Eco-innovative Method to Improve the Distribution Phase of Product

The integration of the environmental dimension is crucial in industrial activity. Designers should integrate the new environmental constraints to adapt their approaches and methodologies in the framework of eco-innovation of industrial products and consumer goods. This paper proposes a new method integrating ecological aspects into the innovation process composed of three main stages: an analysis and structuring of the product, the formalization of the problem and the resolution phase. According to the structuring and the design objectives, actions can be selected and allow to guide the design to the most relevant modification to perform on the product. An illustration of the approach is applied on the optimization of the environmental impacts related to the logistical aspects

What Green Design Activities and Mindsets Drive Innovation and Sustainability in Student Teams?

What sustainable design practices can also drive innovation, and what practices do people value? Previous analysis of sustainable design methods, and the opportunism of designers generally, has suggested that design methods should actually be examined at the level of their component activities and mindsets, as each of these provides different advantages that designers could mix and match. This study performed workshops of three sustainable design methods for a total of 327 students, then surveyed students about which activities or mindsets within each design method drove innovation value, sustainability value, and any other value. The design methods tested were The Natural Step, Whole System Mapping, and Biomimicry. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of surveys found that some activities and mindsets were valued more than others for sustainability, innovation, or both, and to some extent revealed why. Some results were surprising and suggest new research directions

Reduction Defect in Sewing Work Stations by Integrating OTSM-TRIZ and FMEA

The problems that occur in PT Sepatu are still many defect products. To improve the quality and reduce the number of defects is to make improvements to the flow of the process by using the DMAI stages. In the Define stage, the determination of the selected critical defect is needle fracture, jump stitch, loose stitch, Upper symmetry, and Upper wrinkling. In the Measure phase, DPMO measurements were carried out at 4028 units and a sigma level of 4.1. In the Analyze stage, analyze complex problems that cause defects in the sewing department using Network of Problem (NoP). The output of Nop in the form of partial solution (Ps) and sub problem (Pb) becomes the FMEA input, which will then be analyzed and measured in the value of the RPN. The potential Failure Mode (s) with the highest RPN score in the FMEA table will be a priority and become the initial input to the OTSM-TRIZ stage procedure. In the Improve phase using 40 selected inventory principles the repair solution performs cleaning and checking the position of the rotary-yarn tip at the start of each shift, gives a sign sticker on the tension ring, makes a tool to check bent needles, conducts employee training and employee skill mapping. From the results of the implementation of recommendations, improvements to the estimated reduction defect of 705 pairs of shoes with sigma 4.3 leve

What Design Practices Do Professionals Use for Sustainability and Innovation?

Interviews with 27 professionals were performed to investigate what designers, engineers, and their managers value in sustainable design practices, and see how sustainable design practices might also provide innovation. Quantitative and qualitative analysis found that only 1/6th of design practices were valued for both sustainability and innovation; two often-mentioned practices were systems thinking and The Natural Step. Providing a new lens, broadening scope, and problem redefinition were some of the reasons these and other design practices were valued for both sustainability and innovation

Tools for sustainable product design: additive manufacturing

The advent of additive manufacturing technologies presents a number of opportunities that have the potential to greatly benefit designers, and contribute to the sustainability of products. Additive manufacturing technologies have removed many of the manufacturing restrictions that may previously have compromised a designer’s ability to make the product they imagined. Products can also be extensively customized to the user thus, once again, potentially increasing their desirability, pleasure and attachment and therefore their longevity. As additive manufacturing technologies evolve, and more new materials become available, and multiple material technologies are further developed, the field of product design has the potential to greatly change. This paper examines how aspects of additive manufacturing, from a sustainable design perspective, could become a useful tool in the arsenal to bring about the sustainable design of consumer products

The analysis and presentation of patents to support engineering design

This paper explores the role of patents in engineering design, and how the extraction and presentation of patent data could be improved for designers. We propose the use of crowdsourcing as a means to post tasks online for a crowd of people to participate and complete. The is-sues of assessment, searching, clustering and knowledge transfer are evaluated with respect to the literature. Opportunities for potential crowd intervention are then discussed, before the presentation of two initial studies. These related to the categorization and interpretation of patents respectively using an online platform. The initial results establish basic crowd capabilities in understanding patent text and interpreting patent drawings. This has shown that reasonable results can be achieved if tasks of appropriate duration and complexity are set, and if test questions are incorporated to ensure a basic level of understanding exists in the workers

Recommending Sustainable Design Practices by Characterizing Activities And Mindsets

How do designers, engineers, and managers choose the best sustainable design method for their work? How can different design practices combine to complement each other? This study makes recommendations by deconstructing 14 design methods, guides, certifications, and other practices into their constituent activities and mindsets, then characterizing those activities and mindsets. For example, some of the seven activity categories are analysis, ideation, and goal-setting; some of the eight mindset categories are priorities, abstract versus concrete goals, and environmental versus social goals. Recommendations are given for matching sustainable design practices to different usage contexts by their constituent activities and mindsets. It also recommends combining design practices by showing which methods / guides / certifications contain complementary activities or mindsets vs. redundant ones. This work should enable designers and engineers to practice more effective and creative sustainable design

Methods and tools for the generation of ideas that follow circular criteria in the early stages of the product design

Ponència presentada al 26th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, Terrassa, 5 th -8 th July 2022The circular economy offers an alternative to the traditional linear economy based on the classic model of production. Currently, there is great pressure to achieve some sustainability goals in different areas. In reference to product design, main environmental and economic decisions affecting the whole life cycle of product are adopted during the conceptual design stage. There are many tools and methods that support the generation of ideas allowing the development of products with low environmental impact. This work shows a compilation and analysis of the tools and methods that consider product circular design and that can help in the creative phases, where the design proposals are still abstract or incomplete. The information analyzed will allow identifying the appropriate method according to the type of product, the circularity criteria to be integrated or the way of integrating them. On the other hand, it will allow identifying the aspects of improvement of the available methods in order to be able to develop a more complete tool, which could help designers in the generation of ideas for sustainable products under circularity criteria in an agile and effective way.La Economía Circular ofrece una alternativa a la tradicional economía lineal basada en el modelo clásico de producción. Hoy en día existe una gran presión por alcanzar determinados objetivos de sostenibilidad en diferentes ámbitos. En lo que respecta al diseño de productos, es en la fase conceptual donde se adoptan las principales decisiones que afectarán posteriormente a los impactos ambientales y económicos de un producto durante todo su ciclo de vida. Existen multitud de herramientas y métodos que ayudan en la generación de ideas que permitan desarrollar productos de baja incidencia ambiental. Este trabajo muestra una recopilación y análisis de las herramientas y métodos que consideran la circularidad y que pueden ayudar en las fases creativas, donde las propuestas de diseño aún son abstractas o incompletas. La información analizada de cada uno de ellos permitirá identificar el método adecuado en función del tipo de producto, los criterios de circularidad a integrar o el modo de integrarlos. Por otro lado, permitirá identificar los aspectos de mejora de los métodos disponibles pudiendo así desarrollar una herramienta más completa, que de manera ágil y efectiva, ayude a los diseñadores en la generación de ideas de productos sostenibles bajo criterios de circularidad

Bio-inspired design as a solution to generate creative and circular product concepts

Consumers are showing a growing concern for the environment and sustainability, while they keep their interest in more creative products that ‘delight’ them and exceed their expectations. Consequently, designers must meet the circular economy (CE) requirements, but also provide creative solutions. The present research describes an experiment in which a group of designers were asked to solve design problems using two different methods: random stimuli and biomimicry. The results help to answer the question regarding whether methods focused on requirements (biological requirements in this case) are as effective for obtaining creative solutions as methods oriented toward creative ideas (specifically random stimuli). The paper also examines whether biomimicry stimuli promote circularity to a sufficiently greater extent than a random stimulus to compensate for the possible loss of creativity with respect to the random method. The results show that biomimicry stimuli promote circularity in the concepts without diminishing their creativity