Best practices of open source mechanical hardware : a guide with practical advice for sharing product-related documentation

What makes a software program “open source” is that its source code is publicly available. What is pretty clear for software is less clear for hardware—especially for mechanical hardware. What does the term "source" refer to in "open source hardware"? According to the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA): "Open source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so that anyone can study, modify, distribute, make, and sell the design or hardware based on that design." What does it mean to "make a design publicly available"? What are the documents that enable others to study, distribute, make or sell a design? This short guide provides practical answers to these questions and is dedicated to those who want to make a piece of mechanical hardware open source.DFG, 283849106, OPEN! Methoden und IT-Werkzeuge zur Community-basierten und Open-Source-Entwicklung von physischen ProduktenAgence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR

Field of research in sustainable manufacturing

Sustainability has raised significant attention in manufacturing research over the last decades and has become a significant driver of the development of innovative technologies and management concepts. The current chapter aims to provide a structured overview of the wide field of research in sustainable manufacturing with a particular focus on manufacturing technology and management. It intends to describe the role of manufacturing in sustainability, outline the complementary approaches necessary for a transition to sustainable manufacturing and specify the need for engaging in interdisciplinary research. Based on a literature review, it provides a structuring framework defining four complementary areas of research focussing on analysis, synthesis and transition solutions. The challenges of the four areas of research manufacturing technologies (“how things are produced”), product development (“what is being produced”), value creation networks (“in which organisational context”) and global manufacturing impacts (“how to make a systemic change”) are highlighted and illustrated with examples from current research initiatives

What is the “Source” of Open Source Hardware?

What “open source” means once applied to tangible products has been so far mostly addressed through the light of licensing. While this approach is suitable for software, it appears to be over-simplistic for complex hardware products. Whether such a product can be labelled as open source is not only a question of licence but a question of documentation, i.e. what is the information that sufficiently describes it? Or in other words, what is the “source” of open source hardware? To date there is no simple answer to this question, leaving large room for interpretation in the usage of the term. Based on analysis of public documentation of 132 products, this paper provides an overview of how practitioners tend to interpret the concept of open source hardware. It specifically focuses on the recent evolution of the open source movement outside the domain of electronics and DIY to that of non-electronic and complex open source hardware products. The empirical results strongly indicate the existence of two main usages of open source principles in the context of tangible products: publication of product-related documentation as a means to support community-based product development and to disseminate privately developed innovations. It also underlines the high variety of interpretations and even misuses of the concept of open source hardware. This reveals in turn that this concept may not even be clear to practitioners and calls for more narrowed down definitions of what has to be shared for a product to be called open source. This article contributes towards this effort through the definition of an open source hardware lifecycle summarizing the observed approaches to open source hardware.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

Benefits and obstacles of sustainable product development methods : a case study in the field of urban mobility

In the last few years, numerous approaches have been introduced for supporting design engineers in developing more sustainable products. However, so far, these efforts have not led to the establishment of a commonly acknowledged standard methodology for Sustainable Product Development (SPD). This brings into question the relevance of developing new methods and calls for more efforts in testing the available ones. This article provides a reflection about the benefits and obstacles of applying existing SPD approaches to a real product development project. It reports the results of a project aimed at developing a new mobility solution under the constraints of sustainability-related targets. This project has led to the development of a new pedelec concept, focusing on the substitution of small passenger cars with the help of three SPD methods – Design for Sustainability Guidelines, Product Sustainability Index, and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. These methods have proved to be generally beneficial, thanks to a combination of qualitative and quantitative perspectives. However, the multitude of criteria offered by the methods put forth difficulties in evaluating which sustainability aspects are relevant and therefore lead to higher effort for information retrieval analysis and decision processes. Furthermore, the methods still lack an integrated perspective on the product, the corresponding services and the overarching system.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli

Openness assessment of 132 open source hardware products

This is the raw data set on which the article "What is the source of open source hardware?" to be published in the Journal of Open Hardware under an open access license is based. The abstract of the article is as follows: "What “open source” means once applied to tangible products has been so far exclusively addressed through the light of licensing. While this approach is adapted for software, it appears to be over-simplistic for complex hardware products. Whether such a product can be labelled as open source is not only a question of license but also a question of documentation, i.e. what is the information that sufficiently describes it? In other words, what is the “source” of open source hardware? To date there is no trivial answer to this question, leaving large room for interpretation in the usage of the term. Based on analysis of public documentation of 132 products, this paper provides an overview of how practitioners tend to interpret the concept of open source hardware. Results empirically confirm the existence of two main usages of the open source principles in the context of tangible products: publication of product-related documentation as a means to support community-based product development and to disseminate privately developed innovations. It also underlines the high variety of interpretations and even misuses of the concept of open source hardware. This reveals in turn that this concept may not even be clear to practitioners and calls for more narrowed down definitions of what has to be shared for a product to be called open source. Results gained by the analysis of current publication practice are summarized in the definition of an open source hardware lifecycle to contribute towards this effort."DFG, 283849106, OPEN! Methoden und IT-Werkzeuge zur Community-basierten und Open-Source-Entwicklung von physischen ProduktenAgence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), ANR-15-CE26-0012, Travail – place de l’homme, organisation des écosystèmes, valeur sociétale (DS0301) 2015 Projet OPEN

Vers une estimation de l'énergie de fabrication d'un produit dès sa conception

National audienceL'efficacité énergétique est une préoccupation croissante dans l'industrie. De nombreuses initiatives ont déjà été menées et sont en cours afin de diminuer la consommation des systèmes de production. De même, une part croissante des industriels s'intéresse à l'éco-conception. Cependant, l'influence des produits sur la consommation des systèmes de production, ainsi que celle du système de production sur l'impact environnemental d'un produit, ne sont que rarement prises en compte. Ceci est le résultat d'un manque de connaissance quant aux liens existants entre le produit et les impacts environnementaux qu'il fait générer au système de production. En se focalisant sur la seule consommation énergétique, cet article contribue à clarifier le lien existant entre conception de produit et impact environnemental de la production. En synthétisant la littérature existante, qui offre un ensemble de solutions partielles intéressantes, l'article propose un cadre unifié permettant d'estimer l'énergie de fabrication d'un produit. Le développement ainsi rendu possible d'outils d'aide à la conception et à la planification de la production permettrait de mettre en œuvre des démarches intégrées et cohérentes de réduction des consommations

Open design platforms for open source product development: current state and requirements

International audienceThe spread of ICT and cheap low-size production tools like 3D-printers led to the development of open design, i.e. community-based and open source development of physical products. This innovative organization of product development offers a great opportunity for continuous improvement of products as well as formidable a potential for product innovation and incubation of new businesses. However, because of a limited availability of supporting methods and tools, open design projects are still unable to compete with today s standards of industrial product design. The present article aims at providing a state of the art of existing online tools for open source product development and discusses their limitation regarding the challenges raised by what is identified as an emerging design paradigm. This is performed through the definition of an analysis grid through which existing tools have been scanned as well as a case study. It claims for further empirical research in order to describe the phenomenon from a design science perspective, to define appropriate categories and develop new specific online product data management tools

Sustainable manufacturing: challenges, solutions and implementation perspectives

Sustainability imposes an unprecedented challenge on society and has become the driving force of an urgent search for innovative solutions in all branches of economy. Manufacturing plays a key role in many areas of human living, and it is both part of the problem and of the solution. This book offers an overview of the broad field of research on sustainability in manufacturing with a particular focus on manufacturing technology and management. It summarizes the current challenges, describes best in class methods for development of sustainable manufacturing solutions and offers implementation perspectives. This volume covers areas of research such as production processes, product development, business model and corporate development, macro economy and education. The target audience primarily comprises research experts and practitioners in the field of manufacturing, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.