AUTOMOBILE industry, RESEARCH & development, PROTOTYPES, EXPERIMENTAL automobiles, and THEORY of knowledge

The capacity of organizations to share knowledge is seen as a source of competitive advantage in many industries. Knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse have been indicated as important enablers of organizational efficiency and innovation performance. Although firms may own valuable knowledge, the presence of barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse may hinder the exploitation of such knowledge. The present study explores the barriers to knowledge sourcing and reuse from electronic repository and their implications within the virtual product prototyping stage of new products development. The study is based on 24 interviews with research and development (R&D) employees of a large supplier of R&D in the automotive sector. Results demonstrate that the poor operational quality of a repository hinders knowledge sourcing; thereby, people prefer sourcing knowledge from other colleagues rather than from the repository. Moreover, the inefficiencies in knowledge sourcing from a repository, the poor quality of the codified knowledge and its complexity affect the reuse of existing knowledge. This study reveals that knowledge sourcing and knowledge reuse can affect the time performance in the virtual product prototype development process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

VIRTUAL machine systems, LEGAL tender, PROTOTYPES, AUTOMOBILE industry, VISUAL programming languages (Computer science), INDUSTRIAL procurement, CONSTRUCTION projects, METHODOLOGY, BUILDING -- Equipment & supplies, and COMPUTER network resources

Purpose - Virtual prototyping technologies linked to building information models are commonplace within the aeronautical and automotive industries. Their use within the construction industry is now emerging. The purpose of this paper is to show how these technologies have been adopted on the pre-tender planning for a typical construction project. Design/methodology/approach - The research methodology taken was an "action research" approach where the researchers and developers were actively involved in the production of the virtual prototypes on behalf of the contractor thereby gaining consistent access to the decisions of the planning staff. The experiences from the case study were considered together with similar research on other construction projects. Findings - The findings from the case studies identify the role of virtual prototyping in components modelling, site modelling, construction equipment modelling, temporary works modelling, construction method visualization and method verification processes. Originality/value - The paper presents a state-of-the-art review and discusses the implications for the tendering process as these technologies are adopted. The adoption of the technologies will lead to new protocols and changes in the procurement of buildings and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PROTOTYPES, AUTOMOBILE industry, REAL-time control, and COMPUTER simulation

Rapid prototyping of complex systems embedded in even more complex environments raises the need for a layered design approach. Our example is a mechatronic design taken from the automotive industry and illustrates the rapid-prototyping procedure of real-time-critical control laws. The approach is based on an object-oriented structuring allowing not only central control units but also distributed control units as needed by today’s designs. The implementation of control laws is a hardware-in-the-loop simulation, refined in steps and reducing the simulation part at every one of these. On the lower level, common platforms, such as FPGAs, microcontrollers or specialized platforms, can be instantiated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

KNOWLEDGE management, AUTOMOBILE industry, RESEARCH & development, ERRATA (Publishing), and VIRTUAL product placement

The aforementioned article, published online on 7 April 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com), has been retracted by agreement between the authors, the journal Editor in Chief, Anthony Wensley, and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. The retraction has been agreed because of its unintended duplicate publication in this journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MANUFACTURING processes, PROTOTYPES, AUTOMOBILE industry, ENGINEERING design, NEW product development, and RAPID prototyping

Prototypes are important tools in the development and production of new products. In the engineering design literature, prototypes are mainly perceived as tools for validating and verifying aspects of a design in the late stages of the design process. However, several studies have found that prototypes are important in the earlier design stages as well, and it is currently unknown how prototypes contribute to add value within the overall value chains of a business system. Using a case-study approach, we investigate this topic seeking to answer the question of how prototypes and rapid prototyping add value in the various stages of the new product development process in the automotive industry. Based on our findings, we propose that the value of prototypes can be divided into the following three categories: the artefact, i.e. the prototype; the process, i.e. prototyping; or the experiment, i.e. the data generated from experimenting with the artefact. Finally, we argue that prototypes add value to both the production and knowledge value stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]