TARGET costing, PROTOTYPES, PRODUCT design, RAPID prototyping, and SUPPLIERS

Prototyping allows firms to evaluate the technical feasibility of alternative product designs and to better estimate their costs. We study a collaborative prototyping scenario in which a manufacturer involves a supplier in the prototyping process by letting the supplier make detailed design choices for critical components and provide prototypes for testing. While the supplier can obtain private information about the costs, the manufacturer uses target costing to gain control over the design choice. We show that involving the supplier in the prototyping process has an important influence on the manufacturer's optimal decisions. The collaboration results in information asymmetry, which makes parallel prototyping less attractive and potentially reverses the optimal testing sequence under sequential prototyping: It may be optimal to test designs in increasing order of attractiveness to avoid that the supplier does not release technically and economically feasible prototypes for strategic reasons. We also find that the classical target costing approaches (cost‐ and market‐based) need to be adjusted in the presence of alternative designs: Due to the strategic behavior of suppliers, it is not always optimal to provide identical target costs for designs with similar cost and performance estimates, nor to provide different target costs for dissimilar designs. Furthermore, the timing is important: While committing upfront to carefully chosen target costs reduces the supplier's strategic behavior, in some circumstances, the manufacturer can take advantage of this behavior by remaining flexible and specifying the second prototype's target costs later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRODUCT design, CONSUMER preferences, MASS customization, USER interfaces (Computer systems), MIXED reality, and VIRTUAL prototypes

Designing new products according to user needs and requirements is a key success factor for companies. However, the characterization of user requirements in the early design stages is not an easy task due to the subjective nature of these requirements and because of the communication gap between users and designers. Digital design tools have the potential to enable users to actively participate in the design process and to directly interact with representations of the future product. Yet, they suffer a trade-off between their ability to accurately represent the user experience with the future product and their capacity to offer simple interfaces for the end user to manipulate. To overcome this issue, we introduce a new modular digital tool that allows users to become active participants of the design process through a high level of both immersion and control. The tool consists in a combination of a virtual reality environment for immersion and intuitive physical interfaces for direct control, resulting in a mixed reality hardware/software system. The hardware is made of modular tangible user interfaces (TUIs), custom-made by 3D printing and powered by a 3D game engine while the interactive content is displayed in virtual reality. The modularity of the system allows several TUIs and 3D content behaviours configurations to bring user friendliness and intuitively for each specific design project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECONOMIC impact, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT design, RESEARCH & development, INNOVATIONS in business, and ENGINEERING students

Abstract: Research and development laboratories in universities and firms around the world try to maximize innovation with a limited set of resources. However, questions remain about the influence of resource constraints on idea generation in early-stage product design. Multiple embedded case studies were conducted with engineering students and faculty at two university campuses in Mexico. Students developed sketches for products that would satisfy an open-ended design problem in a constrained-resource setting, where the variables were the timing of when information about these constraints was revealed, and the regular prototyping environment of the student. The evidence suggests that the timing of awareness of constraints can have an impact on design outcomes, but that this effect varies depending on the designer's regular prototyping resource environment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

PRODUCT design, PROTOTYPES, PRODUCT differentiation, SIMULATION methods & models, and VIRTUAL reality

The paper deals with prototyping strategies aimed at supporting engineers in the design of the multisensory experience of products. It is widely recognised that the most effective strategy to design it is to create working prototypes and analyse user's reactions when interacting with them. Starting from this consciousness, we will discuss of how virtual reality (VR) technologies can support engineers to build prototypes suitable to this aim. Furthermore we will demonstrate how VR-based prototypes do not only represent a valid alternative to physical prototypes, but also a step forward thanks to the possibility of simulating and rendering multisensory and real-time modifiable interactions between the user and the prototype. These characteristics of VR-based prototypes enable engineers to rapidly test with users different variants and to optimise the multisensory experience perceived by them during the interaction. The discussion is supported both by examples available in literature and by case studies we have developed over the years on this topic. Specifically, in our research we have concentrated on what happens in the physical contact between the user and the product. Such contact strongly influences the user's impression about the product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT design, THREE-dimensional printing, DESIGN education, and DESIGN research

Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) is a growing field of enquiry. Over the past few years, the scientific community has begun to explore this topic to provide a basis for supporting professional design practice. However, current knowledge is still largely fragmented, difficult to access and inconsistent in language and presentation. This paper seeks to collate and organise this dispersed but growing body of knowledge, using a single and coherent conceptual framework. The framework is based on a generic design process model and consists of five parts: Conceptual design, Embodiment design, Detail design and Process planning and Process selection. 81 articles on DfAM are mapped onto the framework to provide, for the first time, a clear summary of the state of the art across the whole design process. Nine directions for the future of DfAM research are then proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ENGINEERING design, PRODUCT design, INDUSTRIAL design, GESTURE, and VIDEO coding

There is an on-going focus exploring the use of gesture in design situations; however, there are still significant questions as to how this is related to the understanding and communication of design concepts. This work explores the use of gesture through observing and video-coding four teams of engineering graduates during an ideation session. This was used to detail the relationship between the function behaviour structure elements and individual gestures as well as to identify archetypal gesture sequences – compound reflective, compound directed one-way, mirroring, and modification. Gesture sequences occurred at critical periods during the design session, such as idea evolution and developing shared understanding. They are used to act out design concepts, repeat and learn from sequences, and establish shared understanding. Finally, a number of implications are identified for both researchers and those seeking to support practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

PRODUCT design and MANUFACTURES

The design of a new product usually takes shape gradually over time. Traditionally prototypes follow the design and are concluded before product launch. To decrease the time-to-launch, one may want to start prototype tests in advance of the design completion. However, with a slowly evolving design, modifications (in design) between subsequent prototypes can be significant, thereby increasing the time required for prototyping. This effect would be enhanced further if the prototyping time per unit of design change (sensitivity) is high. Using analytical models, we show how the interaction between the speed of evolution and the sensitivity impacts overlapping strategies. In scenarios where the impact of design changes can only be measured in discrete units, we formulate a shortest-path model and show how discreteness may limit the number of used prototypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT design, TECHNOLOGICAL innovations & economics, MANAGEMENT science research, DISTRIBUTORS (Commerce), MANAGEMENT, and MANUFACTURING process management

Existing studies of supplier involvement in new product development have mainly focused on project-related short-term processes and success factors. This study validates and extends an existing exploratory framework, which comprises both long-term strategic processes and short-term operational processes that are related to supplier involvement. The empirical validation is based on a multiple-case study of supplier collaborations at a manufacturer in the copier and printer industry. The analysis of eight cases of supplier involvement reveals that the results of supplier–manufacturer collaborations and the associated issues and problems can best be explained by the patterns in the extent to which the manufacturer manages supplier involvement in the short term and the long term. The results of this study reveal that the initial framework is helpful in understanding why certain collaborations are not effectively managed yet conclude that the existing analytical distinction among four different management areas does not sufficiently reflect empirical reality. This leads to the reconceptualization and further detailing of the framework. Instead of four managerial areas, this study proposes to distinguish between the strategic management arena and the operational management arena. The strategic management arena contains processes that together provide long-term, strategic direction and operational support for project teams adopting supplier involvement. These processes also contribute to building up a supplier base that can meet current and future technology and capability needs. The operational management arena contains processes that are aimed at planning, managing, and evaluating the actual collaborations in a specific development project. The results of this study suggest that success of involving suppliers in product development is reflected by the firm's ability to capture both short- and long-term benefits. If companies spend most of their time on operational management in development projects, they will fail to use the leverage effect of planning and preparing such involvement through strategic management activities. Also, they will not be sufficiently able to capture possible long-term technology and learning benefits that may spin off from individual projects. Long-term collaboration benefits can only be captured if a company can build long-term relationships with key suppliers, with which it builds learning routines and ensures that the capability sets of both parties are aligned and remain useful for future joint projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEW product development, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT management, INDUSTRIAL research, PRODUCT design, and MANUFACTURING industries

This article empirically explores the nature of the role of design in the new product development process. The investigation adopts a multiple case study methodology. Data were collected through a six-month interview program carried out with mid-size to large U.K. manufacturing companies. The researchers articulate the scope and detailed nature of actions undertaken by design across all phases of the new product development process. Design functional, integration, and leadership actions are unraveled from the data. A taxonomy characterizing three roles for design in new product development is developed and explained. In the first role, design is explored as a functional specialism. The second categorization develops the role of design as part of a multifunctional team. The third role depicts the designer as process leader. Detailed actions and skills associated with each role are discussed and illustrated. Contextual factors explaining and influencing each design role are unraveled. These are articulated as speed of development process, innovativeness of the product development effort, and use of external design agencies. The implications of these findings for the development of design skills and capabilities are discussed in terms of recruitment, training, and educational policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PRODUCT design, MIXED reality, and VIRTUAL prototypes

A correction to the article "Towards user empowerment in product design: A mixed reality tool for interactive virtual prototyping" is presented.

PRODUCT management, RAPID prototyping, PRODUCT design, and INDUSTRIAL research

This article presents information, related to product management. This article presents an empirically based framework for generating new product ideas to help managers plan their new-product activities. Procter & Gamble Co.'s scientists spent more than four decades developing the fat substitute Olestra. Johnson & Johnson Inc., developed a patented processing technology that allowed them to use highly absorbent peat moss in their new line of very thin sanitary napkins. Few development projects fully deliver on their early promises because companies lack an "aggregate project plan." One of the key factors behind this failure is that organizations lack formal processes for selecting which projects to pursue. Derivative projects typically include cost-reduced versions of existing projects or enhancements to existing manufacturing processes. Studies have shown that about 60% of the cost gap between a firm and its best competitors can be accounted for in engineering, not manufacturing or material.