The Contribution of Design Discipline in Business Decisions through Design-Oriented Production Diversification: A Case Study in Italian Furniture Sector

Firm diversification is a growth strategy that allows firms to launch new products in untapped markets to increase revenue. It is the identified approach where industrial designers can contribute to exploring new tactical assets. The paper analyses the design-oriented diversification of a furniture company in Italy, where Design played a crucial role in positioning new demands. The tool applied to display the current and the feasible product portfolio is the Product Space. The company has leveraged its know-how on bent glass to produce iconic objects, winning prestigious design awards

Planning for the Unknown: Case Studies of Design-Driven Industrial Conversion in the Automotive Sector as a Way to Overcome Crises and Uncertainties

This paper explores the role of a design-led orientation strategy for automotive firms. Specifically, the study examines the industrial conversion strategies of companies that have found new markets thanks to the discipline of design. Indeed, the central thesis of this paper is to investigate how design can boost entrepreneurship, managerial procedures, and be a source of competitive advantage. Commonly, industrial conversion has been studied by many researchers belonging to the area of management. However, studies on the role of industrial designers in corporate strategies represent a growing domain in design. The research is based on three case studies of Italian companies that have produced components for the automotive sector for years and following a moment of instability, used their expertise to move into different markets. The paper shows a tool developed by Harvard University to display new opportunities based on existing capabilities. The analyzed visionary companies broke away from one production sector and ventured into new ones where design was a strategic lever. As the case studies show, industrial reconversion brings companies “back to life” and makes them flexible and resilient to sudden changes, thanks to switching products and markets based on existing capacities. What emerges is that industrial conversion is a winning strategy in cases of corporate crisis where sunk costs are to be exploited to explore new opportunities. Starting from this, we can assume and replicate comparable strategies in companies currently experiencing difficulties due to the changing technological paradigms in the automotive sector

Design-driven Industrial conversion during COVID-19 Global Outbreak. A systemic business strategy and design approaches to face a complex market crisis

This paper highlights the evolution of designers' responsibility during an unexpected emergency period like the COVID-19 outbreak. This process will be described through a set of case studies showing that the design discipline is resilient and capable of gathering the proper needs at the right time and relieve market tensions. Indeed, designers can help companies in the process of industrial conversion, an ambidextrous strategy that allows producing what is missing but extremely urgent during an emergency. The paper describes via case studies the way firms converted to produce necessary goods such as clean hand sanitiser, lung ventilators and the personal protective equipment needed by citizens and medical personnel. During the COVID-19 emergency period, what are, and have been, the challenges for designers? What new expertise, skills, activities will the designer have to gain? How designers give innovative answers with new activities to support companies during emergencies? The answer was found in the designers' ability to examine the problem holistically and choose the most innovative and contextually appropriate solutions. Together with management ingenuity, they also fit in with ambidextrous strategies that direct the company towards new opportunities by exploiting the resources already belonging to the firm, untangling the economic complexity

Body and Interaction in Dematerialisation

In a world that seems to dematerialise and to digitalise gradually and steadily, it is crucial, and plausibly necessary, to understand the new elements that characterise the individuality and permanence of matter concerning the concept of virtuality as the next challenge for designers. The topic results highly relevant due to the constant progress of virtual reality technologies and cloud services, increasingly sophisticated and affordable for everyone. This progress generates new problems for the discussion for which no significant solutions exist yet

RICONVERSIONE INDUSTRIALE NEI CLUSTER PRODUTTIVI Design e conservazione attiva del know-how locale

La disciplina del Design è chiamata a contribuire alla salvaguardia e alla trasmissione della cultura produttiva delle economie di agglomerazione, come Distretti industriali, cluster e network, cultura minacciata dalla tendenza a spostare la supply-chain fuori dal territorio, con una conseguente perdita di identità e know-how locale. Il territorio, considerato il ‘design-object’ dello studio, è analizzato tramite una visione olistica ed esplorativa, che evidenzia gli aspetti socioculturali e le relazioni fra gli attori tramite gigamappe. La complessità economica del capitale produttivo territoriale è sistematizzata con schemi che mostrano le connessioni tra i prodotti in base alle capacità produttive aziendali. La riconversione industriale è la strategia individuata per esplorare e ge- stire i paradigmi tecnologici emergenti, in grado di creare nuovi prodotti che raccontino la cultura produttiva locale

Design sistemico e paesaggi culturali. Una visione olistica e globale per la valorizzazione dell’economia locale

Il design sistemico, con il suo approccio multiscala, è un potente mezzo di creazione d'identità e protezione territoriale attraverso progetti che mettono in relazione il tessuto produttivo con il contesto urbano e rurale. Nei paesaggi culturali lo sviluppo sostenibile è perseguito tramite l’ottimizzazione dei flussi di materia in entrata e uscita (di produzione, fornitura e consumo), creando un sistema virtuoso tendente allo scarto zero. I designer sistemici, allenati a un metodo olistico-globale, sono promotori di economie locali sostenibili dal punto di vista ambientale, sociale ed economico

New design-oriented directions for the regional economy: proposal of a framework for classifying industrial conversions and product diversification cases in mature industries

Design and Innovation Management find common ground and interesting collaborations in defining strategies that manufacturing companies can implement in extreme circumstances. Design-oriented industrial conversion and product diversification could be an outcome of such strategies, identified to explore and manage emerging technological paradigms. This research focuses on manufacturing companies within industrial districts that are in difficulty and try to orient them towards new strategic directions, driven by product design. For this purpose, the research proposes a framework for classifying case studies of companies that have successfully applied the strategies mentioned above. It displays expansion directions, sectors, products or processes that could be of value for a territorial context

Rice sector. System and new opportunities

This analysis, performed in Piedmont region (Italy), shows in detail the process of rice transformation and the characteristics of every outputs. There are many opportunities for the realization of a project that involves several players in the analyzed area (Vercelli - Italy), because the “waste” produced during the processing of rice reaches high percentages (about 40%) compared to the total raw material entering the supply chain. The analysis focuses on a company that already implements some good practices, for example a network contract that involves farmers and entrepreneurs, in order to carry on the Vercelli rice tradition, but with a vision to the future. This contract also allows for a well- organized control of the rice supply chain, from cultivation to final products. Currently, the outputs deriving from this transformation are resold and reused,but not exploited, as they are outputs very rich in nutrients and chemical-physical characteristics exploitable for uses in sectors where they would acquire greater value (bioplastics, green building, food etc...). These are therefore quality outputs and as such they need a process designed in order to continue to accumulate value. The research underlines all the possible uses and opportunities that the supply chain can offer, giving rise to both economic and environmental benefits and increasing the connections in the territory in what can be defined as a systemic vision

Cultural Factories: Conversion of Industrial Areas into Cultural Hubs

The need to restore the former industrial factories so as not to leave the buildings and the neighborhood in a state of neglect has attracted scholarly and popular attention. The following contribution aims to highlight how designers can contribute to the repurposing of buildings by paying attention to the end user and planning new experiences and activities by reading case studies of industrial conversion of production sites into cultural hubs. The company’s history, intrinsically linked to the territory, and its products, are the protagonists of the reconversion so as not to forget the past local productive culture demonstrating how it is possible to generate new and different economies from before. The case studies tell the story of the industrial conversion of companies and mines in urban and decentralized areas to get a representative look at the Italian and European territories

Zefiro - Technology and Innovation against Covid-19

Zefiro in an electro-ventilated mask made up of custom designed elements and other widely-available components. Specifically, the frame has been designed as structural element that ensures the correct positioning of the mask. The other standard components perform the functions of isolation and individual protection, as well as introducing air into the mask