indicators) and How can they be improved? In such a context, this paper investigates and debates the role of technological development, as an enabling factor of sustainability within the companies.

Byline: Takayoshi Yamada, Nobuharu Mimura, Yasuyuki Funahashi This paper analyses the grasp stability of two objects with any friction property in two dimensions. In the grasp of two objects, there exist multiple contact points which include one contact point between two objects and plural contact points between objects and fingers. In the previous work, all these contact points are assumed to be either only with friction or only without friction. This paper discusses a more practical grasp, in which there exist both friction contact and frictionless contact. In this case, both rolling motions and sliding motions occur simultaneously due to both friction and frictionless contact in the grasp system. The grasp stability is evaluated by the potential energy stored in the grasp system. Using numerical examples, the effect of friction is demonstrated. This evaluation method is applicable to fixture position planning.

Byline: Abdelghani Bekrar, Imed Kacem, Chengbin Chu, Cherif Sadfi In this paper, we consider a two-dimensional (2D) packing problem. It consists of packing a given set of rectangular items either into a strip with a fixed width and infinite height or into identical bins. This problem has industrial applications such as cutting glass and Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) design. The guillotine constraint is imposed in this paper. For this problem, we propose some strategies to improve the Shelf Heuristic Filling (SHF) introduced by Ben Messaoud et al. (2003). In a second part, we present a branch-and-bound algorithm for the 2D Strip Packing (2SP) problem that uses a new lower bound and the improved heuristic. All our algorithms are tested on generated and literature-based instances and give good results compared to the existing algorithms.

Byline: A.R. Dixit, P.K. Mishra The design of a Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) often involves three major decisions: cell formation, facility layout within the cells and cell layout within the system. Ideally, these decisions should be addressed in order to obtain the complete result. A large number of papers on cell formation and layout design have been published so far, but very few of them have considered these objectives simultaneously. Consideration of important production parameters like operation sequence, production volume and batch size make the cell formation problem complex but more realistic. In this paper, a solution methodology has been developed that identifies part families/machine grouping and also provides amicable intercell/intracell facility layout design. The computational procedure of the algorithm has been illustrated by an example. Numerical results indicate that the proposed methodology is flexible and efficient. Further, it also points to the untapped potential of such an approach to solve CMS design and layout problems using sequence data.

In this paper, we deal with a joint production and Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling problem in the robustness framework. The contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we will establish that the insertion of maintenance activities during production scheduling can hedge against some changes in the shop environment. Furthermore, we will check if respecting the optimal intervals of maintenance activities guarantees a minimal robustness threshold. Then, we will try to identify from the used optimisation criteria those that allow making predictive schedules more robust. The computational experiments in a flowshop show that joint production and PM schedules are more robust than production schedules and maintenance provides an acceptable tradeoff between equipment reliability and performance loss under disruption.

Byline: Lise Tinmannsvik, Hans V. Bjelland Aesthetics and the aesthetic experience of children have previously received limited attention within the profession of product design. By taking on a broad perspective on aesthetics, this paper will show that there are many dimensions to children's aesthetic experience, which are very interesting from a designer's point of view. The paper explores how young children perceive the world and children's overall aesthetic experience. The biological, emotional and cultural aspects which influence this experience are presented and discussed. Based on this discussion, we reflect on how this knowledge can inspire designers to make better products for young children. Aesthetic stimulation represents a positive influence on children's emotional and cognitive development. Although it is difficult to generalise children's aesthetic preferences, there are some general aspects which can be pointed out. However, varied aesthetic expressions and the richness of the sensory experience should be the overall goal when designing products for young children.

Byline: Paul W. Wormald, Mark A. Evans The paper presents a case to support the business of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the building of partnerships between universities and companies which foster and support the introduction of industrial design processes in the SMEs. The basis of the partnership is the use of the UK government's 'Knowledge Transfer Partnership' (KTP) schemes to initiate and develop in-house industrial design capability in the SMEs. The paper presents two case studies that raise design management issues and underline the value of industrial design expertise for SMEs. It discusses the positive and negative issues centred on the introduction of graduate-level in-house industrial design expertise for product innovation in manufacturing-sector SMEs. The paper demonstrates that through the discipline of industrial design and the mechanism of a well-managed KTP programme, SMEs can improve their commercial performance and operate successfully in global markets.

Byline: Axel Hahn, Stephan Grosse Austing, Jan Strickmann In this paper, we are proposing an ontology-based approach to use the information base of PLM systems to support project analysis and management of development processes. At first, we will give a quick overview of generic engineering processes and involved IT systems followed by an analysis of identified pitfalls and shortcomings. This paper however is focussed on presenting meaningful metrics for the evaluation of PLM data in a project management context based on a semantic integration model. After giving a short oversight of semantic web technologies, we will introduce our approach based on these techniques. We use semantic maps to translated technical information supplied by a PLM system into meaningful key figures to bridge the gap between technical and organisational data. Then we introduce PERMETER, a 'semantic radar system' to pierce the thick mist of product complexity using ontologies and metrics. We will conclude with a summary and an outlook on further activities.

Byline: Tiefu Shao, Sundar Krishnamurty This paper addresses the critical issues of effectiveness, efficiency and reliability in simulation-based design optimisation under surrogate model uncertainty. Specifically, it presents a novel method to build surrogate models iteratively with sufficient fidelity for accurately capturing global optimal design solutions at a minimal computational cost. The proposed preference-performance hybrid method is the integration of the multiple preference point method, which updates surrogate models at current local optimal points, and the performance-based maximum variance point method, which updates surrogate models at the points that are associated with maximum prediction variances. The salient features of this method include its strategic utilisation of both local exploitation and global exploration tactics and its unique ability to overcome the Smoothing Out the Best Point (SOBP) problem. Through illustrative comparison studies on 30 different optimisation scenarios from 15 different test functions, the paper demonstrates the tangible advantages of the proposed hybrid method in improving effectiveness, efficiency and reliability in surrogate model-based design for finding the global optima in a wide range of design scenarios, including those characterised by multiple global solutions, irrespective of whether the optima exist at the corners, on the boundaries or in the interiors of the design space.

Once a design concept has been chosen and parameterised, the embodiment design stage consists of choosing materials and dimensions to ensure a 'good matching' with the expected performances. In this context of preliminary design stages, several approaches exist, which correspond to slightly different complexities and issues and must consequently be used at different moments. We consider in this paper three families of approaches: 1) exploring design (parametric) dimensioning under uncertainty (through constraint programming techniques, representations of feasible design points or Pareto frontiers); 2) robust design and multidisciplinary optimisation; 3) design for reliability. We advocate and state in this paper that these approaches must be used in that order of increasing complexity. Indeed, applying an approach allows one to quickly figure out inadequacies with performance specifications or initial allowable bounds of design parameters and then to backtrack or to refine the design issue before proceeding to the next stage or approach. We illustrate that phenomenon by successively applying the three approaches on a dimensioning issue of a two-member truss structure. We clearly show that the successive optimal designs obtained are notably different, but that the optimal point obtained in a given approach is used to explore its surroundings within the next approach.

Byline: P-W. Chiu, A.M. Naim, K.E. Lewis, C.L. Bloebaum In this paper, a new method that enables the visualisation of multi-attribute design problem solutions is presented. The Hyper-Radial Visualisation (HRV) method provides the decision-maker with the ability to perform real-time tradeoff investigations by incorporating weight preferences and uncertainty representations. In these problems, designers must consider potentially complex tradeoff decisions in order to choose a point or set of points with which to proceed. Designers can investigate the performance space under different weights and/or uncertainty conditions through a two-dimensional visual representation. This allows a more informed and efficient method to find promising solutions for the designer, thereby significantly reducing the time required for tradeoff analysis in a complex design process. This paper presents the HRV method, along with the results and discussion of different case problems with varying dimensionalities to demonstrate the method's viability and usefulness.

Byline: S. Li This paper focuses on the issue of matrix-based decomposition, which has already been recognised as an effective means to address a system's complexity. For instance, a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) has been applied to tackle the complexity involved in product architecture and project management. As matrix-based decomposition has been studied and applied in different engineering contexts, the corresponding algorithms are rather scattered and often address only specific, context-dependent problems. Therefore, this paper is intended to contribute to matrix-based decomposition in two aspects. First, the research efforts in different domains are surveyed to identify the fundamental algorithmic techniques that are relevant to matrix-based decomposition. Second, a generic framework that allows the customisation of algorithms is proposed as an integrated tool to address different problems in matrix-based decomposition. Four matrix examples have been used to illustrate the framework's feasibility and applicability. The example results support that the proposed framework is capable of addressing four common matrix types in engineering applications, namely, symmetric DSM, non-symmetric DSM, directed DSM and rectangular matrix.

Byline: C.A. Mattson, A.A. Mullur, A. Messac This paper investigates three design cases where the newly developed s-Pareto frontier-based concept selection paradigm is used to compare competing design concepts under a multi-objective optimisation framework. The new paradigm, which was recently introduced by the authors, is based on the Pareto optimality principle that defines an important class of optimal solutions to multi-objective optimisation problems. The set of Pareto optimal solutions comprises the Pareto frontier, a particularly useful frontier in engineering design because it characterises the tradeoffs between the design objectives. Under the newly developed paradigm, a so-called s-Pareto frontier is used to characterise the tradeoffs between conflicting design objectives and the tradeoffs between competing design concepts. As such, the s-Pareto frontier holds significant potential for the important activity of concept selection. The present paper takes a needed and notable step beyond the simple two- and three-bar truss examples provided by the authors in previous archival publications on s-Pareto. The first case study considers the design of a battery contact for a mobile phone, the second involves the design of a compliant bicycle derailleur and the third involves the design of a rigidified inflatable structure. Each case provides a unique perspective.

Byline: Warren Jocz, Chongwen Zhou This paper presents three fatigue strength reliability demonstration case studies, one each at the component, subsystem and system levels. These case studies utilise classical (traditional), yet often underutilised, methods for fatigue strength assessments. It is the opinion of the authors that a primary reason behind the underutilisation of these methods lies in the operational definition of reliability under which many engineering organisations (especially automotive OEMs and their suppliers) currently make fatigue performance assessments. This paper supports an alternative definition of reliability, which when adopted into practice has reinvigorated the use of traditional (classical) fatigue performance demonstration techniques – techniques which, in recent years, were frequently replaced by key-life and/or real-world user testing. These case studies highlight the engineering information, cost and timing advantages associated with the application of these traditional fatigue performance techniques.

Byline: Heiko Gsell, Klaus-Dieter Thoben This paper presents methods, models and tools which are of relevance for the administration and operation of product-related content during the development of complex products. The central method presented in this paper is a handling method including a product data model and a process model as a tool and as well as a method, respectively, for analysing the interactions of the actors of a product development project. The effects which could be achieved by using the presented methods, models and tools are higher efficiency and speed of the development of complex products as a result. Thus, positive effects on these important factors determining a company's success are aimed at.

Byline: Wen-Chuan Chiang, Anil Mital, Anoop Desai The purpose of this paper is to illustrate that the procedures described in Part 1 of this paper are equally effective when applied to a complex system. In order to demonstrate this, an automotive braking system was chosen since it involves numerous traditional manufacturing processes. However, some criteria in our extended definition of functionality may not easily apply to this particular case (usability, for instance) since this is an internal mechanical part of a consumer product (car). If the functionality of the internal automotive part can be ensured, it is expected that the overall functionality of the vehicle will also be enhanced.

Byline: S. Ahsan, A. El-Hamalawi, D. Bouchlaghem, S. Ahmad Converged networks, the merging of voice, video and data networks onto a single infrastructure, and in particular IP telephony offer the construction industry cheaper calling and the ability to log all voice communication in an efficient manner. The emergence of wireless networks on the construction site allow IP telephony to be deployed on the site replacing the mobile phone network, where it was discovered that UK construction companies would spend over [pounds sterling]1 Million a year on communication. This paper looks at the emergence of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and examines how this can be brought to the construction site. The paper reports on research carried out with the UK construction industry, identifying communication trends as well as the storage of communication. With this information, the paper attempts to identify processes where VoIP and convergence technology can provide key benefits.

Byline: Aicha Seklouli Sekhari, Abdelaziz Bouras, Denis Gien In many industrial branches, the enterprises have nearly the same technical level and the differences in their success rates are mainly due to how they satisfy users' needs. A close look at the manufacturing system level shows that the problem is not only to identify those needs, which are mostly qualitative and inconsistent, but to have the capacity and tools to assess this type of qualitative data and deal with its inconsistency. As regards qualitative data, many authors have worked on this problem using fuzzy set tools. However, reviewing the literature contents shows that only a few papers have concentrated their efforts on the inconsistency. In this paper, we propose a contribution consisting in a distance-based method which tries to preserve and transform the inconsistency by introducing a cover index.

This paper investigates the user-perception of vehicle interior craftsmanship. A survey, involving subjects of two different nationalities (American and French), was conducted on a set of vehicles. Several tasks were asked of the subjects in order to study differences in craftsmanship perception, in particular, relative to the nationality of the subject. This paper proposes an interesting illustration of the use of social science techniques to investigate differences in the perception of products. Several analytic techniques such as Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), cluster analysis, analysis of variance, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and preference mapping are presented to scientifically study user-perceptions.

Byline: Kam Jugdev Project management is in its infancy when it comes to developing a theoretical foundation. Unless we develop a theoretical foundation, we run the risk of furthering the discipline in an atheoretical and ascientific way. In this paper, we frame the importance of collaboration between academics and practitioners in developing project management theory. We then discuss the challenges of developing a theoretical foundation and review the progress we have made in developing theories in project management. The paper concludes with suggestions on how to improve project management theory.

Byline: David Atkinson, Ahmed Al-Ashaab This paper provides a conceptual review of New Product Introduction and Development (NPID) and includes three original contributions to the development of NPID literature. Firstly, the prior research is summarised and characterised and these categories are then used to define this literature and establish irregularities where future research might most be productively directed. The second major contribution to literature is the authors' empirical study and benchmarking of over 20 automotive suppliers in an effort to ascertain best practice. Finally this paper will discuss and evaluate the literature as it pertains to this NPID in a global context.

Byline: Li Weiping, Gu Zhengqi, Deng Biao An approach to construct a synchronised collaborative design platform upon heterogeneous CAD systems based on client-server architecture is presented in this paper. In the approach, the Neuter Feature Set (NFS), which is defined by object oriented representation, is utilised as an intermediate to achieve synchronised exchange of feature-based CAD models between heterogeneous CAD systems. Before achieving this goal, persistent naming of topological entity must have proper solution. A hybrid topological entity naming mechanism is proposed in this paper. Furthermore, in order to extend the system to web services and application integrating environments, central transfer functionality and components are identified. XML is chosen as the most suitable technology and physical transfer format, and a corresponding functional concept is developed for model processing, transcription and CAD interfacing.

Byline: T. Osteras, M. Rausand, D.N.P. Murthy Building in reliability into a new product is costly and the implication of unreliability costlier. Determining the desired reliability performance, and defining the specifications that will achieve it, is a challenging topic in new product development. In an earlier paper, the authors developed a conceptual model for decision-making with regard to product performance and specification in a general context. In this paper, the model is used to describe the process of establishing the desired reliability performance and deriving the reliability specifications that will ensure the desired performance.

Byline: Om Prakash Yadav, Nanua Singh Intense competition in many industries forces manufacturing organisations to develop new, higher quality products at an increasingly rapid pace. Product development processes (PD processes) play a very significant role in achieving competitive edge and success in new product development. However, the emerging challenges and pressures in global markets require PD processes to be more efficient and effective. This paper highlights these emerging challenges and their impact on the product development domain. The paper also provides some suggestions for further research to build on product reliability.

Byline: Sergio Terzi, Herve Panetto, Gerard Morel, Marco Garetti Product and production management have become complex processes, where more problems are overlapping each other, while the product development might ever take more into account the improved customers' tastes and requests in a shorter time-to-market. The Product Lifecycle and its related Management (PLM) are becoming unavoidable key aspects, creating such a 'product centric' problem. The integrated management of all the information regarding the product is one of the related questions. One of the main issues concerning with the product management in a wider perspective, deals with the traceability of the product itself. The present paper aims at discussing the question of PLM as a question of product traceability. The product traceability problem concerns with the management of the identification of a product along its lifecycle. The paper aims at discussing an innovative approach to product traceability, based on a holonic definition of the product and its lifecycle. The paper presents a reference metamodel where a 'product holon' is defined – in a whole lifecycle – as a single element, able to merge product's physical part with product information needed for tracing its life.

Byline: R. Claus, M. Kazakov Most organisations increasingly seek to design and develop new products in shorter time periods. At the same time, increased performance demands require a team-based multidisciplinary design process that may span several organisations. One approach to meet these demands is to use 'Geometry Centric' design. In this approach, design engineers team their efforts through one united representation of the design that is usually captured in a Computer Aided Design (CAD) system. Standards-based interfaces are critical to provide uniform, simple, distributed services that enable the 'Geometry Centric' design approach. This paper describes an industry-wide effort, under the Object Management Group's (OMG) Manufacturing Technologies and Industrial Systems Domain Task Force, to define interfaces that enable the interoperability of CAD and Computer Aided Engineering tools. This critical link to enable 'Geometry Centric' design is called: CAD Services V1.0. This paper discusses the features of this standard and describes a few early applications.

Byline: Fabricio Enembreck, Jean-Paul Barthes In this paper, we present a multi-agent system for searching the internet. The search for interesting documents on the internet is becoming more and more difficult. The main problem is not that we do not have the needed information to build or use knowledge, the problem is that we have too much information, mostly irrelevant. A proof of this is that inference engines are largely outperformed by the expansion of the internet and the results of queries are often of very poor quality. To improve the search process, intelligent individual agents were developed. We believe that multi-agent systems can give more accurate results than the individual agents because in a multi-agent system, agents can be specialised in different tasks and can share information. We implemented such an approach using an open multi-agent system containing personal assistants, library agents, filter agents, and search agents. In this paper, we study the models of internet multi-agent systems and propose an architecture to do intelligent web search. The application is based on an AUML protocol (slightly extended) to allow interoperability and yields more accurate results than standard search engines.

Byline: Qing Shen, Michael Grafe, Jochen Bauch, Rafael Radkowski Virtual Prototyping (VP) technology has been widely used to reduce the cost in the development of modern products. However, a typical mechatronic product includes the components from different engineering domains and its complexity keeps on increasing. Therefore, it becomes a great challenge to efficiently achieve VP of mechatronic products. A solution presented in this paper chooses Solution Elements (SE) as the basic design component, which encapsulates various engineering expertise. In addition, a conceptual model of ports and joints are created to compose those virtual components into mechatronic prototypes in a virtual environment. To reveal the achievement of our solution, this paper will concretely explicate (1) the definition of the conceptual models of SE, ports and joints; (2) the procedure and the matching guide in doing the system composition; (3) some interaction and visualisation issues to SE, ports and joints and (4) how team work is supported in the implementation work.

Byline: Jacques Marsot, Joseph Ciccotelli, Jacques Marc When applying safety integration principles, work equipment designers are required to imagine future operating situations and assess a priori associated risk levels. Virtual reality techniques contribute partly to achieving this objective. Based on a feasibility study, this paper discusses the contribution of a dynamic risk-indexing tool applied in conjunction with these techniques. Following a brief reminder of the problem, this paper describes firstly the concepts underlying a generic model permitting a work situation risk index to be estimated. We then introduce the method retained for validating these virtual reality simulations. This focuses on the possibility of reproducing a reference activity through simulation. In spite of differences between the same task performed under real and virtual conditions, examples of industrial machinery is used to illustrate how risk indexing enables the designer to better assess the relevance of his choices and thus to act retrospectively on his design.

Byline: Byungchul Kim, Soonhung Han In this paper, a history-based parametric method was proposed and implemented. However, the size of each translator that exchanges the feature and parametric information tends to be large, due to the implementation of duplicated functions. Furthermore, because a history-based parametric translator uses a procedural model as a neutral format, it requires a geometric modelling kernel to generate an internal explicit geometric model. To solve this problem, we implemented a shared integration platform, TransCAD system, which separates translators from a neutral file. The translators for commercial CAD systems can communicate with only TransCAD. To support communication with TransCAD, we exposed the functions of TransCAD by using Automation APIs developed by Microsoft. Each translator uses Automation APIs of TransCAD either to translate a parametric CAD model from the sending CAD system into XML format or to translate from the XML format into the model of the receiving CAD system. This paper introduces the TransCAD system and its function for the exchange of feature and parametric models.

Byline: H.C.W. Lau, C.X.H. Tang, C.K.M. Lee, G.T.S. Ho In this paper, an Object-Based Support System (OBSS), which is designed to be deployed in existing manufacturing firms with the objective to reorganise the job and process functions concerned, is proposed. The implementation of this system is based on the object technology concept, which considers most of the enterprise applications to consist of reusable software components, which are themselves built by other elements made up of relevant manufacturing data. Whenever there is any change of requirements, only the reusable software components are altered or just slightly modified to form a new component. More importantly, the flexibility and responsiveness of companies are greatly enhanced with the support of a generic object-based system that is specifically designed for improving the manufacturing activities of individual enterprises. The infrastructure with the developed and tested prototype system for validating its 'reconfigurability' is covered in the paper.

Byline: Anil Mital, Anoop Desai This is the final and concluding part of this series dedicated to presenting a comprehensive approach to consumer product design using DfX principles. This paper focuses on dealing with design principles that enhance the usability of a product in general. In this context, it deals with factors such as designing for maintainability and designing for ease of use. It also addresses the all important concept of design review, by means of which quality can be engineered into the product at the design stage itself. Finally, the paper also addresses the issue of paramount importance: cost in order to maximize profits. The issue of demand forecasting in order to enable product managers to predict future product demand is also addressed at some length towards the end of this paper. This paper serves to act as an all important link between product design, demand forecasting and facilities design.

Byline: Darrell L. Mann This paper seeks to define necessary definitions of what qualifies a design solution to be classed as a breakthrough. Three key areas are identified; one relating to functional connectivity and two to the concept of Evolution Potential - firstly to minimum threshold technology acceptability, and then secondly relating to potential relative to an incumbent design. The Evolution Potential process has been designed to enable objective assessment of incumbent and new technology solutions, relative to a globally generic discontinuous evolution benchmark. The paper contains a series of mini case study examples of breakthrough and non-breakthrough design solutions. A final section of the paper summarises breakthrough innovation tests that may be applied to future candidate design solutions and discusses issues relating to definition sufficiency.

Byline: Anil Mital, Anoop Desai This paper constitutes the second part of this series of three part papers. It focuses on individual component assembly and disassembly in order to respectively build and take apart a product. Product assembly and disassembly are systematic processes that must be executed in a stepwise fashion. Individual components need to be designed in a particular manner in order to facilitate the assembly and disassembly process. This paper presents the various kinds of assembly and disassembly processes as well as ways and means to achieve economic component design to facilitate them.

Byline: Ruihong Zhang, Yanhong Liang To adapt to the increasingly rapid development in product design, a new computer-aided conceptual design model is highly desired. This paper proposes a novel conceptual design model that combines Axiomatic Design with Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). It first employs Axiomatic Design to build the functional-structure model of products. It then calls Independence Axiom to judge the rationality of the design. If the design is coupled or violates certain design constraint(s), then unexpected problem(s) may arise in the design. In this case, for reducing the complexity of design, this paper proposes to use analytic hierarchy process to calculate the coupling strengths. The designer can deal with the coupling elements according to the sequence of coupling strengths. For those strongly coupled elements, the model applies TRIZ in addressing these arising problems. The effectiveness of this model is demonstrated by an illustrative example.

Byline: Anil Mital, Anoop Desai A structured and systematic approach to product design has been presented in this three part paper. This approach constitutes a logical framework for designing consumer products by taking into consideration various X's such as functionality, cost, assembly, usability and disassembly. The primary and most important 'X' in product design is functionality. Since every product exists to perform a specific function, the design process essentially starts with this important attribute. This paper focuses on achieving efficient product design consistent with its intended function. Part 2 of this paper will deal with product assembly/disassembly and product disposal. Part 3 of the paper will address factors related to product manufacture such as consideration of materials and processes, designing for functionality, design review and designing for usability such as ease of use and maintenance. Part 3 will also deal with management issues such as product demand forecasting and facilities design.