1,720,969 research outputs found
Developing integrated sustainable product-process-service systems at the early product design stages
Full text linkThe paper describes a systematic approach that aims to foster the development of sustainable integrated systems of products and services since the very early phases of conceptual design. The procedure helps the designer in redesigning a product (as well as the related processes and services) to reduce its overall impacts. The method takes into account environmental, social and economic aspects concerning a wide range of stakeholders. The proposed approach adopts the functional analysis methodology, which is used to: 1) characterise the product (either an artefact or a service) as an integrated product-process-service system; 2) identify the design analogies with existing products in order to identify the similarities in terms of sustainability impacts. The improved design concept, along with the related environmental, economic and societal characteristics, is used as a starting point for the successive detailed design. A case study illustrates the method and proposes a redesign of the product-process-service for carrying babies
Micro Injection Molding Machine Technology; in Micro Injection Molding
No full textThe present chapter introduces the design of micro molding machines from two different
perspectives: analysis of patents on the technology, and design architectures and solutions
for the micro injection molding machines.
The first analysis is oriented to provide a quantitative scenario on the attempts to exploit
research for commercial uses, and it is performed taking into account patents applications
worldwide. It helps in situating the micro injection molding domain in the industrial market
(particularly on the machine manufacturing side). Conversely, the second part of the present
chapter focuses on some relevant architecture aspects of micro injection molding machines
that have been analyzed from a functional perspective. The choice of the machines is based
on interesting architectures that have been the target of various researches in the recent past
and that are often cited within the present book
Skills and wills: the keys to identify the right team in collaborative innovation platforms
No full textSustainability assessment by analogy in early design stages
No full textThe paper presents a systematic approach for sustainability assessment of products since the very early phases of concept design. The procedure helps the designer in redesigning a product (but also the related processes and services) to reduce its overall impacts. Moreover, for the sustainability assessment since the concept phase, it makes use of a strategy based on assessing the product impacts by analogy with respect to similar products. The paper ends with a case study which illustrates the method and proposes a redesign of the product-process-service related to a pram. The consequences of the redesign spread also to the business level
Crowdsourcing: A Review and Suggestions for Future Research
Full text linkAs academic and practitioner studies on crowdsourcing have been building up since 2006, the subject itself has progressively gained in importance within the broad field of management. No systematic review on the topic has so far appeared in management journals, however; moreover, the field suffers from ambiguity in the topic's definition, which in turn has led to its largely unstructured evolution. The authors therefore investigate the existing body of knowledge on crowdsourcing systematically through a penetrating review in which the strengths and weakness of this literature stream are presented clearly and then future avenues of research are set out. The review is based on 121 scientific articles published between January 2006 and January 2015. The review recognizes that crowdsourcing is ingrained in two mainstream disciplines within the broader subject matter of innovation and management: (1) open innovation; and (2) co-creation. The review, in addition, also touches on several issues covered in other theoretical streams: (3) information systems management; (4) organizational theory and design; (5) marketing; and (6) strategy. The authors adopt a process perspective, applying the 'Input-Process-Output' framework to interpret research on crowdsourcing within the broad lines of: (1) Input (Problem/Task); (2) Process (session management; problem management; knowledge management; technology); and (3) Outcome (solution/completed task; seekers' benefits; solvers' benefits). This framework provides a detailed description of how the topic has evolved over time, and suggestions concerning the future direction of research are proposed in the form of research questions that are valuable for both academics and managers
METHOD FOR ANALYSING DIGITAL DOCUMENTS
No full textDescribed is a method for analysing documents which can be implemented by a computer comprising the steps of:—selecting a digital document (10) comprising a text component (11) and a graphical component (12);—analysing the graphical component (12) identifying alphanumeric indicators (13) associated with respective portions of the graphical component (12);—searching inside the text component (11) of the digital document (10) for the alphanumeric indicators (13) identified inside the graphical component (12) and associating them uniquely with a text indicator (14) of the text component (11) representing the respective portions of the graphical component (12);—converting the digital document (10) into an augmented reality document (20) at least by displaying on the graphical component (12) of a corresponding text (15) of the text indicator (14), at the respective alphanumeric indicator (13) associated with the text indicator (14)
Ordering the Chaos: a Guided Translation of Needs into Product Requirements
No full textThe organization of customers’ needs and technical requirements in a QFD (Quality Function Deployment) often generates sparse relationship matrices. This entails several diculties during early design process and collides with general design concepts as good balancing, order and symmetry. The diagonality of the matrix is, in fact, an index of the e ectiveness of e ective decomposition of needs and CTQs (Critical To Qualities) at an appropriate level of detail. The paper presents a step-by-step procedure aimed at guiding the designer for a correct translation of needs into product requirements. The peculiarity is that the method intervenes at the very early stage of VOC (Voice Of the Customer) translation into CTQs, unlike classical approaches that occurs in successive steps. The procedure consists of an iterative elaboration and re-organization of the information related to the radical innovation of complex products. A validation case, performed in collaboration with a manufacturing company operating in the The organization of customers’ needs and technical requirements in a QFD (Quality Function Deployment) often generates sparse relationship matrices. This entails several diculties during early design process and collides with general design concepts as good balancing, order and symmetry. The diagonality of the matrix is, in fact, an index of the e ectiveness of e ective decomposition of needs and CTQs (Critical To Qualities) at an appropriate level of detail. The paper presents a step-by-step procedure aimed at guiding the designer for a correct translation of needs into product requirements. The peculiarity is that the method intervenes at the very early stage of VOC (Voice Of the Customer) translation into CTQs, unlike classical approaches that occurs in successive steps. The procedure consists of an iterative elaboration and re-organization of the information related to the radical innovation of complex products. A validation case, performed in collaboration with a manufacturing company operating in the automotive field, allowed to test the e ectiveness of the procedure field, allowed to test the e ectiveness of the procedur
Utilizzo dei dati brevettuali come ausilio alle strategie, marketing e vendite
No full textQuesto lavoro di tesi ha l’obiettivo di fornire una panoramica sulle peculiarità e finalità dell’analisi dei brevetti (patent analysis) come ausilio al processo decisionale strategico aziendale. Partendo da un’esposizione delle principali caratteristiche dei brevetti e da un’analisi della letteratura scientifica l’elaborato si concentra sul benchmarking delle principali aziende fornitrici di prodotti e/o servizi di analisi dei brevetti. Le aziende vengono analizzate con lo scopo di individuare i principali scopi e utilizzi della patent analysis, i mercati, i clienti e i settori industriali serviti, e le principali modalità di generazione degli utili. Ulteriore spazio viene dedicato all’utilizzo dello Hoshin-Canvas, uno strumento qui utilizzato per l’analisi dei modelli di business delle aziende selezionate.
La seconda parte dell’elaborato viene dedicata all’esposizione di un caso reale di consulenza realizzato all’interno di Erre Quadro Srl riguardante l’estrazione di informazioni dai brevetti che possano essere usate dalla funzione Marketing dell’azienda cliente, una multinazionale specializzata nella progettazione e produzione di macchinari per il settore tissue. Dopo aver mostrato le principali modalità di ricerca ed estrazione dei brevetti appartenenti ad una specifica azienda vengono infine proposti, partendo dai dati disponibili estratti dai brevetti, una serie di possibili analisi e grafici utili per supportare il processo decisionale strategico
L'analisi funzionale di nuova generazione
No full textLa descrizione di un prodotto dal punto di vista delle funzioni che svolge (Analisi Funzionale), costituisce uno strumento estremamente efficace ai fini del problem solving e del processo di progettazione. In questo lavoro di tesi è presentata un'estensione di alcuni modelli di rappresentazione di tale processo, nonché degli strumenti di classificazione dei bisogni e delle funzioni che supportano il lavoro dei progettisti. Le funzioni di un prodotto, individuate grazie all'analisi funzionale, sono poi riorganizzate secondo differenti livelli di generalità. Uno degli obiettivi di questa tesi è stato quindi la definizione rigorosa della procedura di scomposizione funzionale eseguita su più livelli. Si è indagata inoltre la relazione fra la geometria delle parti del prodotto e le possibili funzioni ad essa associabili. Questo studio costituisce un primo passo verso lo sviluppo di un CAD funzionale. Infine viene presentato un protocollo metodologico che guida anche i meno esperti nella scomposizione funzionale di prodotto, a partire da un’analisi top down relativa alle fasi di utilizzo del prodotto, integrata in seguito con l’analisi complementare bottom up di studio delle features. Questa metodologia è stata applicata ad alcuni casi di studio pratici, ottenendo così analisi e scomposizioni funzionali di una spazzola per il finissaggio dei tessuti, di una floccatrice e di tre macchine per stampaggio a iniezione le quali sono l'una l'evoluzione della precedente
Development of collaborative product design systems
No full textNew product development is a complex activity that is carried out by internal design team as well as with the contributions of external actors, such as users. In order to guide the design activities both internal and external of the boundaries of the company, structured methods or tools can be used. One of their main goals should be favoring and fostering the collaboration among the subjects that take part in the design process. Thus it is possible to generate more innovative and creative product concepts, that respect the actual users’ needs.
The goal of this thesis is to present new structured and formal methods for the design of new products based on functional analysis. The proposed methodologies take into account several factors which determine the success and innovativeness of the product, such as functions, performance, failure or user perception. They allow, for example, to guide a functional benchmarking, to stimulate designers’ creativity or understand which are the promising products, considering the analysis of their reliability. Although such methodologies maintain the benefits of the other existing ones, they also profit from the intuitiveness of the functional analysis, thanks to the ease of learning them.
In parallel, regarding the collaborative design between internal designers and external actors, this thesis comprises an in-depth analysis of the use of crowdsourcing for new product development activities. In particular, it examines the ways of improving a real crowdsourcing platform called LILIT in order to promote the collaboration between the company and external actor
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