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The commitment to a more sustainable world in social and environmental terms requires product design and development (PDD) models that will help achieve this goal. Based on a dialogue between theory and practice, this paper presents the reflections that led to such a sociotechnical model, including its main principles: Ergonomics Quality in Design (EQUID) 4.0. It is grounded on a broad concept of ergonomics and human factors (E/HF), going beyond the traditional, narrow view of E/HF in PDD. EQUID 2.0 included the organisational dimension in the design process but left its role only in the immediate sphere of product design. EQUID 4.0 recognises that E/HF quality in the design process depends on a higher level, i.e. the organisation itself and integrates the contributions of preceding versions in an expanded E/HF concept: one that proposes that E/HF should always include not just the social but also the environmental dimension of sustainability. THEORETICAL RELEVANCE: If a tool or method that aims to contribute to inserting E/HF into production spheres is to be proposed, there is a need to establish a conceptual framework derived from a dialogue between E/HF theory and practice in relation to quality, sustainability, and product design and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study proposes an alternative technique to support the design and development of products, specifically focusing on creating a new design and platform for restaurants tailored to the needs of senior adults, ensuring easy-to-access experiences. The primary aim is to effectively identify and translate customer requirements into an engineering design through a systematic approach, enabling the extraction and realization of these requirements. The background encompasses insights gathered from interviews with target customers, informing the creation of a new design. Acknowledging that prior designs often stem from the designers’ perspectives, the study highlights the importance of aligning with and meeting specific customer requirements. Research findings demonstrate the popularity of the nature-style restaurant concept in various regions of Thailand, particularly among senior adults aged 61-70 in the Bangkok metropolitan region. Many of these individuals have backgrounds in medical fields or were retired government officers/employees. The study utilized a digital-based questionnaire platform to gather demographic information, financial insights, and perspectives of senior adults. Ultimately, the research contributes significantly to enhancing the conceptual model of the restaurant, identifying key components crucial for meeting the unique needs of senior adults.

This paper provides a detailed guide for Product Design and Development (PDD) of everyday essentials, with a focus on improving user accessibility. It applies Quality Function Deployment (QFD) principles to enhance user experiences by aligning design with customer requirements. Different customer types and their perceptions of everyday essential items are considered, with QFD used as a systematic approach to translate these needs into specific product characteristics, ensuring alignment with user expectations. The paper presents a step-by-step application of QFD on everyday essential design, highlighting key considerations and best practices. A case study on a drying and ironing device demonstrates how this approach encourages innovation and user-centric product design. The study focuses on metropolitan areas around Bangkok, Thailand, with customers aged 18 to 50, emphasizing design for limited spaces and addressing needs related to the rainy season or washing clothes at night. Results show no bad smell caused by bacteria. The key findings guide designers and developers to create products that prioritize user needs and preferences, enhancing overall usability and satisfaction. The contributions of this research benefit designers (manufacturers), customers, and researchers. The implications of this research include minimizing time spent on trial-and-error in the design stage, optimizing and reducing waste from the prototyping process. However, there is still a risk of distortion and loss in translating customers’ needs, highlighting the importance of receiving feedback after product use.

In today's fiercely competitive business environment, product design and development play critical roles in an enterprise's success; therefore, consumer demand must be understood. Enterprises used to understand their consumers' demands through time-consuming questionnaire surveys and statistical analyses. As the Internet and the popularity of virtual communities have grown, more consumers are leaving comments about their perceptions of the appeal of products on online social media platforms, thus enabling enterprises to more objectively understand consumers' product preferences and demands. Therefore, determining how to effectively assist enterprises in analyzing valuable information beneficial to product design and development that can be gleaned from the large amount of social media data available is critical to promoting an enterprise's competitive advantage in the product market. However, previous studies have primarily focused on understanding consumer viewpoints of products through review articles or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM; it is a common channel for spreading product appraisals) from online social media. For these review articles and eWOM that can imply consumer demand for product features, there were no relevant studies focused on analyzing consumer demand by using both online review articles and eWOM for product feature evolution. Therefore, for new product features, this study developed a mechanism for product evolution course mining from product-related review articles (such as product functions or specifications) and eWOM on online social media to realize the prediction of future product features or specifications, and then assist enterprises in rapidly and accurately grasping product development trends to effectively discern key reference information for product design and development. The study was achieved by (1) designing a process for online information-based product evolution course mining and prediction, (ii) developing techniques related to online information-based product evolution course mining and prediction, and (iii) implementing and evaluating an online information-based product evolution course mining and prediction mechanism. The experimental results indicated that approximately 81% of developers were satisfied with the proposed system for predicting smartphone features. The results of the study can facilitate the mining and prediction of online information-based product evolution course to assist enterprises in rapidly and accurately grasping product development trends and effectively provides important reference information for product design and development; therefore, it can enhance competitive advantages and customer satisfaction of enterprise products in the marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed guide for Product Design and Development (PDD) of everyday essentials, with a focus on improving user accessibility. It applies Quality Function Deployment (QFD) principles to enhance user experiences by aligning design with customer requirements. Different customer types and their perceptions of everyday essential items are considered, with QFD used as a systematic approach to translate these needs into specific product characteristics, ensuring alignment with user expectations. The paper presents a step-by-step application of QFD on everyday essential design, highlighting key considerations and best practices. A case study on a drying and ironing device demonstrates how this approach encourages innovation and user-centric product design. The study focuses on metropolitan areas around Bangkok, Thailand, with customers aged 18 to 50, emphasizing design for limited spaces and addressing needs related to the rainy season or washing clothes at night. Results show no bad smell caused by bacteria. The key findings guide designers and developers to create products that prioritize user needs and preferences, enhancing overall usability and satisfaction. The contributions of this research benefit designers (manufacturers), customers, and researchers. The implications of this research include minimizing time spent on trial-and-error in the design stage, optimizing and reducing waste from the prototyping process. However, there is still a risk of distortion and loss in translating customers' needs, highlighting the importance of receiving feedback after product use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes Mellitus incidence and its negative outcomes have dramatically increased worldwide and are expected to further increase in the future due to a combination of environmental and social factors. Several methods of measuring glucose concentration in various body compartments have been described in the literature over the years. Continuous advances in technology open the road to novel measuring methods and innovative measurement sites. The aim of this comprehensive review is to report all the methods and products for non-invasive glucose measurement described in the literature over the past five years that have been tested on both human subjects/samples and tissue models. A literature review was performed in the MDPI database, with 243 articles reviewed and 124 included in a narrative summary. Different comparisons of techniques focused on the mechanism of action, measurement site, and machine learning application, outlining the main advantages and disadvantages described/expected so far. This review represents a comprehensive guide for clinicians and industrial designers to sum the most recent results in non-invasive glucose sensing techniques' research and production to aid the progress in this promising field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractManufacturers are continuously designing health-related products with various styles and specific characteristics to challenge and outcompete each other. However, it is challenging to convince consumers that a new product’s attributes are better than similar existing products. The main challenge for manufacturers is how to create a product that improves on existing products. This research aims to analyze whether customers' purchasing decisions are aligned with the product’s applicable mechanical characteristics and to develop guidelines for supporting product design and development. The design team can use these guidelines to quickly and easily understand and support customer requirements. The study uses “famous types of heel inserts” as a case study, with quality function deployment, usefulness of product, factor analysis, ergonomics, reverse engineering, and finite element analysis as the key tools. The results can help users select the right health-related product and make small adjustments to their routines to improve their quality of life.

Water is a vital resource that should be utilized effectively. However, it is overused and squandered on a daily need, including the unrestrained use of water for ablution purposes. This condition can be due to a lack of awareness and the influences of peer cultural values. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a water-tap design that takes into consideration the influences of cultural value. Accordingly, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) approach the significant correlation between cultural influences and user preferences on water-tap design by referring at the critical threshold output of each attribute. The result showed that collectivism and uncertainty avoidance dimensions were identified as the influencing cultural dimensions and the automatic water level-control float valve, mechanical water-taps with auto-stop function, and transparent water tanks are the most important considerations for water tap technical specification. Through the assessment of its applicability, the use of the prototype can reduce water usage by 54.6% compared to regular water-taps. Correspondingly, the approach of cultural value in the designing process is expected to give more insights to practices such as product designers when determining design specification while for knowledge, it extends the applicability of Hofstede cultural theory for product design and development.

The use of plastic bottles has become a significant environmental concern, and recycling them has become a priority. Small and medium-sized recycling companies must collect and categorize large volumes of plastic bottles and sell them to larger recycling firms, a process that is time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive. This manual sorting process can pose health risks, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and can affect worker productivity. To address these issues, this study proposes the development of an automated conveyor belt system that can rapidly and accurately separate plastic bottles by type. The system utilizes an opaque and transparent plastic bottle separation platform, which saves time, cost, and manpower. This system design provides recycling SMEs with a competitive advantage by serving as a practical application model and a prototype with an easy-to-use concept. Key tools employed in this research include product design development (PDD), Kansei engineering, manufacturing process design, controlling system, and fault tree analysis (FTA). The light sensors are critical components in the separation process, detecting the opacity or transparency of the bottles’ surfaces. The proposed prototype’s reliability will be assessed by FTA, which considers all potential failures. This study contributes to the body of knowledge surrounding the integration of conveyor systems and provides valuable information for businesses seeking to optimize their sorting processes. The guidelines developed in this study can serve as a starting point for further research on the integration of conveyors in waste sorting plants.

It is often challenging to schedule tasks for the design and development projects of complex product systems. Moreover, it is necessary to reduce project time and cost by minimizing activities' feedback length under resource constraints. This paper proposes an effective resource-constrained project scheduling approach for complex product systems design and development. We develop a two-phase approach to investigate the problem. In the first phase, we propose a bi-objective model to minimize the feedback length and the cost of the information correction. Then, in the second phase, we develop a mathematical model to minimize project completion times under resource constraints and the optimal sequence of activities extracted from the first stage. Finally, we obtain a global Pareto front, which indicates that paying more attention to minimizing the feedback length would increase the project completion times. Last, we examine the proposed approach's efficiency and applicability using an experimental data set. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intrigued by observations in the automobile industry where some firms share their new battery technologies with their competitors, we consider the problem where an innovator firm, that owns a novel technology, licenses it to a rival firm that uses the conventional technology to manufacture an existing product. The rival firm uses the licensed technology to develop a new product to compete with the innovator firm in the downstream market. We address the innovator firm's pricing issue of the new technology licence and characterize the design features of the new product the rival firm develops using the licensed technology. We show that under specific conditions, it makes sense for the innovator firm to license its technology free of charge to the rival firm. We conduct numerical studies to examine the impact of the model parameters on the optimal outcomes and generate some practical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Generation of a Dynamic Innovation Information System (DIIS) for optimized planning and decision-making thanks to the dynamic evaluation of innovations over their life cycle, applying a methodology for Digital Ecosystems in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and an innovation management model based on the Viable System Model. Innovations are essential for global development and market dynamics. Innovation management is central to organizations for gaining adaptability and dynamic capabilities to ensure their sustainability over time. Right decisions are essential for the implementation of innovations. However, on many occasions, especially in the product development process, decisions are taken based on static analysis, qualitative criteria, questionnaires, and/or quantitative evaluations that are outdated. Moreover, many innovation developments do not consider the existing databases in their information systems of similar innovation projects, especially in the early phases of new innovations when evaluations are mainly driven by area, group, or person. Furthermore, inventions are introduced in different regions, plants, and socio-economic situations, providing different results. In this context, considering that innovations shape our current and future world, including all products and services, as well as how humans, organizations, and machines interact, the significance of the paper is clear. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an innovation management model based on the Viable System Model to cope with any potential future environment based on internal organizational capabilities. For this purpose, the paper designs a Digital Ecosystem for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (DE4.0) based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology applicable to any information system consisting of a digital twin, a simulation model, databases from existing information systems, and quality management techniques. This DE4.0 provides a huge advantage for the applicability and scalability of innovations as it allows one to plan, monitor, assess, and improve. Moreover, based on the conceptual model, a generic project evaluation scheme is developed, providing a platform for innovation project management and control during the whole innovation life cycle. As a result, the research provides a scientific and practical contribution for an integrated management of innovations based on the best information and set of techniques available. Based on this framework, a supply-chain case study is developed. The results show how, depending on the intended goals, the past experiences, the evolution of the innovation, and the innovation scope, indicators can be influenced towards reaching the initial goals and reducing the innovation risks. Finally, a discussion about the potential use and role of the DE4.0 for innovation projects and the related learning process is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations are essential for global development and market dynamics. Innovation management is central to organizations for gaining adaptability and dynamic capabilities to ensure their sustainability over time. Right decisions are essential for the implementation of innovations. However, on many occasions, especially in the product development process, decisions are taken based on static analysis, qualitative criteria, questionnaires, and/or quantitative evaluations that are outdated. Moreover, many innovation developments do not consider the existing databases in their information systems of similar innovation projects, especially in the early phases of new innovations when evaluations are mainly driven by area, group, or person. Furthermore, inventions are introduced in different regions, plants, and socio-economic situations, providing different results. In this context, considering that innovations shape our current and future world, including all products and services, as well as how humans, organizations, and machines interact, the significance of the paper is clear. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an innovation management model based on the Viable System Model to cope with any potential future environment based on internal organizational capabilities. For this purpose, the paper designs a Digital Ecosystem for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (DE4.0) based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act methodology applicable to any information system consisting of a digital twin, a simulation model, databases from existing information systems, and quality management techniques. This DE4.0 provides a huge advantage for the applicability and scalability of innovations as it allows one to plan, monitor, assess, and improve. Moreover, based on the conceptual model, a generic project evaluation scheme is developed, providing a platform for innovation project management and control during the whole innovation life cycle. As a result, the research provides a scientific and practical contribution for an integrated management of innovations based on the best information and set of techniques available. Based on this framework, a supply-chain case study is developed. The results show how, depending on the intended goals, the past experiences, the evolution of the innovation, and the innovation scope, indicators can be influenced towards reaching the initial goals and reducing the innovation risks. Finally, a discussion about the potential use and role of the DE4.0 for innovation projects and the related learning process is performed.

Increased cost-effectiveness in crop production can be achieved by automating technological operations. This is also the case for berry cultivation in plantations. Starting any berry cultivation automation process should, quite naturally, begin with fertilisation, since this is the first technological operation to be carried out during the vegetation period and is a relatively simple one. The main task here is to apply the correct amount of fertiliser under the canopy of plants. Blueberry plantations that have been established on milled peat fields have plants that have been planted in parallel rows at a pre-designated interval. The fertilisation of plants must take place individually in the first years of their growth, so that each plant is fertilised separately. This form of fertilisation can be referred to as precision fertilisation. The aim of this paper was to provide an overview of the levels of technology now available when it comes to precision fertiliser equipment and to introduce the concept of a new precision-automated fertiliser unit, while also justifying the efficiency of using automated equipment. The automated fertiliser unit that is to be designed will be autonomous, will move unmanned through the plantation, and will include the necessary sub-systems for the precision fertilisation of individual plants, such as a plant detection system, a fertilising nozzle, a motion system and, additionally, a service station. On the basis of the results obtained, it can be argued that the use of an automated precision fertilisation unit increases productivity levels by approximately 2.25 times and decreases the specific fertiliser costs by approximately 8.4 times when compared with the use of a portable spot fertiliser. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial revolutions (IRs) are mostly associated with how transformations regarding the operations of an enterprise affect said enterprise's manufacturing systems. However, the impact of these transformations exceeds the production systems themselves; rather, they affect the entire value chain, from the product design and development process (PDDP) through manufacturing and supply-chain management to marketing and disposal. As the new PDDP to a large extent defines the value chain for a company, the challenge lies in ensuring that the designed product will help the company fully benefit from the IRs. By analysing the 4th IR, the authors reveal that few publications shed light on this aspect. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to establish features and properties that will shape the PDDP throughout the 4th IR and into a smart design engineering. To accomplish this, the authors conduct a systematic review of the literature, which provides ten findings. These findings are then analysed by 11 specialists both from academia and the industry, and the findings' relations to the 4th IR and their impact on the product development process is discussed. By establishing these findings, this paper provides a platform for the understanding of what could potentially shape smart design engineering and its design-related activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a review of the development and use of multi-agent modelling techniques and simulations in the context of manufacturing systems and supply chain management (SCM). The objective of the paper is twofold. First, it presents a comprehensive literature review of current multi-agent systems (MAS) research applications in the field of manufacturing systems and SCM. Second, it aims to identify and evaluate some key issues involved in using MAS methods to model and simulate manufacturing systems. A variety of different MAS applications are reviewed in three different classified research areas: production design and development, production planning and control, and SCM. In presenting a detailed taxonomy of MAS applications, the paper describes MAS application domains from five different perspectives. The review suggests the MAS approach represents a feasible framework for designing and analysing real-time manufacturing operations, since the approach is capable of modelling different levels of agent behaviour and dynamical interactions. The paper also highlights a number of key issues which have to be taken into account in attempting to design MAS-based research paradigms for future applications in manufacturing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For precise fertilization of blueberry plants, it is technologically the easiest and most suitable option to use a volumetric filling, for which it can be presumed that it is possible to precisely dose the fertilizer for each plant by grams. For setting up a volumetric filler, it is necessary to know parameters such as the size of the fertilizer particles and their bulk density. The aim of this research is to determine the granulometric parameters and their effect, which is done by measuring up three different fertilizers (SQM Qrop K, Memon Siforga, Substral): width, height, and length of 100 randomly selected fertilizer particles as well as the volumes and weights of 100 particles in 10 repetitions. According to the measurements, the average diameters of fertilizer particles were found as well as the average mass, volumes, and bulk density. A Mahr Digital Caliper 16EWRi 0–150 mm was used to measure the diameters of the fertilizer granules. A Yxlon FF35 computer tomograph was used to accurately scan particles. The analytical scale, Kern ABJ 220-4NM, was used to determine mass. The volumes were measured, using measuring glasses, with one having a maximum volume of 10 mL in 0.2 mL increments and another having a maximum volume of 100 mL in 1 mL increments. Descriptive statistics analysis was performed in Microsoft Excel. It turned out that the average diameters (3.68 vs. 3.64 vs. 4.29 mm) and bulk densities (0.928 vs. 0.631 vs. 0.824 g cm−3) of the three fertilizers differed far from each other, meaning that the given volume could be filled with different amounts of fertilizer. Equations between mass and weight were formed according to the measurements. As a result, it was found that a volumetric filler can be used for fertilizing blueberry plants precisely, but it demands adjusting the filler each time in the situation, which is defined by the variety of blueberry plants: their age, size, and health.

Off-the-shelf orthoses used in rehabilitation medicine present challenges in the lack of individual comfort offered and in the support of the different motor conditions of the affected individuals. Although custom-made orthoses address these issues, their current fabrication method consists of a laborious and material wasteful process performed by skilled orthotists. Combining 3D scanning, 3D modelling and 3D printing, this paper proposes and assesses a method for the fabrication of custom-made products for rehabilitation medicine. In collaboration with CMRA, a Hospital dedicated to rehabilitation, the method is applied to the design of a customised knee positioning orthosis for a patient with cerebral palsy. This project is exploratory on the capabilities of the use of 3D printing in patient specific customisation of orthoses. Having developed, prototyped and tested four different concepts with the patient, from which one was successfully accepted, it is possible to demonstrate the potential of industrialisation of these technologies.

The 4th industrial revolution (IR) requires new products and business models adjusted to the rapidly changing market conditions, which calls for evolutions in design engineering. In this context, smart design engineering is here defined as a methodology used during the analysis and design of a product or a system, which can be composed by hardware, software and/or services, and that explicitly considers exploiting the technologies and opportunities from the 4th IR. This work contributes to both design theory and practice: (i) it deepens the understanding about the necessary smart design engineering features and shows how these features impact the product design and development process’s (PDDP) key dimensions (procedures, people and tools); (ii) it maps the features’ impact on PDDP’s phases, thus providing practical direction for process improvement. To accomplish these results, a survey was performed on the initial features presented in the literature, which helped to identify new features and to confirm their relation to the 4th IR and their impact on the PDDP. These features were then analyzed against the 4th IR environment perspectives and core technologies, which led to understanding how they can be used to improve the PDDP.

New product development (NPD) is essential for large, as well as small and medium, enterprises (SMEs). Despite its importance for the economy, challenges remain in the NPD in SMEs. Product success is related with the NPD process, so it is important for SMEs to be able to design their NPD process. This paper aims to identify SME’s NPD research topics, the characteristics of the NPD process in SMEs, and important aspects to be considered for NPD process design. The literature review is done with the analysis of 99 selected academic articles from Scopus and ScienceDirect. Content analysis, bibliographic analysis, and clustering method (based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient) are used to conduct the identification. Less-formal processes, informal strategic planning, limited resources, need technology support, and lack of capabilities in certain fields are some of the characteristics of SME’s NPD. Collaborative product development, competitive advantage, information and communication technology (ICT), concurrent engineering, quality function deployment, and continuous improvement are important keywords based on previous research in SME’s NPD. Design activities in NPD, collaboration and source of innovation, and process modelling, tools, and techniques appear to be important aspects related with the SME’s NPD process.

Copyright of China Textile Leader is the property of China Textile Information Center and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Insights into product design and development drive the strategies related to new products including price, demand, capacity, cost, and return strategies. To retrieve insights into human-product interactions, the user experience can be captured as the input of product design and development to enhance product quality and user satisfaction. However, it is critical to ascertain feedback on user experience to determine appropriate user preferences and needs. In this study, a text mining approach was developed to capture user experience in order to help product designers and developers to determine user purchase behavior and critical product features. The proposed text mining approach identifies key entities and expressions from full textual transcripts of user perceptions. Based on term frequency and emotional scales, this study provided the ordinary scale of categorical data. The emotional adjectives and functional terms of the data were analyzed to ascertain user experience and identify user segmentation. By extracting and associating key entities and expressions from user perceptions, we identified the features of wearable devices that influence user purchasing behavior. The results can assist designers to launch appropriate products and help developers to identify the key users that will enhance overall user satisfaction and company competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Off-the-shelf orthoses used in rehabilitation medicine present challenges in the lack of individual comfort offered and in the support of the different motor conditions of the affected individuals. Although custom-made orthoses address these issues, their current fabrication method consists of a laborious and material wasteful process performed by skilled orthotists. Combining 3D scanning, 3D modelling and 3D printing, this paper proposes and assesses a method for the fabrication of custom-made products for rehabilitation medicine. In collaboration with CMRA, a Hospital dedicated to rehabilitation, the method is applied to the design of a customised knee positioning orthosis for a patient with cerebral palsy. This project is exploratory on the capabilities of the use of 3D printing in patient specific customisation of orthoses. Having developed, prototyped and tested four different concepts with the patient, from which one was successfully accepted, it is possible to demonstrate the potential of industrialisation of these technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates a preliminary investigation of geometry, function and its relation to DFX principles, namely DFM (Design for Manufacturing). This is the starting point for research on the development of an expert system that assesses design goals along DFX principles in a feature-based CAD environment. There is a need for a deeper level of understanding of the relationship between geometry and its effects on function, in order to correct and improve the product concept before large amounts of resources are invested in the product’s development. This paper is a preliminary investigation into geometry and function involving DFM as part of an early stage of research into geometric effects on function and DFX through the use of CAD/CAE/CAM.In this paper, a concept is chosen to develop a parametric solid model that will be used to investigate a set of defined function attributes using model variants, which are evaluated in terms of the defined function attributes and DFM. The investigation found that for the functions defined, geometric parameters had less of an effect than expected. This is mainly due to the fact that the defined function attributes under investigation were associated with material properties. This paper demonstrates a preliminary investigation at the early stage of research to develop a more detailed relationship structure between geometry and functional attributes and their relationship with DFX. The end goal is to develop an integrated methodology involving geometry, function and DFX principles through the use of CAD/CAE/CAM .

Today, manufacturing is moving towards customer-driven and knowledge-based proactive production. Shorter product life cycles lead to increased complexity in areas such as product and process design, factory deployment and production operations. To handle this complexity, new knowledge-based methods and technologies are needed to model, simulate, optimize and monitor manufacturing systems. Existing large Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) impose structured and predictable workflow, while processes “on the ground” are often unpredictable and involve a large number of human based decisions and collaboration. This is leading to a major shift on EIS paradigm and leading to development of a set of specialized small applications, each one with fewer features, but highly specialized, flexible, cross linked and easy to use. This paper presents a hybrid management solution intended to support collaboration and decision in the scope of automotive engineering and planning. The solution, labelled as HPM - Hybrid Process Manager, encompasses a set of tools for work, information and communication management fully integrated with knowledge based engineering processes. Its overall aim is to ease the flow of information between all the partners, making it more reliable and actual, allowing a closer control and faster reaction to upcoming events. The adoption of HPM approach proves to be quite effective and efficient, leading to significant results in terms of cost and time saving. When using the solution, managers no longer need to constantly ask for reporting, leading to a significant reduction on email and paperwork. It is relevant to underline that the proposed approach allowed planners to concentrate in important issues improving the product and avoid non-value added efforts and time on collateral activities. Another main advantage stays on the experience retrieval module built in top of the solution, allowing easy access to expertise, knowledge and best practices generated by previous projects, so that they can be readily incorporated in the design of new processes as a factor of knowledge sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of collecting and utilising the pruned canes of grape vines and branches and twigs from fruit trees that are left in vineyards and orchards all year round after the scheduled pruning of plantations in early spring is the topic of the day, and it is one that requires an effective solution. One of the ways in which the problem might be solved is the utilisation of pruning material as an organic fertiliser after it has been gathered, so that it is chopped, evenly spread in the inter-row spaces in the plantation, and ploughed into the soil, so that it decomposes there, and is digested. Meanwhile, the degree of pruned material disintegration and the level of quality shown in the work of spreading it across the area both have to ensure the complete decomposition of any such ploughed-under wood waste within one calendar year. The aim of this research project was to increase efficiency levels in chopping and spreading grape vine and fruit tree pruning material on the basis of the development of a new design of wood chopper and the results obtained in field testing this piece of equipment. The research uses engineering and design methods which are based on the theory of collecting from ground level and further transporting wood and plant materials, the theory behind cutting, crushing, and spreading, and also the methods used in experimental research, field testing, and the statistical analysis of test results. We have developed a new design arrangement for a wood chopper for grape vines and fruit trees, one which combines the mechanism for collecting slender, flexible waste wood pieces that are of a considerable length from the ground with a system that involves the transportation, chopping, shredding, and spreading over the soil surface of such materials. The prototype wood chopper design which was subsequently produced has been tested for several years in the laboratory and in field conditions and has delivered positive results. From the results of the field tests it has been found that, when using the aforementioned work process, a considerable reduction is achieved in terms of energy consumption and labour input in comparison with similar indicators for wood choppers that have been produced by recognised manufacturers. For example, the power demand for one metre of the machine's working width is just 15 kW, which is virtually two times less than the respective figure for a similar, recognised machine. The degree at which pruning material is collected from the ground is 95.4%, while the degree at which they disintegrate lengthwise is within a measurement of 10 cm, while the weight of the chopper is 1.5 times smaller than that of the similar machine used in the comparison studies. The use of these wood choppers provides an opportunity to implement widely across the horticultural industry those innovative technologies that not only aim at reducing energy and labour consumption, but which also help substantially to cut down the demand for the input of mineral fertilisers, which improves the overall ecological characteristics of the natural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Production / Produção is the property of Associacao Brasileira de Engenharia de Producao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper investigates a vertically differentiated product (VDP) line design problem in both a centralized and decentralized supply chain setting with one manufacturer and one retailer. We study how the product variety decision making in the decentralized setting affects the number of VDPs developed and produced by the manufacturer, as well as the number of products that the retailer will accept from the manufacturer. We show the value of flexibility, timeliness of information, and product development lead time reduction in three market scenarios where the retailer will elect to carry a product only if the product meets a specified target profit. Our results reveal that if the manufacturer faces a long design lead time and designs only one product line, he may be better off not lowering wholesale prices to accommodate the retailer's profit restriction. If design lead time is short, negotiation between manufacturer and retailer along with a side payment could possibly lead to a profit improving solution for both parties. Optimization models and computational results are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]