An extensible manufacturing resource model for process integration

Driven by industrial needs and enabled by process technology and information technology, enterprise integration is rapidly shifting from information integration to process integration to improve overall performance of enterprises. Traditional resource models are established based on the needs of individual applications. They cannot effectively serve process integration which needs resources to be represented in a unified, comprehensive and flexible way to meet the needs of various applications for different business processes. This paper looks into this issue and presents a configurable and extensible resource model which can be rapidly reconfigured and extended to serve for different applications. To achieve generality, the presented resource model is established from macro level and micro level. A semantic representation method is developed to improve the flexibility and extensibility of the model

Mapping customer needs to engineering characteristics: an aerospace perspective for conceptual design

Designing complex engineering systems, such as an aircraft or an aero-engine, is immensely challenging. Formal Systems Engineering (SE) practices are widely used in the aerospace industry throughout the overall design process to minimise the overall design effort, corrective re-work, and ultimately overall development and manufacturing costs. Incorporating the needs and requirements from customers and other stakeholders into the conceptual and early design process is vital for the success and viability of any development programme. This paper presents a formal methodology, the Value-Driven Design (VDD) methodology that has been developed for collaborative and iterative use in the Extended Enterprise (EE) within the aerospace industry, and that has been applied using the Concept Design Analysis (CODA) method to map captured Customer Needs (CNs) into Engineering Characteristics (ECs) and to model an overall ‘design merit’ metric to be used in design assessments, sensitivity analyses, and engineering design optimisation studies. Two different case studies with increasing complexity are presented to elucidate the application areas of the CODA method in the context of the VDD methodology for the EE within the aerospace secto

High Density Through Silicon Via (TSV)

The Through Silicon Via (TSV) process developed by Silex provides down to 30 micrometers pitch for through wafer connections in up to 600 micrometers thick substrates. Integrated with MEMS designs it enables significantly reduced die size and true "Wafer Level Packaging" - features that are particularly important in consumer market applications. The TSV technology also enables integration of advanced interconnect functions in optical MEMS, sensors and microfluidic devices. In addition the Via technology opens for very interesting possibilities considering integration with CMOS processing. With several companies using the process already today, qualified volume manufacturing in place and a line-up of potential users, the process is becoming a standard in the MEMS industry. We provide a introduction to the via formation process and also present some on the novel solutions made available by the technology.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Human-centered Electric Prosthetic (HELP) Hand

Through a partnership with Indian non-profit Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti, we designed a functional, robust, and and low cost electrically powered prosthetic hand that communicates with unilateral, transradial, urban Indian amputees through a biointerface. The device uses compliant tendon actuation, a small linear servo, and a wearable garment outfitted with flex sensors to produce a device that, once placed inside a prosthetic glove, is anthropomorphic in both look and feel. The prosthesis was developed such that future groups can design for manufacturing and distribution in India

Observing Suppliers observing Early Supplier Involvement: An Empirical Research based upon the Social Systems Theory of Niklas Luhmann.

supplier, involvement, Luhmann

Design Management Capability in Entrepreneurship: A Case Study of Xiaomi

In recent years, entrepreneurship has become a popular topic and attracted many young people to start their own companies. In entrepreneurship, design was generally viewed as essential to innovation, replacing the conventional role of the engineer. Unlike traditional businesses, which generally take a longer time to become established in the more stable economic context of mass-production, current start-ups have to face fierce competition and have the tendency to expand rapidly and accommodate the dynamic business environment. Consequently, design management is considered to be crucial to business growth, since it contributes to both competitive advantages and strategic flexibility. However, start-up companies are well-known for their high failure ratio. This triggered our initial research question: what is the role of design in a start-up to support it in achieving success? Through a case study of Xiaomi, a well-known successful entrepreneurship in China, the new capabilities of entrepreneurial design management were reported. It was further classified into three key topics in line with the three stages of entrepreneurial business development. Difference with design management capabilities reported in previous studies, the new capabilities show the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial design management

Ultra-Stretchable Interconnects for High-Density Stretchable Electronics

The exciting field of stretchable electronics (SE) promises numerous novel applications, particularly in-body and medical diagnostics devices. However, future advanced SE miniature devices will require high-density, extremely stretchable interconnects with micron-scale footprints, which calls for proven standardized (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-type) process recipes using bulk integrated circuit (IC) microfabrication tools and fine-pitch photolithography patterning. Here, we address this combined challenge of microfabrication with extreme stretchability for high-density SE devices by introducing CMOS-enabled, free-standing, miniaturized interconnect structures that fully exploit their 3D kinematic freedom through an interplay of buckling, torsion, and bending to maximize stretchability. Integration with standard CMOS-type batch processing is assured by utilizing the Flex-to-Rigid (F2R) post-processing technology to make the back-end-of-line interconnect structures free-standing, thus enabling the routine microfabrication of highly-stretchable interconnects. The performance and reproducibility of these free-standing structures is promising: an elastic stretch beyond 2000% and ultimate (plastic) stretch beyond 3000%, with 10 million cycles at 1000% stretch with <1% resistance change. This generic technology provides a new route to exciting highly-stretchable miniature devices.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure, journal publicatio

Novel, yet similar: A similarity-assisted product family design approach for structural aero-engine components

The aviation industry is in a state of transformation. The climate crisis has amplified the need to innovate, and consequently manufacturers in the aviation industry need to investigate new and more sustainable design concepts. This is challenging, because there is no obvious replacement for kerosene-fueled aero-engines, though there are multiple technologies in development that may potentially take its place. Examples of such technologies include electric or hybrid-electric propulsion, or combustion engines fueled by hydrogen or synthetic sustainable aviation fuels. This increases the challenge for manufacturers, who must deal with high technological uncertainty. At the same time, manufacturers need to assert that the cost of realization is feasible for new aero-engine component designs, while also fulfilling the requirements for safety and performance. There is therefore a need for methods and tools that will assist designers in making fast and efficient design evaluations, to enable the exploration of large design spaces at reduced costs and lead-times.To make design space exploration more efficient, a similarity-assisted design space exploration method is proposed. This method provides increased trustworthiness in design space exploration results, while also highlighting opportunities for reuse of knowledge and other assets from legacy designs. Additionally, a software tool for automatically generating aero-engine structural components has been developed. This software enriches all generated geometries with information used to facilitate automated manufacturability analysis, as well as evaluation of structural performance. By utilizing the automated geometry generation tool in conjunction with the proposed design space exploration method, designers can quickly and efficiently evaluate the manufacturability and structural performance of novel concepts