Engineering simulations for cancer systems biology

Computer simulation can be used to inform in vivo and in vitro experimentation, enabling rapid, low-cost hypothesis generation and directing experimental design in order to test those hypotheses. In this way, in silico models become a scientific instrument for investigation, and so should be developed to high standards, be carefully calibrated and their findings presented in such that they may be reproduced. Here, we outline a framework that supports developing simulations as scientific instruments, and we select cancer systems biology as an exemplar domain, with a particular focus on cellular signalling models. We consider the challenges of lack of data, incomplete knowledge and modelling in the context of a rapidly changing knowledge base. Our framework comprises a process to clearly separate scientific and engineering concerns in model and simulation development, and an argumentation approach to documenting models for rigorous way of recording assumptions and knowledge gaps. We propose interactive, dynamic visualisation tools to enable the biological community to interact with cellular signalling models directly for experimental design. There is a mismatch in scale between these cellular models and tissue structures that are affected by tumours, and bridging this gap requires substantial computational resource. We present concurrent programming as a technology to link scales without losing important details through model simplification. We discuss the value of combining this technology, interactive visualisation, argumentation and model separation to support development of multi-scale models that represent biologically plausible cells arranged in biologically plausible structures that model cell behaviour, interactions and response to therapeutic interventions

Applying lean principles and set-based approaches in product development

The research described in this thesis addresses the problem of transformation to lean product development (LPD) and how to introduce and support the use of set-based design (SBD) in the concept development process. The original description of SBD does not define how to generate, evaluate and reduce a set of design solutions. Evaluation of solution candidates, which are too complex to be analytically verified, or are driven by qualitative criteria, has here been given special attention, particularly in cases when methods utilising human judgment may be needed. For some products, the solution space can consist of both principally different alternatives and parameterised variants of these. The question here is if established methods can be combined and introduced in an efficient way to support an SBD process for development of such products, when driven by both quantitative and qualitative criteria.The research approaches used are:-\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 a two-case study (Yin, 2009), -\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 the design research methodology (Blessing and Chakrabarti, 2009), and -\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 the scientific work paradigm (J\uf8rgensen, 1992), the last two combined with multiple case studies. Also, elements of action research (Oosthuizen, 2002) are used. The results show that the principles and introduction of LPD were experienced as positive by participating practitioners in the conducted case studies. It was furthermore shown that SBD can be introduced and applied in a workshop at team level within a time frame of one or two working days if the design problem at hand is not too complex. Another result is that SBD can be combined with and supported by established methods such as creative and systematic methods for synthesis, enhanced function-means modelling, axiomatic design, extended causal diagrammes, interactive evolutionary algorithms (IEA) and Pugh matrices for generation, analysis, evaluation and reduction of a solution space of design alternatives and variants of these. Both qualitative and quantitative requirements can be handled. The conclusions are that a transformation to LPD is facilitated by information about good examples and internal support by management. Also, the existence of a lean enthusiast in the organization and an appropriate implementation plan supports a transformation to LPD. A function to maintain the LPD system as well as influence of the lean principles are valuable guides on how to use LPD.\ua0 Also concluded is that a seamless, efficient process, applying set-based principles, for synthesis, evaluation, and reduction of a solution space of design alternatives can be created by combining enhanced function-means modelling, morphological matrices, axiomatic design, causal diagrammes and Pugh matrices. Such a compound of methods can be introduced and applied in a workshop at team level within a time frame of one to two days when solving well-known and not too complex design problems. The workshop should be facilitated by an expert on the methods used and initiated and surveyed by a team manager. Furthermore, a solution space of parameterised design variants, with criteria that are either qualitative or too complicated to be numerically defined, can be generated, evaluated and reduced in such a process. By using a defined set of functional and constraining criteria, and applying axiomatic design and IEA, a variant solution space can be generated and refined. A set-up of the IEA that does not overburden the user should be preferred

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

모듈러 제품군 운영을 위한 다양성 관리 방법론

학위논문 (박사) -- 서울대학교 대학원 : 공과대학 산업공학과, 2021. 2. 홍유석.글로벌 제조업체들은 다양한 제품을 출시하기 위해 모듈러 디자인 전략을 제품개발에 적용해왔다. 모듈러 디자인 전략은 제품을 모듈 단위로 구분한 후, 여러 종류의 모듈을 조합하여 새로운 제품을 만드는 전략이다. 모듈러 디자인은 제조업체가 제품다양성을 달성할 수 있도록 하였지만, 제공하는 제품의 수가 무수히 많아지면서 제품다양성으로 인한 안 좋은 영향들이 설계 영역뿐만 아니라, 시장, 생산 영역에서 지속적으로 발생하고 있는 실정이다. 따라서, 본 논문에서는 제품다양성의 안 좋은 영향을 줄일 수 있도록 이를 체계적으로 개발하고 운영하는 다양성 관리(variety management) 방법론을 제안한다. 다양성 관리를 성공적으로 수행하기 위해서는 교차영역 관점과 변종 수준 관점의 접근이 필요하다. 교차영역 관점은 제품다양성이 영향을 미치는 시장, 설계, 생산 영역의 요소들의 연결관계를 정립하는 메커니즘을 제공하며, 변종 수준 관점은 일반적인 요소(elements) 수준에서 한 단계 내려가 다양성 관리에 실제 문제가 되는 각 요소들의 변종들(variants)을 체계적으로 관리할 수 있도록 한다. 이 두 가지 관점에서, 본 논문은 다양성 관리에서 중요하게 다루어야 할 세 가지 과제–예상치 못한 변종의 발생 방지, 설계 복잡성 감축, 시장 점유율과 복잡성 비용 사이의 균형 잡기–를 해결하기 위한 방법론을 제안한다. 첫 번째 주제에서는, 아키텍처 기반의 접근법을 활용한 변종 관리 아키텍처(VA, variation architecture)를 도입하여 예상치 못한 변종의 발생을 방지하고자 한다. 개발 아키텍처는 모듈러 제품군을 개발할 때 사용하는 일종의 참조 아키텍처로, 시장 속성, 설계 모듈, 생산 설비의 연결관계를 정의하는 교차영역 연결 메커니즘을 제공한다. 변종 관리 아키텍처에서는 일반 수준의 계획과 변종 수준의 계획을 함께 세울 수 있다. 일반 수준에서는 요소 간 연결관계의 종류를 정의하여 제품군의 다양성 수준을 결정하고, 변종 수준에서는 변종들 간의 조합 규칙을 설정하여 불필요한 변종의 발생을 최소화한다. 또한, 본 연구에서는 제조업체가 변종 관리 아키텍처를 활용할 수 있도록 아키텍처 구축 프레임워크를 제안한다. 사례 연구에서는 자동차 프론트섀시 제품군을 통해 제품 및 변종의 수를 상당히 줄일 수 있음을 보여 줌으로써 프레임워크의 실용성을 검증한다. 다음으로, 인터페이스 표준화 개념을 적용하여 변종들 간의 복잡한 관계로부터 발생하는 설계 복잡성을 줄이는 연구를 수행한다. 본 연구에서 제안하는 인터페이스 설계 방법론은 하나가 아닌 다수의 표준 인터페이스를 사용하도록 허용한다. 모듈 변종들을 연결하기 위해 다수의 인터페이스를 도입하면, 인터페이스의 수와 적용범위에 따라 모듈러 제품군의 전체 구조가 달라지고 설계 복잡성 또한 다양한 양상으로 발생한다. 이를 측정하기 위해, 본 연구에서는 인터페이스의 선택에 영향을 받는 두 가지 복잡성 지표를–인터페이스 표준화 복잡성과 통합 복잡성을–정의한다. 인터페이스 표준화 복잡성은 표준 인터페이스를 설계할 때, 모듈 변종 설계자 간의 조율에 필요한 맨아워(person-hour)를 계산하고, 통합 복잡성은 각각의 모듈 변종과 인터페이스를 통합된 제품으로 설계하는데 필요로 하는 노력의 양으로, 위상적 복잡성(topological complexity) 지표를 기반으로 측정한다. 본 연구에서는 두 가지 복잡성을 최소화하는 인터페이스 설계 대안을 찾기 위한 프레임워크를 제공한다. 사례 연구에서 이의 적용성을 보여주기 위해 프론트섀시 제품군에 맞는 최적의 인터페이스 수와 제품군 구조를 도출한다. 마지막 주제에서는, 시장 점유율과 복잡성 비용의 균형을 맞추는 최적 제품 종수를 찾기 위한 최적화 모델을 개발한다. 최적화 모델은 제품을 구성하는 모듈 변종을 기반으로 모델링되고, 제품 및 모듈 종수가 증가함에 따라 시장 점유율의 증가분이 줄어들고, 반대로 복잡성 비용의 증가분은 늘어나는 특성을 반영한다. 시장 점유율을 구하기 위해 네스티드 로짓 모델(nested logit model)을 기반으로 하는 수요 모델을 개발한다. 네스티드 로짓 모델에서는 동일 제품군 내 제품들의 유사성을 고려하여 시장 점유율의 증가분이 줄어드는 특성을 반영한다. 다음으로, 제로베이스 원가계산 접근법(zero-based costing approach)을 활용한 복잡성 비용 모델을 도입한다. 이 접근법에서는 제품 혹은 모듈의 종수가 한 단위씩 늘어날 때 발생하는 비용을 단계적으로 계산하는 방법을 사용한다. 마지막으로, 수요 모델과 복잡성 비용 모델을 합친 최적화 모델(optimization model)을 모델링하여 최적 제품 종수와 제품의 모듈 구성을 도출하는 연구를 수행한다. 사례 연구에서는 민감도 분석을 수행하여 각 상황별 최적해가 어떻게 달라지는 지 보여주어 연구에서 제안하는 모델들의 효과를 검증한다.Global manufacturing companies have been achieving product variety by implementing a modular design strategy in which product variants are created by combining, adding, or substituting modules. Providing a high variety of products, however, causes negative effects not only on design but also on market and production. Variety management that defines the right range of variants is one of the most critical issues for most of the manufacturing companies. This thesis aims to propose methodologies that enable companies to systematically reduce negative effects of variety. In order to achieve successful variety management, this study approaches the issue from two viewpoints: cross-domain and variant-level viewpoints. A cross-domain viewpoint supports establishing relationships between elements in market, design, and production domain that are affected by product variety, and a variant-level viewpoint enables to explicitly manage variants of elements that are the main source of negative effects. In these viewpoints, this thesis focuses on dealing with three important challenges in variety management: to prevent unexpected variants, to reduce design complexity, and to balance market share and complexity cost. In the first theme, an architecture-based approach named variation architecture is introduced to prevent unexpected variants. Variation architecture (VA) is defined as a reference architecture for a modular product family providing the scheme by which variants in market, design, and production domain are arranged by cross-domain mapping mechanisms. The VA consists of generic-level and variant-level plans. At the generic-level, mapping types between domain elements are determined, and at the variant-level, combination rules between variants are set to reduce unexpected variants. Then, a framework is proposed to increase the practicality of the VA so that its compositions are well defined. In the case study, the framework is applied to an automobile front chassis family. The result shows that the number of module variants is significantly reduced compared to the current number of variants in operation. Secondly, the concept of interface standardization is introduced to manage design complexity caused by complicated combinations between module variants. This theme proposes an interface design methodology that addresses multiple standard interfaces in a modular product family. A product family structure is changed by implementing multiple standard interfaces, generating design complexity. This study defines two complexities resulting from the introduction of multiple standard interfaces: standardization effort and integration effort. Standardization effort is estimated as a required person-hours for coordinating module variants to design a standard interface, and integration effort is measured as an effort to integrate all design elements based on the concept of topological complexity. A framework is proposed to identify an optimal product family structure that minimizes the two complexities. In the case study, the proposed framework identifies an optimal structure and the number of standard interfaces for the front chassis family. Then, the study conducts a sensitivity analysis to demonstrate the methodologys applicability in interface management. In the last theme, an optimization model is developed to identify an optimal product variety to balance market share and complexity cost. The model focuses on module variants, not just product variants, because a modular product family creates product variants by combining module variants. The model reflects the trends of concave increase in market share and convex increase in complexity cost as the number of variety increases. A demand model is developed by the nested logit model that shows the concavity of market share based on the similarity of product variants in the same family, and a complexity cost model is constructed by the zero-based costing approach that an incremental cost is estimated as a variant is added. Combining the models, an optimization model is formulated to find an optimal variety and configurations of product variants. The case study demonstrates the models effectiveness by analyzing optimal solutions in various situations.Abstract i Contents iv List of Tables viii List of Figures ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Variety Management 1 1.2 Variety Management Challenges 5 1.3 Research Proposal: How to Deal with the Challenges? 7 1.4 Structure of Thesis 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review 11 2.1 Variety Management Methodologies 11 2.1.1 Modular product family design 11 2.1.2 Product family architecture 13 2.1.3 Classification of the contributions 15 2.2 Modular Design and Complexity 17 2.2.1 Modular design 17 2.2.2 Interface design 19 2.2.3 Design complexity 20 2.3 Product Family Design and Variety 22 2.3.1 Product family design 22 2.3.2 Variety optimization 25 Chapter 3 Variation Architecture for Reducing the Generation of Unexpected Variants 29 3.1 Introduction 29 3.1.1 Generation of unexpected variants 29 3.1.2 Needs for a systematic approach 31 3.2 Variation Architecture (VA) 33 3.2.1 Generic-level planning 34 3.2.2 Variant-level planning 41 3.3 Framework for Planning Product Variety 46 3.4 Application 47 3.4.1 Case description 47 3.4.2 Construction of variation architecture (VA) 49 3.4.3 Result and discussion 53 3.5 Summary 57 Chapter 4 Variant-level Interface Design for Reducing Design Complexity 59 4.1 Introduction 59 4.2 Variant-level Interface Design 61 4.3 Interface Design Complexity 64 4.3.1 Standardization effort 66 4.3.2 Integration effort 71 4.4 Framework for Variant-level Interface Design 76 4.5 Case Study 79 4.5.1 Application of the framework 79 4.5.2 Analysis and discussion 84 4.6 Summary 88 Chapter 5 Optimizing Product Variety for Balancing Market Share and Complexity Cost 91 5.1 Introduction 91 5.2 Evidence of the impact of variety on market share 94 5.3 Planning of Product Configurations 96 5.3.1 Product family architecture 96 5.3.2 Product configuration 98 5.4 Variety Optimization Model 100 5.4.1 Demand model 100 5.4.2 Complexity cost model 104 5.4.3 Optimization model 108 5.5 Case Study 110 5.5.1 Case description 110 5.5.2 Data source 112 5.5.3 Optimization setting 113 5.5.4 Result 115 5.5.5 Discussion 118 5.6 Summary 122 Chapter 6 Conclusion 125 6.1 Summary of Contributions 125 6.2 Limitations and Future Research Directions 127 Bibliography 129 Appendix A Variant-level Plan of a Front Chassis Family 147 Appendix B Adjacency and Combination Matrices of a Front Chassis Family 151 국문초록 155Docto

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process

Developing a distributed electronic health-record store for India

The DIGHT project is addressing the problem of building a scalable and highly available information store for the Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of the over one billion citizens of India

Modelling for data management & exchange in Concurrent Engineering - A case study of civil aircraft assembly line

This research aims to improve the dataflow performance of the Concurrent Engineering (CE) practice in the detail design stage of the aircraft Assembly Line (AL) in the C919 aircraft project. As the final integrator of the aircraft, Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Company Ltd. (SAMC) is responsible for developing the AL with global suppliers. Although CE has been implemented in AL projects to shorten lead time, reduce development cost and improve design quality, the lack of experience and insufficient infrastructure may lead to many challenges in cooperation with distributed suppliers, especially regarding data management/exchange and workflow control. In this research, the particular CE environment and activities in SAMC AL projects were investigated. By assessing the CE performance and benchmarking, the improvement opportunities are identified, and then an activity-oriented workflow and dataflow model is established by decomposing the work process to detail levels. Based on this model, a Product Data Management (PDM) based support platform is proposed to facilitate data management/exchange in dynamic workflow to improve work efficiency and interoperability. This solution is mocked-up on the Siemens Teamcenter 8.1 PLM(Product Lifecycle Management) software and its feasibility is checked. The mock-up is evaluated by SAMC experts and suppliers. The feedback shows the acceptance of the model by experts and the urgency of improving data/work flow design before PLM implementing. The result of this research is useful for enterprises in similar environments transiting from pre-PLM to implementing PLM and who wanting to strengthen CE in the new product development

NEGOSEIO: framework for the sustainability of model-oriented enterprise interoperability

Dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering(Industrial Information Systems)This dissertation tackles the problematic of Enterprise Interoperability in the current globally connected world. The evolution of the Information and Communication Technologies has endorsed the establishment of fast, secure and robust data exchanges, promoting the development of networked solutions. This allowed the specialisation of enterprises (particularly SMEs) and favoured the development of complex and heterogeneous provider systems. Enterprises are abandoning their self-centrism and working together on the development of more complete solutions. Entire business solutions are built integrating several enterprises (e.g., in supply chains, enterprise nesting) towards a common objective. Additionally, technologies, platforms, trends, standards and regulations keep evolving and demanding enterprises compliance. This evolution needs to be continuous, and is naturally followed by a constant update of each networked enterprise’s interfaces, assets, methods and processes. This unstable environment of perpetual change is causing major concerns in both SMEs and customers as the current interoperability grounds are frail, easily leading to periods of downtime, where business is not possible. The pressure to restore interoperability rapidly often leads to patching and to the adoption of immature solutions, contributing to deteriorate even more the interoperable environment. This dissertation proposes the adoption of NEGOSEIO, a framework that tackles interoperability issues by developing strong model-based knowledge assets and promoting continuous improvement and adaptation for increasing the sustainability of interoperability on enterprise systems. It presents the research motivations and the developed framework’s main blocks, which include model-based knowledge management, collaboration service-oriented architectures implemented over a cloud-based solution, and focusing particularly on its negotiation core mechanism to handle inconsistencies and solutions for the detected interoperability problems. It concludes by validating the research and the proposed framework, presenting its application in a real business case of aerospace mission design on the European Space Agency (ESA).FP7 ENSEMBLE, UNITE, MSEE and IMAGINE project