| 1. |
- Areth Koroth, Rohith
(författare)
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Supporting production preparation during product development using production requirements
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Product development is affected by uncertainties due to changing customer requirements, changing regulations, technological developments, long lead times, high product complexities, and geopolitical issues. Automation, increased flexibility of production, and reduced lead times are drivers that allow product development to be competitive in this scenario. Design engineers should be aware of production capabilities to facilitate early producibility assessments and to avoid late changes. Production preparation is identified as an important activity in the product development process, whereby the producibility of a product is assessed. In this thesis, the current state of production preparation during product development is investigated and a method is introduced supporting production preparation using production requirements. The work was carried out using the design research methodology framework and comprised four studies based on the four steps of the framework. The research clarification and descriptive study 1 phases aimed at developing understanding and were done by means of data collection at the companies through interviews and document studies. The next two steps were prescriptive study and descriptive study 2, which aimed at developing and evaluating the support. This was done through observation, workshops, and solution development. The production preparation process is supported by Design for Manufacturing and Assembly, failure mode and effects analysis, lesson-learnt documents, and computer-aided design, and the efficiency of the process is dependent on individual skills and knowledge. Tools to support common understanding, remove ambiguity in requirements, and enable collaboration between design and production engineers are needed. The developed method allows for the identification, definition, structuring, and sharing of production requirements, aligning with varying maturities of product and production systems during product development. This helps improve the collaboration between design and production engineers for production preparation.
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| 2. |
- Arjomandi Rad, Mohammad
(författare)
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Data-driven and real-time prediction models for iterative and simulation-driven design processes
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The development of more complex products has increased dependency on virtual/digital models and emphasized the role of simulations as a means of validation before production. This level of dependency on digital models and simulation togetherwith the customization level and continuous requirement change leads to a large number of iterations in each stage of the product development process. This research, studies such group of products that have multidisciplinary, highly iterative, and simulation-driven design processes. It is shown that these high-level technical products, which are commonly outsourced to suppliers, commonly suffer from a long development lead time. The literature points to several research tracks including design automation and data-driven design with possible support. After studying the advantages and disadvantages of each track, a data-driven approachis chosen and studied through two case studies leading to two supporting tools that are expected to improve the development lead time in associated design processes. Feature extraction in CAD as a way to facilitate metamodeling is proposed as the first solution. This support uses the concept of the medial axis to find highly correlated features that can be used in regression models. As for the second supporting tool, an automated CAD script is used to produce a library of images associated with design variants. Dynamic relaxation is used to label each variant with its finite element solution output. Finally, the library is used to train a convolutions neural network that maps screenshots of CAD as input to finite element field answers as output. Both supporting tools can be used to create real-time prediction models in the early conceptual phases of the product development process to explore design space faster and reduce lead time and cost.
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| 3. |
- Heikkinen, Tim
(författare)
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Extended product models supporting multidisciplinary design automation
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Manufacturing organizations often pursue the ability to efficiently and effectively provide custom products for its competitive advantage. Research has shown product configuration to be an effective way of achieving this goal through a modularization, product platform, and product family development approach. A core assumption behind this approach is that the module variants and their constraints are explicitly pre-defined as product knowledge. This is not always the case, however. Many companies require extensive engineering to develop each module variant but cannot afford to do so proactively to meet potential customer requirements within a predictable future. Instead, they attempt to implicitly define the module variants in terms of the process in which they can be realized. In this way, manufacturing companies develop module variants on demand efficiently and effectively when customer requirements are better defined, as justified by the increased probability of profiting from the outcome.Design automation (DA), in its broadest definition, refers to computerized engineering support that efficiently and effectively utilizes pre-planned reusable assets to progress a design process. The literature has reported several successful implementations of DA, but especially widespread higher levels of automation are yet to be seen. One DA approach involves the explicit representation of engineering process and product knowledge in the engineers preferred formats, such as computer scripts, parametric geometry models, and template spreadsheets. These design assets are developed using various computer tools, maintained within the different disciplines involved, such as design, simulation, or manufacturing, and are dependent on each other through the product model. To implement, utilize, and manage DA systems in or across multiple disciplines, it is important to understand how the disciplinary design assets depend on each other throughout the product model and how these relations should be constructed to support users without negatively affecting other aspects, such as modeling flexibility, system transparency, and software tool independence.To support the successful implementation and management of DA systems, this work focuses on understanding how digital product model constituents are, can, and, to some extent, should be extended to concretize relations toward and between design assets from different tools and disciplines. This research consists of interviews with Swedish industrial companies, technical reviews, literature reviews, and prototype developments, resulting in an increased understanding and the consequent development of a framework that highlights aspects regarding the choice and development of extension techniques.
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| 4. |
- Poorkiany, Morteza, 1980-
(författare)
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Managing design rationale in the development of product families and related design automation systems
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- As the markets’ needs change rapidly, developing a variety of products that meet customers’ diverse needs is a competitive factor for many manufacturing companies. Development of highly customized products requires following an engineer-to-order business process to allow the products to be modified or adapted to new customers’ specifications, which brings more value to the customer and profit to the company.The design of a new product variant involves a large amount of repetitive and time-consuming tasks but also information handling activities that are sometimes beyond human capabilities. Such work that does not rely so much on creativity can be carried out more efficiently by applying design automation systems. Design automation stands out as an effective means of cutting costs and lead time for a range of well-defined design activities and is mainly considered as a computer-based tool that processes and manipulates the design information.Variant design usually concern generating a new variant of a basic design, that has been developed and proved previously, according to new customer’s demands. To efficiently generate a new variant, a deep understanding of the intention and fundamentals of the design is essential and can be achieved through access to design rationale—the explanation of the reasons and justifications behind the design.The maintenance of product families and their corresponding design automation systems is essential to retaining their usefulness over time and adapting them to new circumstances. Examples of new circumstances can include the introduction of new variants of existing products, changes in design rules to meet new standards or legislations, or changes in technology. To maintain a design automation system, updating the design knowledge (e.g. design rules) is required. The use of design rationale will normally become a necessity for allowing a better understanding of the knowledge. Consequently, there is a need for principles and methods that enable the capture and structure of the design rationale and sharing them with the users.This study presents methods and tools for modeling design knowledge and managing design rationale in order to support the utilization and maintenance of design automation systems. Managing design rationale concerns enabling the capturing, structuring, and sharing of design rationale. The results have been evaluated through design automation systems in two case companies.
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| 5. |
- Thajudeen, Shamnath
(författare)
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A product platform approach to support the design phase of industrialised house building : A framework conceptualisation when using mixed production strategies
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The ability to offer unique solutions that meet customer demands has been considered a competitive advantage in the industrialised house building (IHB) industry. However, IHB companies are struggling due to varying customer needs and the simultaneous need to fulfil legal regulations, market demands, and production constraints. This has forced companies to develop unique solutions for every housing project to satisfy individual requirements, which automatically drives them to follow an engineer-to-order (ETO)-based strategy. The high involvement of customers in the design process results in the need for considerable engineering activities to validate and adjust to the customer demands, thereby providing individualised solutions. Moreover, designers adopt different production strategies based on the degree of pre-engineering. Product platform approaches have been acknowledged as one of the prominent means to improve both internal and external efficiencies. However, the use of traditional platform-based strategies does not suffice for the design of ETO-based components in an IHB system. A systematic approach is required to align the product platform and different production strategies so that customer requirements can be easily managed. Thus, this research aims to outline the means to support the design phase of IHB by applying a product platform approach when using a mixed production strategy.A Swedish multi-storey house building company that uses a glulam-based post and beam building system was used as the main case in this research. Empirical data were collected mainly from interviews, observations, workshops, and document analysis. This research proposes a framework for the systematic development and use of the product platform by following an inductive approach. Further, a parametric design platform method is proposed to achieve a platform-based development for ETO-based components by identifying, formalising, and reusing the design assets. The findings reveal how the transition of production strategies can be managed with supporting tools and methods. Moreover, this thesis emphasizes the importance of adopting the design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) in IHB. In addition, the research contributes to the existing knowledge on product platforms in IHB by providing the context of mixed production strategies and best practices to improve the IHB design process.
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| 6. |
- André, Samuel, 1986-
(författare)
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The Design Platform Approach –Enabling platform-based development in the engineer-to-order industry
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Manufacturing companies are continuously faced with requirements regarding technology novelty, shorter time to market, a higher level of functionality, and lower prices on their products. This is especially the case for companies developing and manufacturing highly customized products, also known as engineer-to-order (ETO) companies. The traditional view of the product lifecycle introduces the customer only at the sale and distribution phase, which is often concerned with identifying and transferring customer needs into fixed specifications that guide the development of end-consumer products. In the ETO industry, however, the customer is involved already at the scoping and quotation stage, and a significant amount of engineering needs to be performed for every customer order. Thus, ETO companies cannot work according to the traditional model described above since specific requirements are set directly by the customer, or a detailed requirements specification is missing and must be developed in cooperation with the customer. It is not uncommon that products are developed in joint ventures with the customer and run for several years, during which requirements change.Product platform approaches have been generally accepted in the industry to serve a wide product variety while maintaining business efficiency. However, how to apply a product platform approach in ETO companies that face the reality described above is a challenge. Product platform approaches tend to require focused development of the platform, which, in turn, requires some knowledge about the future variants to be derived from the platform. The research presented in this thesis investigates the state of art and practice in the industry regarding the challenges, needs, and current use of product platforms. To respond to the identified need, a product platform approach is proposed that expands the scope of what a product platform has traditionally contained. The purpose of this proposal is to aid the development of highly customized products when physical modules or component scalability do not suffice. The resulting approach, the Design Platform Approach (DPA), provides a coherent model and methodology for heterogeneous engineering assets to be used in product development, supporting the activity of designing and existing solutions. The approach is based on identifying and modelling generic product and process items, which are the generic building blocks of the product, its structure, and the process of designing them. The generic product and process items are associated with the generic assets governing their design. By describing engineering assets that are the outcome of technology and product development, such as finished designs, design guidelines, constraints etc., in a standardized format, the DPA successively evolves.This thesis outlines the DPA in detail and presents cases of applications that have focused on different aspects of the approach. Tools to support the DPA are presented and evaluated in different kinds of industries along with the specific methods used and literature summarization.
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| 7. |
- Popovic, Djordje, 1985-
(författare)
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The development and use of product platforms in single-family industrialized house building
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Single-family industrialized house building is a trade characterized by a complete predefinition of products with off-the-shelf solutions offered to a market niche. Limited customization is included in the offerings in the form of a modular configuration of predefined components. A high level of prefabrication, often including volumetric elements, enables high efficiency in product variant realization processes, specifically, product specification, manufacturing, and on-site assembly. However, as the current markets are dynamic and often volatile, such offerings do not suffice in securing the success of business. Instead, offerings that include flexible product concepts with lower levels of predefinition and the concurrent achievement of high efficiency in processes using volumetric element prefabrication are needed. In this research, realizing this is characterized as the adoption of high-level mass customization.The main value of the presented research for the practice is support for single-family industrialized house building in adopting high-level mass customization. The main enablers for the adoption of both lower and higher levels of mass customization are product platforms. The research on the development and use of product platforms has, however, been conducted mainly in multi-family industrialized house building. The differences in the types of offerings and customers between single-family and multi-family industrialized house building, reveal a research opportunity to study the development and use of product platforms in single-family industrialized house building. More specifically, the knowledge gaps include a lack of understanding regarding: the development and use of product platforms from a business model perspective, challenges for the development and use of product platforms when adopting high-level mass customization and support in addressing the identified challenges.Therefore, the research purpose is to add to the knowledge on the development and use of product platforms and support that enables the adoption of high-level mass customization in single-family industrialized house building. The Design Research Methodology framework was used to plan and design the research. The research was conducted iteratively through four stages named: research clarification, descriptive study I, prescriptive study, and descriptive study II. The results provide an increased understanding regarding the development and use of product platforms in single-family industrialized house building through a coherent description of the product platform alignment phenomenon and the identified challenges when high-level mass customization is adopted. The results also increase knowledge regarding support in the development and use of product platforms that address the identified challenges. This part of the results is twofold. Firstly, an information modelling method is proposed, and it demonstrates how product platform use can be modelled in the design process of single-family industrialized house building. Secondly, the results demonstrate how the design module construct can be modelled using the design assets throughout the design process. To exemplify the design module construct, a configuration of the flexible volumetric elements and the panelized elements they are composed of is proposed. Process efficiency during the predefinition and modify-to-order specification of design modules is addressed. The presented research makes knowledge contributions to the theoretical fields of product platforms, building information management and business models.
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| 8. |
- Thajudeen, Shamnath
(författare)
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Supporting the design phase of industrialised house building using a product platform approach : A case study of a timber based post and beam building system
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent years, industrialised house building has gained shares on the Swedish house building market. The market demands for industrialised house building are exceeding the available supply of housing and experiencing a substantial increase in the housing production costs. For industrialised house building, the design has been identified as a critical phase with the systematization of the design a necessary part of industrialisation. Therefore, companies strive towards the inclusion of standardization and controlled processes in the design phase. Product platforms have proved to be related to the standardization of processes and products. Introducing a product platform approach in the design phase of house building could be a way to improve the design and ensure value creation in entire processes. Thus, the aim of this research is to outline means to support and improve the design phase of industrialised house building by using a product platform approach.A Swedish multi-storey house building company that uses glulam post and beam building system with a focus on platform development was used as the single case study in this research. The company intends to achieve increased efficiency by moving towards industrialized approaches. Empirical data were mainly gathered from interviews, observations, workshops, and document analysis. The findings present the existing challenges in the housing building industry and outlines twenty critical success factors that need to be considered in the design phase. Also, the result outlines support methods and tools that can be used for the improvement of the design phase when applying a product platform approach. Moreover, a flexible product platform can be developed with the support of parametric modelling and used to design building components having an engineer-to-order characteristic. Finally, the results show that a building system can be considered as part of a product platform in light of the necessity of an adequate support in the design process to maintain a sustainable platform. Thus, the contribution includes the addition of knowledge to platform theory in general and its application on the design phase of industrialised house building.
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