When costs from being a constraint become a driver for concept generation

Managing innovation requires solving issues related to the internal development and engineering processes of a company (supply side), in addition to facing the market and competition (demand side). In this context, the product development process is crucial, as different tradeoffs and issues that require managerial attention tend to arise. The main challenges result in managers requiring practical support tools that can help them in planning and controlling the process, and of designers requiring them for supporting their design decisions. Hence, the thesis aims to focus on product costs to understand its influence on design decisions as well as on the overall management of the product development process. The core part of the thesis is based on the models and methods developed for enhancing cost analysis at the beginning of the product development process. This investigation aims to determine the importance of cost estimation in improving the overall performance of a newly designed product. The focus on post-sales and, more generally, on the customer, has become so relevant that manufacturers have to take into account not only the most obvious aspects about the product and related services, but even consider the associated implications for customers during product use. However, implementing a product life cycle perspective is still a challenging process for companies. From a methodological perspective, the reasons include uncertainty regarding the available approaches and ambiguity about their application. In terms of implementation, the main challenge is the long-term cost management, when one considers uncertainty in process duration, data collection, and other supply chain issues. In fact, helping designers and managers efficiently understand the strategic and operational consequences of a cost analysis implementation is still a problem, although advanced methodologies for more in-depth and timely analyses are available. And this is even more if one considers that product lifecycle represents a critical area of investment, particularly in light of the new challenges and opportunities provided by big data analysis in the Industry 4.0 contexts. This dissertation addresses these aspects and provides a methodological approach to assess a rigorous implementation of life-cycle cost while discussing the evidence derived from its operational and strategic impacts. The novelty lies in the way the data and information are collected, dynamically moving the focus of the investigation with regard to the data aggregation level and the product structure. The way the techniques have been combined represents a further aspect of novelty. In fact, the introduced approach contributes to a new trend in the Product Cost Estimation (PCE) literature, which suggests the integration of different techniques for product life-cycle cost analysis. The findings obtained at the end of the process can be employed to assess the impact of platform design strategy and variety proliferations on the total life-cycle costs. By evaluating the possible mix of options, and hence offering the optimal product configuration, a more conscious way for planning the product portfolio has been provided. In this sense, a detailed operational analysis (as the cost estimation) is used to inform and drive the strategic planning of the portfolio. Finally, the thesis discusses the future opportunities and challenges for product cost analysis, assessing how digitalisation of manufacturing operations may affect the data gathering and analysis process. In this new environment, the opportunity for a more informed, cost-driven decision-making will multiply, leading to varied opportunities in this research field

Are ai tools going to be the new designers? A taxonomy for measuring the level of automation of design activities

The digitalisation of the industry offers new opportunities to discuss design activities and support tools. Advancement in AI allows thinking about new Designer-AI tools interaction in the design process. The paper aims to initiate a characterisation of tools issued from researches in the application of AI in Design to rethink the division of work between Designer-AI tools. The paper is based on the literature on the concept of Levels of Automation in cognitive engineering, manufacturing

Data-driven design: the new challenges of digitalization on product design and development

Abstract Digitalization and the momentous role being assumed by data are commonly viewed as pervasive phenomena whose impact is felt in all aspects of society and the economy. Design activity is by no means immune from this trend, and the relationship between digitalization and design is decades old. However, what is the current impact of this 'data revolution' on design? How will the design activity change? What are the resulting research questions of interest to academics? What are the main challenges for firms and for educational institutions having to cope with this change? The paper provides a comprehensive conceptual framework, based on recent literature and anecdotal evidence from the industry. It identifies three main streams: namely the consequences on designers, the consequences on design processes and the role of methods for data analytics. In turn, these three streams lead to implications at individual, organizational and managerial level, and several questions arise worthy of defining future research agendas. Moreover, the paper introduces relational diagrams depicting the interactions between the objects and the actors involved in the design process and suggests that what is occurring is by no means a simple evolution but a paradigmatic shift in the way artefacts are designed

Normal people's capacity of adjustment on a wheelchair basket: A preliminary study

The purpose of this work is to show the execution and the results of a study aimed at identifying and defining the level of the normal people's capacity of adjustment on a wheelchair. This study is based on an hypothesis of a readaptation of a sport's rules of basketball. The new regulation created supposes the contemporary participation of normal people and disabled people and it establishes the use of wheelchairs regardless the physical condition and performance. All of this has been decided to minimize possible physical differences. Consequently, the study was conducted on some young basketball athletes to achieve the intended goal. The chosen athletes are member of an under 15 regional championship. The test administered to them includes some time and precision exercises based on the main fundamentals of basketball, executed on a wheelchair. The test's administration took place in three days to judge the speed of adaptation and learning of using this new tool. The sample group seemed available and open to this first approach with a mobile device used mainly by disabled people, but the results of the study done weren't positive. So, the 30% of the group has provided excellent results and it has been able to perform the test discreetly, improving each time. On the other hand, the remaining 70% observed many problems, worsening their performance in the last drills

Development of motor skills applied to basketball in the developmental age

Usually, the training planning large amounts of technical skills and tactical work are planned, neglecting the part of athletic physical training, while it is necessary to combine the athletic phase with the technical one according to principle of the complexity of the sports performance that integrates the quantitative part with to the qualitative one. The study aims to show whether specific workouts aimed at developing and consolidating the basic motor patterns then lead to an improvement in performance in basketball, which is not only athletic but also technical and tactical components. Surveys were carried out every two months taking into account the evolutionary phase of the athletes, monitored on height and weight, in some there was an improvement and then a deterioration, while for others there was a constant improvement. This study helps to use the test administration method to monitor the correlation between training and performance activities

When Lifecycle Cost Analysis Enables Strategic Design Considerations

The literature on cost-estimation is full of examples that methodologically explain the construction of models. In this paper, we showed how such methods when correctly implemented represent a source of structured information for in-depth design decisions. We investigated the impact of variety proliferation overall lifecycle costs, assessing differences in product architectures using a cluster analysis. The evidence collected serves as validation of a cost model approach and provides a decision-making support for choosing between platform solutions against a knowledge of costs consequences

A product architecture-based framework for a data-driven estimation of lifecycle cost

This paper proposes a three-step cost estimation methodology that dynamically adapts the focus of the analysis to the progress of the development phases and to the different levels of aggregation of the product architecture. At each step different qualitative and quantitative techniques are progressively integrated according to the degree of data granularity required by the advancement of the product development. Moreover, a fixed set of cost drivers are identified in order to express the costs at different phases of the product lifecycle. The different levels of the product architecture are instead used as a framework to collect and bundle data for a cost analysis, which gradually increases in accuracy. Hence, the purpose of this research is to move the focus from merely estimating to structuring data and information for the cost analysis. The methodology is explicitly aimed at standardized assembled systems/products, characterized by a high number of parts and modules shared between different product versions. The approach was tested and validated at an automotive company that designs, produces and markets measurement devices for engine development. Operatively, the approach can be used by the development team to evaluate the impact of different design alternatives, deriving the lifecycle costs of the product once the design choices are made. By tracking the development process at each aggregation level, designers can assess cost reduction by monitoring the impact of selected cost drivers while the product development process is in progress