Design, innovation and case-based reasoning.

The design task is especially appropriate for applying, integrating, exploring and pushing the boundaries of case-based reasoning. In this paper, we briefly review the challenges that design poses for case-based reasoning and survey research on case-based design ranging from early explorations to more recent work on innovative design. We also summarize the theoretical contributions this research has made to case-based reasoning itself

How to take into account general and contextual knowledge for interactive aiding design: Towards the coupling of CSP and CBR approaches

The goal of this paper is to show how it is possible to support design decisions with two different tools relying on two kinds of knowledge: case-based reasoning operating with contextual knowledge embodied in past cases and constraint filtering that operates with general knowledge formalized using constraints. Our goals are, firstly to make an overview of existing works that analyses the various ways to associate these two kinds of aiding tools essentially in a sequential way. Secondly, we propose an approach that allows us to use them simultaneously in order to assist design decisions with these two kinds of knowledge. The paper is organized as follows. In the first section, we define the goal of the paper and recall the background of case-based reasoning and constraint filtering. In the second section, the industrial problem which led us to consider these two kinds of knowledge is presented. In the third section, an overview of the various possibilities of using these two aiding decision tools in a sequential way is drawn up. In the fourth section, we propose an approach that allows us to use both aiding decision tools in a simultaneous and iterative way according to the availability of knowledge. An example dealing with helicopter maintenance illustrates our proposals

Development of a Geometric Model Retrieval System: A design exemplar case study

This paper presents a case study examining design exemplar technology implemented as a search and retrieval tool for tyre mould inserts. Limitations of using the geometric-based exemplar approach, such as tediousness of authoring exemplars and time complexity, are identified and addressed through a new parametric-based exemplar approach. Here, the maxima and minima are calculated based upon the specifications of the query mould insert. The design exemplar is demonstrated to be useful primarily in prototyping query mechanisms. Ultimately, customer requirements necessitated implementing the parametric approach as a dedicated software package grounded on the exemplar-based prototyped query mechanism

Case-based reasoning and system design: An integrated approach based on ontology and preference modeling

This paper addresses the fulfillment of requirements related to case-based reasoning (CBR) processes for system design. Considering that CBR processes are well suited for problem solving, the proposed method concerns the definition of an integrated CBR process in line with system engineering principles. After the definition of the requirements that the approach has to fulfill, an ontology is defined to capitalize knowledge about the design within concepts. Based on the ontology, models are provided for requirements and solutions representation. Next, a recursive CBR process, suitable for system design, is provided. Uncertainty and designer preferences as well as ontological guidelines are considered during the requirements definition, the compatible cases retrieval, and the solution definition steps. This approach is designed to give flexibility within the CBR process as well as to provide guidelines to the designer. Such questions as the following are conjointly treated: how to guide the designer to be sure that the requirements are correctly defined and suitable for the retrieval step, how to retrieve cases when there are no available similarity measures, and how to enlarge the research scope during the retrieval step to obtain a sufficient panel of solutions. Finally, an example of system engineering in the aeronautic domain illustrates the proposed method. A testbed has been developed and carried out to evaluate the performance of the retrieval algorithm and a software prototype has been developed in order to test the approach. The outcome of this work is a recursive CBR process suitable to engineering design and compatible with standards. Requirements are modeled by means of flexible constraints, where the designer preferences are used to express the flexibility. Similar solutions can be retrieved even if similarity measures between features are not available. Simultaneously, ontological guidelines are used to guide the process and to aid the designer to express her/his preferences

Evaluating Digital Creativity Support To Improve Health-and-Safety in a Manufacturing Plant

This paper reports an evaluation of digital support for human creativity to improve health-and-safety in one manufacturing plant. It reports the use of this support as part of the plant’s risk management process over 66 working days. Results revealed that this use led to more complete, more useful and more novel risk resolutions, compared with the original paper process, and informed how digital creativity support can be rolled out across manufacturing plants, as well as to other domains not recognized as creative

Establishing Digital Creativity Support in Non-Creative Work Environments

This paper reports the results of new research that sought the long-term uptake of digital support for human creativity to improve health-and-safety in 3 manufacturing plants over an 18-month period. The systematic risk detection and resolution processes of each plant were extended with digital support for employees to think creatively about resolutions to encountered health-and-safety risks. The different uses, successful and unsuccessful, revealed which digitized creativity techniques were effective, different enablers for and barriers to the uptake of the digital creativity support in complex work places, and the importance of aligning work practices and digital capabilities to support creative thinking

A strategic planning methodology for aircraft redesign

Due to a progressive market shift to a customer-driven environment, the influence of engineering changes on the product's market success is becoming more prominent. This situation affects many long lead-time product industries including aircraft manufacturing. Derivative development has been the key strategy for many aircraft manufacturers to survive the competitive market and this trend is expected to continue in the future. Within this environment of design adaptation and variation, the main market advantages are often gained by the fastest aircraft manufacturers to develop and produce their range of market offerings without any costly mistakes. This realization creates an emphasis on the efficiency of the redesign process, particularly on the handling of engineering changes. However, most activities involved in the redesign process are supported either inefficiently or not at all by the current design methods and tools, primarily because they have been mostly developed to improve original product development. In view of this, the main goal of this research is to propose an aircraft redesign methodology that will act as a decision-making aid for aircraft designers in the change implementation planning of derivative developments. The proposed method, known as Strategic Planning of Engineering Changes (SPEC), combines the key elements of the product redesign planning and change management processes. Its application is aimed at reducing the redesign risks of derivative aircraft development, improving the detection of possible change effects propagation, increasing the efficiency of the change implementation planning and also reducing the costs and the time delays due to the redesign process. To address these challenges, four research areas have been identified: baseline assessment, change propagation prediction, change impact analysis and change implementation planning. Based on the established requirements for the redesign planning process, several methods and tools that are identified within these research areas have been abstracted and adapted into the proposed SPEC method to meet the research goals. The proposed SPEC method is shown to be promising in improving the overall efficiency of the derivative aircraft planning process through two notional aircraft system redesign case studies that are presented in this study.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Prof. Dimitri Mavris; Committee Member: Dr. Elena Garcia; Committee Member: Dr. Neil Weston; Committee Member: Mathias Emeneth; Committee Member: Prof. Daniel P. Schrag

Interactive Digital Support for Concept Design Teams

This thesis develops a design method, the ICR (Inform, Create, Reflect) Grid, for improved utilisation of information during concept design. Although concept design is information intensive and critical to project direction, the effective management and use of digital information has not been adequately addressed. The ICR Grid is a prescriptive method which requires design teams to find and build information resources in parallel with creating solutions. As a solution-based approach it allows designers to freely explore ideas, while encouraging flexible thinking by using different modes of conceptual working (analysis, synthesis and evaluation). The output of the method is a linked grid of concepts and information sources. The exploratory phase of the research examined current design process models and concept design methods, with team information use patterns explored through protocol analyses of a design task. This was followed by an examination of literature relating to digital information and a class study on technological support for student designers. The outcome of these explorations was an understanding that to enhance digital information use in concept design, a new approach was necessary. Development began by correlating characteristics of computer games to concept design, with a view to applying new techniques to the structure and management of information. A number of scenarios were subsequently outlined, with one selected and developed using paper-based prototyping. This was eventually formalised as the ICR Grid. Initial evaluation of the new method was carried out through a comparative study with the 6-3-5 Method, which revealed that although fewer concepts were produced with the ICR Grid, they were of a higher quality, variety and detail. Three different companies then used the ICR Grid to address relevant industrial problems, with generally positive feedback obtained on its performance. Several areas are identified for future work and the further enhancement of information use