To design a more robust artifact, an artifact design based on a design rationale analysis is pivotal. Errors in previous design rationales that led to the degradation of artifact robustness in the past provide valuable knowledge towards improving the robust design. However, methods for exposing and analysing errors in design rationale remain unclear. This paper proposes a structured method for a design rationale analysis based on logical structuring. This method provides a well-constructed means of identifying and analysing errors in design rationale from the perspective of knowledge operation.

The aim of the paper is to identify from the perspective of designers, what is required to optimally design smart habilitation devices for additive manufacturing, whilst ensuring a high quality multi-user experience. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with designers to identify the key requirements to develop such devices. The outcome of this study will provide a preliminary framework for designers to take advantage of the state-of-the-art of design for additive manufacturing in order to meet the expectations of multiple users of smart devices for pediatric occupational therapy.

The modular lightweight design attempts to reconcile the partially conflicting goals between modularization and lightweight design in order to establish a harmonized modular hybrid design. This requires a close exchange of the resulting development data between the two areas. In this contribution a concept for an interface for the data exchange between system models and FEM models is presented and successfully implemented in the Cameo Systems Modeler and applied to examples from the aircraft cabin. With the interface the homogenization step of modular lightweight design can be performed.

A comprehensive domain independent system-level perspective of conceptualization of design is a major driver for successful product development. Such a general design model, Integral Design, was developed based on a specific Dutch design method, Methodical design, which was aimed specifically for applications in the Mechanical Engineering domain. The design method was specifically developed with the help of experiences designers and is meant for young students in a multi-disciplinary design context, such as building design. Integral design provides a suitable framework, existing of phases and specific steps, for guiding users through the design process. It support not only the designers but also helps them to make the process explicit and to communicate the actions and results to their stakeholders. The focus in this paper is on presenting the overall frame work of the design method. In the Netherlands in several bachelor and master educational programs at Technical High schools and the University of Technology Eindhoven use this model to teach students mechanical engineering design and building services design. As such it is one of the most popular design method in the Netherlands.

Shortening product development cycles while improving cost efficiency and quality epitomize a key challenge in today's competitive market environment. Integrated approaches simultaneously taking into account a conceptual design, material and processing definition methodologically facilitate the progress of promising product solutions most effectively. However, assorted approaches in the field of lightweight design as well as material selection mostly trying to cover alternative solutions on a component-specific level exclusively, yet.

Thus, this contribution outlines a cross-component material selection for function-based lightweight design within the Extended Target Weighing Approach covering the identification and evaluation of lightweight design potentials. The developed method is based on Ashby's material selection additionally taking into account project objectives for mass, costs and CO2 emissions in individual functional design spaces. Resulting in material combinations fitting to clearly stated project targets, the product engineer is already supported in an early phase of product development when initially assessing feasible materials for the overall system development.

This research aimed to gain insight into current practices and challenges with respect to the adoption of virtual testing and integration with physical testing in product development processes. A focused workshop investigated industrial perspectives on adopting virtual testing and current challenges. This paper reports the findings from the workshop in which representatives from a range of industries explored how virtual testing is used to support physical testing in their different contexts. This paper discusses the current challenges industries face in adopting virtual testing and changing role of physical testing, with reference to recent literature on physical and virtual testing and supported by an earlier empirical case study. This paper reports areas where more research is needed to support industries in overcoming these challenges.

Edible insects have been introduced as a novel protein source. Although the rationales for insect-eating highlight the urgency of changing diets into more sustainable solutions, there is still a need for better understanding how packaging design is related to adoption of insects. Much consumer research has been conducted to understand the acceptance of insects, but packaging design connected to practices has been given less focus. This article looks at packaging as a medium for stimulating adoption and links an empirical study on analogies for packaging design to practices of eating insects.

Fast fashion, with its focus on cheap clothing and everchanging trends, has an enormous negative environmental and social impact. Despite rising consumer awareness and slow fashion as an emerging trend, many consumers often still rely on fast fashion. This research aims to create insights into why customers keep returning to fast fashion and what is holding them back from buying sustainable fashion. This is done through a quantitative survey (n=521) and qualitative semi-structured interviews (n=9). Based on the findings, opportunities are defined for designers on how, where, and when to intervene, and on which target group to focus. The main obstacles that counter slow fashion are (i) a lack of understandable and clear information, (ii) the price or available budget, and (iii) the importance of social influence. Strategic design interventions should focus on educating eco-conscious and social-conscious customers based on their personal definition of sustainable fashion. By providing in-store information during time of purchase, designers can create new shopping experiences, educate customers using a positive note and build customer relations with the retailer. Further research should extend these insights with retailers' perspectives.

Lightweight potential is a powerful indicator – but not as powerful as it could be. Current methods for analyzing a product's potential to be reduced in mass only deal with a few of the most important criteria for lightweight design. This paper presents an approach transferring cost-benefit analysis to the holistic derivation of lightweight potential. The approach is able to deal with different types of criteria supporting the designer in indentifying the most promising components for mass reduction. An evaluation example is given showcasing a tooling machine.

System models are used to merge relevant engineering artefacts and relationships. Therefore, a high model quality must be ensured. Currently, there is no method for defining company-specific metrics to assess system model quality. In a six-step research approach, a method is defined: (1) literature analysis on quality assessment approaches, (2) derivation of success factors, (3) evaluation of approaches, (4) development of a method, (5) application in automotive industry, and (6) evaluation. The method supports system engineers to derive tailored metrics to objectively assess the model quality.

Fourth industrial revolution called Industry 4.0 has radically transformed production systems in manufacturing companies by the integration of emerging technologies. However, manufacturers must overcome several barriers, such as the lack of qualified talent to develop and manage various high-technology systems. Assembly system design aims to define proper assembly line configurations with the optimal performances to overcome increased competitiveness in the market. Nowadays, assembly system design should consider industry 4.0 concepts integration beyond traditional aspects like system balancing and sequencing. In this paper, we introduce a project-based learning approach to teach engineering students assembly system design taking into account industry 4.0 dimension. This project is carried out in collaboration with an industrial partner to design and implement car doors assembly line. The project demonstrated students interest and prepared them better for industry 4.0 era.

Aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) is an innovative material for lightweight structures due to its various advantages (e.g. low specific mass). Today, many material properties (e.g. strength) are still not well researched, which is why AFS is not yet considered in current material selection processes. Therefore, AFS has rarely been used in the past and its application potential remains unused. This paper presents an approach toward an appropriate method for considering AFS in material selection processes to assist designers in evaluating whether the use of AFS in an application is profitable.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in the servitization journey of product-centric firms from an ecosystem perspective, considering both intra-firm and inter-firm levels. Prior research addresses the challenges of servitization in many sectors from different perspectives. However, the majority of studies primarily focus on the provider of an offering. There is a lack of in-depth studies on analysing servitization challenges from the broader set of network actors including customers, suppliers, and sub-suppliers at the intra-firm and inter-firm levels. A multiple case study method was used to analyse five product-centric firms from different industries that were engaged in servitization. At intra- firm level, our analysis shows that ‘coordination’ is a major challenge for the provider, supplier, and sub-suppliers, and that ‘uncertainty’ and ‘risk’ is a major challenge for the provider, customer, and supplier. At inter-firm level, ‘partnership management’ found to be a most significant challenge for provider, customer, supplier, and sub-suppliers. The study contributes to the discussion of the relational view approach for servitization research.

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has a large potential to revolutionize the manufacturing industry, yet the printing parameters and part design have a profound impact on the robustness of the printing process as well as the resulting quality of the manufactured components. To control the printing process, a substantial number of parameters is measured while printing and used primarily to control and adjust the printing process in-situ. The question raised in this paper is how to benefit from these data being gathered to gain insight into the print process stability. The case study performed included the analysis of data gathered during printing 22 components. The analysis was performed with a widely used Random Forest Classifier. The study revealed that the data did contain some detectable patterns that can be used further in assessing the quality of the printed component, however, they were distinct enough so that in case the test and train sets were comprised of separate components the predictions’ result was very poor. The study gives a good understanding of what is necessary to do a meaningful analytics study of manufacturing data from a design perspective.

When prolonging the physical lifetime of products, it is important to also consider the value lifetime, the time before customers discards the products because it no longer has any perceived value. In this paper we study design and marketing strategies known to be particularly relevant to enhance the value perception of consumers, hence lifetimes of products. To do so, we first review literature to build a framework, we then use to conduct case studies at five Danish product design brands. This let us to insights on design and marketing strategies relevant to enhance product lifetimes.

Digitalization is one of the fundamental pillars of Industry 4.0. Within smart factories, Big Data Analytics systems play a key role in supporting the decision-making process of various stages of business processes. In this context, this research aims to identify solutions able to process large volumes of data from digital business processes with the final goal of adding value to the organisation. More specifically, the research deals with the implementation of a digital manufacturing tool able to digitize the workforce management process. The research has been applied in the case study of an Italian manufacturing company operating in the leather goods sector through the digitalization of the workforce management by a cloud-based platform. The implementation of the tool increases the efficiency of the production process, provides efficient management and integrates workforce data into one system. The implemented tool generates a large volume of data, the final goal is to make data user-friendly to support business decisions. Digitisation provides an exchange of information to support managers to make confident decisions.

This paper examines how human and organizational factors need to be designed to achieve strong technological maturity of either the products or the production process. In a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA), a combination of intensive training and strong worker participation is found to be associated with strong technological maturity in the two organizational contexts: firms with a strong entrepreneurial culture and in large firms oriented towards customer-oriented innovation. Overall, the paper uncovers designs or causal recipes for a successful digital transformation.

The Life Cycle Energy Optimisation (LCEO) methodology aims at finding a design solution that uses a minimum amount of cumulative energy demand over the different phases of the vehicle's life cycle, while complying with a set of functional constraints. This effectively balances trade-offs, and therewith avoids sub-optimal shifting between the energy demand for the cradle-to-production of materials, operation of the vehicle, and end-of-life phases. The present work describes the extension of the LCEO methodology to perform holistic product system optimisation. The constrained design of an automotive component and the design of a subset of the processes which are applied to it during its life cycle are simultaneously optimised to achieve a minimal product system life cycle energy. A subset of the processes of the end-of-life phase of a vehicle's roof are modeled through a continuous formulation. The roof is modeled as a sandwich structure with its design variables being the material compositions and the thicknesses of the different layers. The results show the applicability of the LCEO methodology to product system design and the use of penalization to ensure solution feasibility.

Design education needs to be continually investigated and improved to stay relevant. The Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is a leading university focused on all elements of technology-based design. The overarching motivation of our research is to enhance design education curriculum at SUTD. Our research objectives are (1) to understand how design competencies are implemented in SUTD's curriculum and courses (2) to identify gaps in teaching of design competencies at SUTD. We analyse competencies in 28 design courses at SUTD. We develop the visualization and analysis of 12 skills grouped under two abilities from the Design competency assessment framework. Our main contributions are: (1) We present an approach to map the design competencies that are taught across design courses at a university with an interdisciplinary curriculum, (2) We present an approach for mapping design competency progression based on ITAE (Introduced, Taught, Assessed, Expected) categorization, (3) Based on the above, we provide preliminary findings on two skill gaps in the curriculum, substantiated with insights from interviews with course coordinators.

Design representations are important tools for designers in the design process. To help designers choose the appropriate representation, taxonomies have been proposed based on type, degree of fidelity, and when to use them. However, Design representations may also play an important role in designers' communication with users and enabling users as co-designers. Therefore, new taxonomies, focusing on design representations’ potential mediating roles in collaborative design processes with users, have been developed. The purpose of this interview study, with twelve designers within Swedish industry, was thus to investigate how designers use design representations in communication with users in the design process. The study indicates that the designers mainly interacted with users in order for them to answer specific design questions or to evaluate design solutions. If design representations’ value for facilitating communication and collaboration with users should be emphasized, we need to shift from teaching mainly taxonomies related to fidelity levels or when to use them in the design process, and rather educate future designers about design representations inherent potential to mediate and enhance the dialogue with users.