Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Product selection process'

The thesis presents research carried out in the field of design for microassembly (DFµA), a field that has hereto been characterised by the absence of well defined methodologies intended to facilitate transfer of prototypes from the research lab to production on industrial scale. A DFμA methodology has been developed, serving the purpose of integrating product and micro assembly process development. It aims in particular at increasing the efficiency of the microproduct development process, decreasing the development time and the product and process cost, and enhancing the product quality. Chapter 1 presents the motivations, objectives, and structure of the thesis. The work carried out is inspired by the need to overcome barriers currently existing between the making of single research products and production on an industrial level. The main objective is to contribute to the creating of a novel DFμA that supports product design and process selection, thereby facilitating the efficient assembly of complex three-dimensional miniaturised devices. This is complemented by a range of secondary targets that deal with the development and verification of supporting methods and models related to DFμA. The summary of a comprehensive literature review is given in chapter 2. The survey provides results of studies closely related to the work reported in this thesis and relates that work to a larger ongoing dialogue about the topic of assembly and design in the microworld. Chapter 3 outlines the research approach adopted here for the developing of a DFμA methodology. It carefully analyses the way in which the knowledge gaps identified can be addressed and how the stated objectives can best be achieved. The key contributions made to the developing of a DFμA methodology are presented in chapters 4,5, and 6. The micro assembly process capability model is described first, in Chapter 4. It constitutes the first attempt made at introducing a general framework for capturing of microassembly characteristics. The model developed enables selection and characterisation of microassembly processes. A framework to characterise the model's application to microjoining, -feeding, and -handling is as well suggested. Chapter 5 concerns the actual DFμA methodology. The methodology's layout and structure are introduced in detail. Moreover, the main functions and key phases of the methodology are explained. Special attention is paid to the integration of the microassembly process capability model and to the development of further elements used within the methodology, such as support in product design. Provided in Chapter 6 is a comprehensive analysis of conventional DFA guidelines, intended to explain how the microspecific guidelines have been formulated. The chapter also describes how these are implemented within the overall DFμA methodology. The procedure of validating and illustrating the methodology, which includes applying it to practical test cases, takes place in Chapter 7. The thesis is concluded in Chapter 8, wherein evidence of the originality of the knowledge contribution achieved through the work presented is highlighted. Opportunities for further research work building on the

In this thesis, a subset of materials and products have been considered - those of sports equipment. First the relevant information about each is explored and structured in a database. This information is presented in a standard profile - a description of the character of a material - or as a 'map' of the space of materials - a visualisation of material behaviour. Two-dimensional maps displaying pairs of technical properties of materials are well known. In multiple dimensions, a completely new technique is required, that of multi-dimensional scaling. This is a technique for revealing 'similarities' and relationships in complex data sets; the full attribute profile of a material is precisely such a set. Both two-dimensional and multi-dimensional maps are explored as tools for product design. For visualising similarities between lightweight structural products a second technique is required, that of mapping material properties (like elastic modulus and yield strength) with specific geometries (like second moment of area and section modulus). Here, these maps are used to compare similar functional elements in specific products and their relationship to material possibilities. The intention of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the interaction of materials and design (MAD). These interactions require new methods of selection which are then demonstrated in a set of design tools: one for material selection and a second for structured inspiration. For each, a database of materials is linked to one of products. With this process, two methods of material selection, based on the visualisation techniques described earlier, are integrated with those of analysis - selection by similarity and selection by synthesis. In selection by similarity, the set of possible material solutions is expanded by comparing materials based on technical or aesthetic attributes. In selection by synthesis, innovative material solutions are created by assembling elements from those that are found in existing products. The same database is manipulated by a digital viewer for structured inspiration - for this, a series of images of materials are presented to the designer in random order. The viewer provides a visual stimulus for material selection and the designer is immediately linked to the appropriate information if requested - selection by inspiration. The MAD process of material selection requires the creative combination of each of these methods.

Product improvement is a serious issue facing industry today. And while response surface methods have been developed which address the process mean involved in improving the product there has been little research done on the process variability. Lack of quality in a product can be attributed to its inconsistency in performance thereby highlighting the need for a methodology which addresses process variability. The key to working with the process variability comes in the handling of the two types of factors which make up the product design: control and noise factors. Control factors can be fixed in both the lab setting and the real application. However, while the noise factors can be fixed in the lab setting, they are assumed to be random in the real application. A response-model can be created which models the response as a function of both the control and noise factors. This work introduces criteria for selecting an appropriate response-model which can be used to create accurate models for both the process mean and process variability. These two models can then be used to identify settings of the control factors which minimize process variability while maintaining an acceptable process mean. If the response-model is known, or at least well estimated, response surface methods can be extended to building various confidence regions related to the process variance. Among these are a confidence region on the location of minimum process variance and a confidence region on the ratio of the process variance to the error variance. It is easy to see the importance for research on the process variability and this work offers practical methods for improving the design of a product.
Ph. D.

The following report consists of a master thesis (30 credits) within product development. The thesis is written by Philip Ragnartz and Axel Staffanson, both studying mechanical engineering at Mälardalens University. Developing new components for a production line is costly and time consuming as they must be made from manual measurements and must go through all the conventional manufacturing (CM) steps. Eventual design mistakes will be discovered after the component have been manufactured and tested. To fix the design a completely new component must be designed and therefore double the overall lead time. The purpose of this thesis is to establish how additive manufacturing (AM) can best be used to minimize the cost and lead time in the development of new components. The study was performed by looking at the current product development process in the automotive industry at a large company, here by referred to as company A. 56 components already manufactured at company A´s own tools department was examined and compared to different AM methods. The aim of this was to get a larger pool of data to get an average on production time and cost and see how this differ to the different AM methods. Additionally, two work holders were more closely examined in a case study. Work holder one is a component in the production line that occasionally must be remanufactured. It was examined if this problem could be solved with a desktop plastic printer to hold up for a production batch. Work holder two was the development of a new component, this was to examine the use of printing the component in an early stage impact the development process. The findings from this study is that AM can today not be used in a cost efficient way in manufacturing or development of simple components. This is due to the cost of a metal 3D-printer is still very high, and the building material even higher. This results in components that gets very expensive to make compared to producing them with CM. For design evaluation to be cost efficient there will have to be a design fault in over 12 % of the newly design components for it to be cost effective to print the design for validation before sending it to be manufactured. There are however a lot bigger potential savings in the lead time. Producing the end product with a metal 3D-printer can cut down the lead time up to 85 %. This is thanks to the fact that the printer will produce the component all in one step and therefore not get stuck in between different manufacturing processes. The same goes for design evaluation with printing the component in plastic to confirm the design and not risk having to wait for the component to be manufactured twice. Despite the facts that it is not cost efficient to use AM there are other factors that play an important role. To know that the designed components will work will create a certainty and allow the development process to continue. In some cases it will also allow the designer to improve the design to function better even if the first design would have worked. As AM is expanding machines and build materials will become cheaper. Eventually it will become cheaper to 3D-print even simple components compared to CM. When this occurs, a company cannot simply buy a 3D-printer and make it profitable. There is a learning curve with AM that will take time for the designers to adapt to. Therefore, it is good to start implementing it as soon as possible as it allows for more intricate designs and require experience to do so.

Context: At the core of choosing what features and level of quality to realize, and thus offer a market or customer, rests on the ability to take decisions. Decision-making is complicated by the diverse understanding of issues such as priority, consequence of realization, and interpretations of strategy as pertaining to the short-term and long-term development of software intensive products. The complexity is further compounded by the amount of decision support material that has to be taken into account, and the sheer volume of possible alternatives that have to be triaged and prioritized; thousands or even tens of thousands of requirements can be the reality facing a company. There is a need to develop the functionality that is strategically most significant, while satisfying customers and being competitive, time efficient, cost effective, and risk minimizing. In order to achieve a balance between these factors, all the stakeholders, within an organization, need to agree on the strategic aspects and value considerations to be considered, and their corresponding relative importance. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to provide enhanced decision support for product managers faced with decision-making challenges. This involves, but is not limited to, enhancing the alignment between the product and portfolio management with respect to product strategies, and enabling the use of value as a basis for product management and development related decisions. Method: A number of empirical studies, set in industry, have been performed. The research methods used span from systematic mapping, and systematic reviews to case studies, all aligned to identify possibilities for improvement, devise solutions, and incrementally evaluate said solutions. Close collaboration with industry partners was at the core of the research presented in this thesis. Result: The MASS method presented in this thesis can be used to evaluate strategic alignment and identify possible root causes for misalignment. To strengthen strategic alignment, the Software Value Map and corresponding decision support material, proposed in the thesis, can be used by product managers for making effective and efficient strategic decisions in relation to portfolios, products and process improvement, following a systematic and aligned process. Conclusions: The area of software product management, in the context of market-driven software intensive product development, is a field with unique challenges. The specifics of the solutions are based on industry case studies performed to gauge state-of-the-art, as well as identify the main challenges. The decision support developed takes the form of maps and frameworks that support software product management on product and portfolio level decisions, strategic alignment, value-based requirements selection, and value-based process improvement.

To optimize biodiesel manufacturing, many reported studies have built simulation models to quantify the relationship between operating conditions and process performance. For mass and energy balance simulations, it is essential to know the four fundamental thermophysical properties of the feed oil: liquid density (Ï L), vapor pressure (Pvap), liquid heat capacity (CpL), and heat of vaporization (Î Hvap). Additionally, to characterize the fuel qualities, it is critical to develop quantitative correlations to predict three biodiesel properties, namely, viscosity, cetane number, and flash point. Also, to ensure the operability of biodiesel in cold weather, one needs to quantitatively predict three low-temperature flow properties: cloud point (CP), pour point (PP), and cold filter plugging point (CFPP). This article presents the results from a comprehensive evaluation of the methods for predicting these four essential feed oil properties and six key biodiesel fuel properties. We compare the predictions to reported experimental data and recommend the appropriate prediction methods for each property based on accuracy, consistency, and generality. Of particular significance are (1) our presentation of simple and accurate methods for predicting the six key fuel properties based on the number of carbon atoms and the number of double bonds or the composition of total unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) and (2) our posting of the Excel spreadsheets for implementing all of the evaluated accurate prediction methods on our group website (www.design.che.vt.edu) for the reader to download without charge.
Master of Science

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
A quantidade de websites de comércio eletrônico vem aumentando rapidamente, no entanto, questões envolvendo a usabilidade muitas vezes são esquecidas. Esta pesquisa partiu do pressuposto de que a ineficiência da apresentação de produtos em websites de comércio eletrônico no momento de compra prejudica a realização da tarefa pelo usuário, resultando em frustrações e perdas econômicas. Objetiva-se com esta dissertação melhorar a usabilidade de websites de comércio eletrônico, através da identificação de fatores que facilitem o processo de seleção de um produto pelo usuário no momento da compra; contribuir para o aprofundamento de questões de usabilidade; além de colaborar para o fortalecimento dos estudos de IHC (Interação Humano- Computador) no país. Alguns métodos e técnicas foram usados, em quatro etapas: Primeiramente, através da Análise da Tarefa observaram-se as ações de clientes no momento da seleção de 2 produtos no ambiente real. Posteriormente, através da Avaliação Heurística buscou-se avaliar a interface dos websites de eletrodomésticos selecionados para a pesquisa com base na lista de heurísticas vindas da Análise da Tarefa. Em um terceiro momento, através da técnica Avaliação Cooperativa analisou-se o processo de seleção dos mesmos produtos pelo cliente em websites de comércio eletrônico (ambiente virtual). Por fim, foram analisadas e comparadas as ações dos usuários nos dois ambientes (loja física e virtual) a fim de avaliar as diferenças existentes entre estas no momento de seleção do produto. Através deste trabalho, a hipótese pôde ser confirmada e evidenciou-se que as páginas de apresentação do produto em websites de comércio eletrônico possuem níveis baixos de usabilidade, prejudicando a realização da tarefa pelo usuário, resultando em frustrações e na maioria das vezes a não efetivação da compra.
The amount of e-commerce websites has increased rapidly. However, issues involving their usability many tomes have been overlooked. This research is concerned about the inefficiency of the presentation of products in general, in ecommerce websites at the moment of purchase. This incompetence jeopardizes the accomplishment of the task by the user, who will become frustrated and unsatisfied not to mention the economic losses. It is intended, with the research, to improve the usability of the e-commerce websites through the identification of factors that will enable the user to select better his products at the moment of purchase. Moreover, it is intended to contribute to the development of solutions of usability issues and to improve the studies of IHC. Some methods and techniques were used, in four stages: First of all, through the Task Analysis, we could observe the clients actions at the very moment of selection of two products from the real store; Secondly, through the Heuristic Evaluation, we tried to study the interface of the domestic appliance websites selected for a survey from the Task Analysis; On a third stage, through the Cooperative Evaluation, we analyzed the process of selection of the same products mentioned above by the clients on virtual store; At last, the actions of the users were both analyzed and compared in the virtual store and the real store, in order to verify the differences between them at the moment of the products selection. By means of this work, the hypothesis could be confirmed and became evident that the interfaces of the e-commerce websites showed low levels of usability, risking the performance of task by the users besides leading the user to frustration and most of the time making him give up the purchase.

Cette recherche vise à proposer une approche intégrée permettant la prise en compte simultanée des paramètres Produits / process dans le cadre d’une fabrication par ajout de matière. Le développement produit est en profonde mutation, prenant en compte les contraintes de personnalisation, de temps de mise sur le marché de plus en plus court, la volonté d’une approche eco-responsable etc. Ce changement de paradigme conduit à s’intéresser au choix du couple matériau /process dès la phase de conception afin de prendre en compte les contraintes liées au procédé identifié. Cette approche multi critère s’intéresse à la fois au couple matériau procédé mais prend en compte les aspect fonctionnels de la pièce. Ainsi ce travail de thèse présente une méthodologie de décision générique, basée sur des outils de prise de décision multicritères, qui peut non seulement proposer une solution satisfaisant les contraintes liées aux matériaux, processus et processus par addition de matière, mais propose également de servir de guide aux concepteurs permettant un choix raisonné basé sur des combinaisons matériau-machine orientées conception et obtenu à partir d’une base de données de 38 fournisseurs internationaux de machine de fabrication par ajout de matière
The doctoral research focuses to build an integrated approach that can simultaneously handle the product and process parameters related to additive manufacturing (AM). Since, market dynamics of today are constantly evolving, drivers such as mass customization strategies, shorter product development cycles, a large pool of materials to choose from, abundant manufacturing processes, etc., have made it essential to choose the right compromise of materials, manufacturing processes and associated machines in early stages of design considering the Design for AM guidelines. As several criteria, material attributes and process functionality requirements are involved for decision making in the industries, the thesis introduces a generic decision methodology, based on multi-criteria decision-making tools, that can not only provide a set of compromised AM materials, processes and machines but will also act as a guideline for designers to achieve a strong foothold in the AM industry by providing practical solutions containing design oriented and feasible material-machine combinations from a database of 38 renowned AM vendors in the world today

The substantial demand of the customer for the conservation of natural resources and of the environment puts pressure on the automotive industry to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. One response to this challenge is to reduce car body weight. Hence car body development has shown an increase in the use of light weight materials that demand new production methods and joining technologies. Accordingly car body engineers have progressively less time to assess the manufacturing cost of an increasing number of new design concepts with new material and corresponding joining techniques. A review of the pertinent literature shows that there is no established methodology enabling automotive body engineers to make a rough manufacturing cost estimate of different new design concepts in the early phase of the Product Development Process. The aim of the present thesis is to provide car body engineers with a cost estimating methodology that makes it possible for them in the preliminary phase of the design process to estimate the manufacturing cost of new design concepts more systematically, hence more reliably, thus enhancing cost reduction. The methodology is based on the notion of Standardised Working Contents, which, as fundamental units of work, enable designers to compare the financial requirements of various new design options with greater facility and greater accuracy. Furthermore the methodology identifies the most cost efficient Joining Technique combination with a high degree of reliability. Economical and technical data required for the methodology are gathered from an industrial survey in collaboration with the design, planning, finance and manufacturing departments of a leading automotive company. Dynamic Programming taken from the area of Operations Research is employed to provide the optimal Joining Technique combination in terms of manufacturing cost of the car body design concept under scrutiny. Results obtained from an automotive industrial case study confirm the effectiveness of the methodology while pointing out its limitations and possibilities.

The stainless steel industry is an industry which manufactures one of the most used ma-terials in the world. Even though the vast size of the industry many might not reflect werethe steel comes from when buying their IKEAcutlery etc. But in fact this industry is moreintricate and complex than one might think.During the manufacturing process, the steelgoes through several processes. One of thoseprocesses is done by treating the steel withstrong acid. This chemical process is calledpickling. The pickling process is what createsthe characteristic smooth and shiny surface ofa product made in stainless steel.This thesis is about the development of a testunit that is able to effectively test the ASRA(Acid Sludge Removal Apparatus) filter cloths.The ASRA is a filtration system developed by Scanacon in Stockholm that filtrates and puri-fies acid that is used during the pickling pro-cess of a steel manufacture process. Today, it is complicated, time consuming and dangerous totest and evaluate different filter cloths in orderto find the cloth that provides the best result,since the tests has to be conducted on the realsystems. The aim of this thesis was therefore tosolve these problems. Scanacon wanted to findan alternative solution, that would not includeinteraction with the real filtration system. Theyalso wanted a portable and safe solution. To solve the problem a iterative design pro-cess called RDCD which stands for research, design, create & delivery was developed. Theprocesses was heavily influenced by the CDIO process (Conceive, Design, Implement & Ope-rate). After the research phase was conducted it was decided that a small filter analysis productwould be the best way to solve the problem. The product was then developed one com-ponent at a time. During the project several prototypes and test was created and conductedin order to validate the design.The result is a small filtration unit speciallydesigned to simulate the ASRA system. Theproduct is able to rapidly test various filtercloths in an easy way, without putting the user in harm’s way. After the tests has been perfor-med can the user can identify which cloth that worked the best. The product is small enoughto be possible to be carried in a hard case bag,which in turn affords portability.
Stålindustrin är en industri som tillverkar ettav de mest använda materialen i världen. Trotsindustrins enorma storlek är det kanske intemånga som reflekterar varifrån stålet kommerifrån när man köper exempelvis IKEA bestick.Men faktum är att den här industrin är mycketmer invecklad och komplex än vad man kan tro. Under tillverkningsprocessen går stålet ige-nom flera processer. En av de här processerna genomförs genom att behandla stålet med starksyra. Den kemiska processen kallas för betningoch är det som ger en produkt tillverkad i stålden karaktäristiska lena och glänsande ytan. Den här examensrapporten handlar om ut-vecklandet av en test enhet som effektivt kan testa filter dukarna till ASRA (Acid SludgeRemoval Apparatus) systemet. ASRA systemetär ett filtreringssystem utvecklat av Scanaconi Stockholm som filtrerar och renar syran som används under betningsprocessen vid stål-tillverkning. Idag är det komplicerat, tidskrä-vande och farligt att testa och utvärdera olika filterdukar för att ta reda på vilken duk somger bäst resultat, eftersom att testerna måstegenomföras på de riktiga systemen. Målet fördet här examensarbetet var därför att lösa dehär problemen. Scanacon ville ha en alternativlösning som inte kräver interaktion med deriktiga systemen. De ville också ha en portabeloch säker lösning. För att lösa problemet utvecklades en itera-tiv designprocess kallad RDCD som står för research, design, create & delivery. Processen var tungt influerat av CDIO (Conceive, De-sign, Implement & Operate) processen. Efter att researchfasen var genomförd bestämdesdet att en liten filteranalysatorprodukt var detbästa sättet att lösa problemet på. Produktenutvecklades sedan en komponent i taget. Underprojektets gång har flera prototyper byggts och flera tester genomförts för att validera designen. Resultatet är en liten filtreringsenhet som är specialdesignad för att simulera ASRA syste-met. Produkten kan snabbt testa oliak filterdu-kar på ett enkelt sätt, utan utsätta användaren för fara. Efter att testerna genomförts kananvändaren identifiera vilken duk som funkatbäst. Produkten är tillräckligt liten för att fåplats i en hårdplast väska, vilket ger produktenden efterfrågade portabiliteten.

Detta examensarbete handlar om en skopkonstruktions utveckling, avsedd för en serieskopor men konstruktionen har enbart implementerats på en kabelskopa. Arbetet har utförtspå uppdrag av ett verkstadsföretag som utvecklar, tillverkar och säljer entreprenadutrustningtill grävmaskiner och hjullastare. Företagets vision är att komma ut på den svenskalågprismarknaden, men i dagsläget är produktionskostnaderna på skoporna för höga. Måletmed arbetet har varit att ta fram en konstruktionslösning som sänker företagets produktionskostnader.Efter ett möte med företaget tydliggjordes vilka behov som efterfrågades och dessa behovtolkades i form av kundkrav. Med en QFD-analys översattes kundkraven till produktegenskapersom krävs för en lyckad skopkonstruktion. Fokus har främst lagts på att förenklaskopans montering och anpassa dess konstruktion för robotsvetsning. Några faktorer harvarit att utforma självfixerande detaljer och beakta åtkomlighet för svetsning. Konceptengenererades genom intern och extern sökning, där metoder så som brainstorming och konkurrentanalyshar använts.Konceptvalet utfördes med Pughs beslutsmatris, där ett relativt optimalt koncept valdes förfortsatt utveckling. Vid utvecklingen har diverse verifieringsmetoder använts, som till exempelriskanalys, finita elementmetoden (FEM) och kostnadskalkyl för att kontrollera attdet valda konceptet uppfyller de uppsatta kraven för skopan. I verifieringsfasen identifieradesflera förbättringsmöjligheter som implementerades på det valda konceptet och dettagav ett bättre koncept än tidigare.Det slutliga konceptet har fått en sänkt produktionskostnad, med effektivare montering,minskad materialanvändning och svetsning samt en bättre prestanda än tidigare.
This thesis is about the development of a bucket design; intended for a range of excavatorbuckets consisting of four different types, but has only been implemented on the cablebucket. The work has been performed on behalf of a company that develops, produces andsells construction equipment for excavators and wheel loaders. At the present, the company'sexcavator buckets have high production costs, but the vision is to get into the low-costmarket. The goal of this work has been to develop a bucket design that reduces the company'sproduction costs.After a meeting with the company it became clear what needed to be achieved. The collectedneeds were interpreted in terms of customer requirements. A QFD was made, and thecustomer requirements were translated into product specifications for a successful bucketdesign. Particular focus has been put on simplifying the assembly of the bucket and adaptingits design for robot welding. Some essential factors have been to design interactingparts and to consider the accessibility for welding. The concepts were generated throughinternal and external searches, where methods as brainstorming and competitor analysiswere used.Concept selection was made by using Pugh's decision-matrix. A relatively optimal conceptwas selected for further development. During the development, various verification methodswere used, as for example risk analysis, finite element analysis (FEA) and cost estimate,to verify that the selected concept meets the set requirements for the excavator bucket.Several potential improvements were identified during the verifications phase and theseimprovements were implemented on the selected concept, which resulted in an even betterconcept than before.The final concept obtained a reduced production cost, with a more efficient assembly, reducedmaterial use and welding as well as a better performance than before.

Companies are dependent on continuously provide the market with new products to keep its market position and profitability level. The companies examined in this thesis are two bigger Swedish enterprises that have a long history in a mature business-to-business context providing industrial goods to the market. This work examines how users are involved in the different innovation and product development activities. The problem is to understand how business-to-business companies co-operate with stakeholder and users, when in the product life cycle that is done, and who are the ones doing the actual innovation. The methodological approach for the work was deductive, building a theory including innovation, strategy and user theories that was empirically tested and followed by an analysis and conclusion of the found evidence. Key findings: Most if not all innovations in mature market are routine ones. There is lack of strategic focus due to micromanagement that shifts focus rapidly. Innovations are often found in the beginning and in the end of the product life cycle. Mature markets tend to utilize a more closed innovation model as opposite to an open model. Users are not heavily involved in the actual innovation process. Stickiness and tacit knowledge is quite big in large corporation event though there is said to be a strategic focus on the customers. Implications: More involvement of users, especially lead users, will lead to more innovations. Utilising strategic buckets of different sizes for spreading the resources on different innovation types (routine/disruptive/discontinuous) to become successful

There is a noticeable lack of production of indigenously engineered and manufactured products in Less Developed Countries (LDC's). Few products developed in these LDC's could be viable in competitive markets or even sold as components and supplies to other manufacturers of competitive goods. Assumintg that these less developed countries do not innovate and manufacture because they cannot, the next logical question to ask is why can they not? This thesis looks at the problems of manufacture and design in LDC's from the standpoint of Product Development. It begins by looking at development theories, namely top down and bottom up and assessing the difficulties encountered with either approach. It then looks at literature on product development, covering four areas: appropriate technolotgy, Product Development Cycle, QFD, and finally Design for X. These areas are analyzed for their usefulness in solving the development problem. The environment is considered and a linkage is developed between the Product Development Cycle and the environment. This is found to happen by way of Enterprise Needs which are needs that a product must fulfill to make it a viable option for manufacture. Finally, a process is outlined and demonstrated to form Enterprise Needs and take them into account within a traditional concept selection process. Environment was found to play a part in the Product Development Cycle. By clarifying Enterprise Needs as well as Customer Needs or Functional Needs, a more balanced approach can be taken to the concept selection process choosing the best concept, not only for the customer, but for the company as well.

O gerenciamento de processos de negócio (BPM – Business Process Management) é uma abordagem estruturada que apoia as empresas a melhorar os seus processos fundamentais, dentre os quais se destaca o processo de desenvolvimento de produtos (PDP). Entretanto, a literatura é escassa de uma orientação sistêmica para guiar a seleção de ações de melhoria para o PDP de modo que se considere os objetivos estratégicos do processo. O foco das ações, geralmente, é somente em superar as deficiências relativas à situação atual. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é desenvolver um método de seleção de ações de melhoria para o PDP que contemple tanto o diagnóstico da situação atual quanto a situação futura desejada para o processo. A abordagem metodológica denominada Design Research Methodology (DRM) é utilizada para conduzir o desenvolvimento da pesquisa, e dois estudos de caso foram aplicados para avaliar a aplicação do método. Ele é constituído por quatro etapas correspondendo à definição dos objetivos estratégicos, a análise dos problemas que ocorrem no PDP, a avaliação das ações de melhoria, e a priorização delas de acordo com os prazos no horizonte de tempo, a complexidade e os recursos envolvidos para implementá-las. A proposta ainda utiliza as boas práticas do PDP para proposição das ações de melhoria, e aplica o processo de roadmapping para o mapeamento, seleção e priorização das ações. A novidade é a integração dos objetivos estratégicos do PDP em programas de melhoria, estendendo o modelo de melhoria tradicional associado à abordagem BPM. Os resultados da aplicação do método indicam que ele apresenta-se como estímulo para as empresas alcançarem o alinhamento estratégico no PDP e buscarem por novas práticas gerenciais e técnicas em prol da melhoria do desempenho desse processo.
The Business Process Management (BPM) is a structured approach that supports companies to improve their core processes, among which stands out the new product development (NPD). However, the literature is scarce of a systemic orientation to guide the selection of improvement actions for NPD in order to consider the strategic objectives of the process. Usually the focus of actions is only on overcoming shortcomings relative to the current situation. The aim of this research is to develop a method of selecting improvement actions for NPD that considers both the diagnosis of the current situation and the future situation desired for the process. The methodological approach called Design Research Methodology (DRM) is used to drive the development of the research, and two case studies were applied to evaluate the application of the method. It consists of four stages, which are the definition of the strategic objectives, the analysis of the problems that occur in NPD, the evaluation of improvement actions, and the prioritization of them in accordance with the time, the complexity of the actions and the resources involved to implement them. This proposal also uses the NPD good practices to define the improvement actions, and applies the roadmapping for mapping, selecting and prioritizing the actions. The novelty of the method is the integration of the NPD\'s strategic objectives into improvement programs, extending the traditional improvement model associated with the BPM approach. The results of the application of the method indicate that it is a stimulus for the companies to reach the strategic alignment in the PDP and to apply new managerial and technical practices in order to improve the performance of the process.

New building regulations and increased focus on building related environmental burdens have created a need for guidance to design more sustainable buildings. The main objective in this thesis is to develop a decision support system, to guide decisionmakers to a better selection of building materials and products, based on environmental prioritisation. The system is focused on building materials and products, but the structure of the system can be adapted to other types of decision problems. No tool is found that satisfy the identified needs for a material selection system. By studying existing methods, however important information and possible solutions are gathered, that partly could be used in a new tool.

Key decision makers with respect to material and product selection are the client, the architects, the technical consultants, and the contractors when they decide on specific brands. The user of the MaSe system first identifies the materials acceptable in the specific project, based on the technical requirements. These pre-selected materials are then scored and ranked through the procedures in the MaSe system. The alternative ranking is then the basis for the selection of construction elements, materials or products.

Seeing the building and real estate industry as a part of our society, it is clear that the use of material resources and pollution are areas that need improvement. The MaSe system includes environmental aspects under the headlines Resources, Ecology and Human health. When selecting building materials, factors like recycling and reuse needs to be considered. Renewability, energy and waste are other aspects included in the Resource area. Toxic substances are clearly important when it comes to building materials. Factors to be included under the headline Ecology are global warming, acidification, and photochemical oxidant formation. The emissions of toxics to air, water and soil will have effect on human health. Aspects that should be included in the assessment of the indoor environmental influence of a material includes emissions of substances and fibres, cleaning methods, cleaning chemicals, cleaning friendliness and dust adhering properties. The results from each sub area are weighted into one index, referred to as the Environmental index. Each material is characterised with this index and a judgement. All costs related to the production, use and disposal of a material are included in the MaSe system evaluation.

The MaSe system is suited for use in the relevant phases of the building process. It is possible to use the system on different levels and with different input, from client priorities to details of the different products studied by the contractor. Economy is included in the system, and this one important aspect that separates the MaSe system from many of the existing systems. Many different products and materials can be handled within the system as long as the functional unit (FU) of the data are carefully defined. The structure of the scorecards and the aggregation of information into one index using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and pair wise comparison, makes it possible to include new information as it is made available.

The aim of the thesis has been to investigate the effect of the scanning strategy and the main process parameters on the final parts produced through Selective Laser Melting. Selective laser melting (SLM) is the most common Powder Bed Fusion technology and it uses high energy laser to selectively melt pre-deposited powders. The printed material is the 18Ni300 maraging steel, a low-carbon ultra-high strength steel whose properties derive from the presence of nickel-based intermetallic compounds. Thanks to their good weldability and the resistance to quench cracking, the maraging steels are good candidate materials to be produced through the SLM process. Interestingly, the microstructure of the SLM produced parts is completely different from the one of the traditionally produced ones, depending not just on the material but also on the values of the process parameters used to print. So, it is necessary to study in-depth the characteristics of the printed parts. Four prints have been carried out, keeping constant the volumetric energy density, the laser power and the layer thickness. The scan speed, the hatch spacing, the rotation between adjacent layers and the scan strategy have been changed. In particular, the “stripes”, the “chessboard” and the “hexagonal” strategies have been considered. It has been found out that the hexagonal strategy always led to the biggest external diameter, to the lowest density and almost always to the highest roughness of the final parts. All these negative results were probably related to the longer time elapsing between the scan of two adjacent tracks compared to the other two strategies. The results of the nano-hardness tests are not clearly showing which strategy performs better, probably because a too small portion of specimen has been considered for those tests. Moreover, ANOVA analysis has been performed and it confirmed the primary importance of the scan strategy as process parameter.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1998.
Trademark symbol follows Chemchar in title. Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 130). Also available on the Internet.

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With the increase in production worldwide advancing, just as is the increased use of natural resources and therefore have a greater environmental degradation. The economic growth is part of the goals of any nation, but civil society is increasingly concerned with the direction this is taking such growth. Not only society, but also the rulers are concerned with environmental issues and climate change that surround the planet. Companies in turn, also following this environmental movement, seek to reduce the use of natural resources and take measures to minimize the impacts caused by its processes on the environment. One way to do this is to establish an environmental assessment on its suppliers, given that bulk of parts of manufacturers are purchased from the supply chain. However, there are many questions of how an environmental assessment can bring positive and effective results for the company, since recent research indicates that many papers, not certain why the supplier was the best choice or even worse make clear, do not make clear how this particular supplier can improve its environmental classification. This study carried out a comparative environmental assessment of two suppliers in a process of dual sourcing using the Material Input per Units of Service - MIPS as environmental tool. For this study the research methodology used was the case study by means semi-structured interviews, comparing the two processes of suppliers with a process called Reference. The results showed how a supplier is more eco-efficient than other and it was possible to generate a rating for both. In addition, the study allowed the least eco-efficient supplier, which clearly visualize the points in your process could be improved.
Com o aumento da produção em nível mundial avançando, da mesma maneira ocorre o aumento do uso de recursos naturais e por consequência têm-se uma maior degradação do meio ambiente. O crescimento econômico faz parte do objetivo de qualquer nação, entretanto a sociedade civil está cada vez mais preocupada com os rumos que este tal crescimento está tomando. Não somente a sociedade, mas também os governantes estão preocupados com as questões ambientais e mudanças climáticas que rodeiam o planeta. As empresas por sua vez, também acompanhando este movimento ambiental, procuram reduzir o uso de recursos naturais e tomam medidas para minimizar os impactos causados por seus processos no meio ambiente. Uma forma de fazer isso é estabelecer uma avaliação ambiental em seus fornecedores, haja vista que os maiores volumes de peças de uma montadora são provenientes de peças compradas da cadeia de suprimentos. No entanto, existem muitas dúvidas de como uma avaliação ambiental pode trazer resultados positivos e efetivos para a companhia, uma vez que pesquisas recentes apontam que muitos trabalhos, não deixam claro o porquê determinado fornecedor foi a melhor escolha, e ainda, não elucidam como o fornecedor que não obteve uma boa avaliação pode melhorar sua classificação ambiental. Este trabalho realizou uma avaliação ambiental comparativa entre dois fornecedores em um processo de dual sourcing com o uso da ferramenta ambiental Material Input per Units of Service - MIPS. Para a realização deste estudo a metodologia de pesquisa adotada foi o estudo de caso por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, que compararam os dois processos dos fornecedores com um processo chamado de Referência. Os resultados demonstraram o quanto um fornecedor é mais eco-eficiente que o outro e com isso foi possível gerar uma classificação para ambos. Além disso, o estudo permitiu que o fornecedor menos ecoeficiente, visualizasse claramente quais os pontos em que seu processo poderia ser aprimorado.

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Outsourcing of logistics activities in the Brazil has been growing, allowing companies to direct efforts towards to their core activities and to obtain strategic gains due to the know-how of specialist companies and the possibility of reducing costs with the assets of the contracted company. Thus, tools that aid in the proper selection of suppliers can be important for the company to reach its goals. In this context, the purpose of this study is to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in the evaluation process and selection of a logistics services providers (LSP) for the courier delivery services company, analyzing qualitative and quantitative criteria that express the real needs of the parties, whose aim is to improve the indicators in terms of quality and customer satisfaction. The results indicated that the information technology, responsiveness and quality of management are the most relevant criteria for the contractor because of the need of preserving the enterprise reliability front of your customers and to remain competitive in the courier delivery services area. The results also showed that the criteria and method used could contribute for classification of LSP suitable for the service in terms of deadline, demand and traceability required for operational success. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to assess the robustness of the decision. Finally, the proposed model proved to be a good alternative to support the decision on the selection of logistics providers for express charge, since the analysis of qualitative and quantitative criteria adhering to organizational practice, can lead to choosing companies that can meet the quality requirements of the sector.
A terceirização das atividades logísticas no Brasil vem crescendo, permitindo as empresas a direcionar os esforços no sentido de suas atividades principais e obter ganhos estratégicos devido ao know-how de empresas especializadas e a possibilidade de reduzir os custos com os ativos da empresa contratada. Desta forma, ferramentas que auxiliem na seleção adequada de fornecedores, pode ser importante para que a empresa atinja seus objetivos. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste estudo é investigar o uso do método de decisão multicritério Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) para a avaliação e seleção de provedores de serviços logísticos (PSLs) para empresas do segmento de cargas expressas analisando critérios qualitativos e quantitativos que expressam as reais necessidades das partes envolvidas, cujo intuito é melhorar os indicadores em termo de qualidade, prazo e satisfação dos clientes. Os resultados demonstraram que a tecnologia da informação, responsividade e a gestão da qualidade são os critérios mais relevantes para a contratante em razão da necessidade da preservação da confiabilidade da empresa frente a seus clientes e para manter-se competitiva no segmento de cargas expressas. Constatou-se que os critérios utilizados e o método contribuíram para a classificação de PSLs adequados para o atendimento em termos de prazo, demanda e rastreabilidade exigidos para o sucesso operacional. Uma análise de sensibilidade também foi desenvolvida para avaliar a robustez da decisão. O modelo proposto mostrou ser uma boa alternativa para apoio a decisão na seleção de fornecedores logísticos para carga expressa, uma vez que a análise de critérios qualitativos e quantitativos aderentes à prática organizacional, pode levar a escolha de empresas que possam atender as exigências de qualidade do setor.

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Technological innovation promotes the generation of economic value by creating a new product, process or organizational management model, being classified as dynamic and multidimensional. Government intervention has the role of acting through government grant programs to foster the integration of innovative processes in small companies, due to the high costs and risks of development, strengthening the country`s economy in this phase. The distribution of this grant is determined by criteria, based especially in subjective judgments, which are based on the beliefs and perceptions about the technological opportunities and market actors involved in the process, being very difficult to measure the probability of success of the project under evaluation. This study aims to identify the most relevant selection criteria that must be inserted in grants programs at Rio Grande do Norte executed by Funda??o de Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Norte (FAPERN). Initially, there was a systematization of 18 countries, covering 41 programs in foreign countries and 29 in Brazil. Based on the data collected, we conducted one survey containing four programs of FAPERN (INOVA I, INOVA II , INOVA III and INOVA IV), covering 44 companies and analyzing their responses according to the Likert scale , obtaining the degree of importance given by the respondent to each of the criteria in the questionnaire . As a result, drew up a proposal for new criteria to be used in the next FAPERN?s grants, containing 13 new criteria. It is expected, therefore, to contribute to a better spending of public funds invested in companies subsidized in Brazil
A Inova??o tecnol?gica promove a gera??o de valor econ?mico por meio da inser??o no mercado de um novo produto, processo ou modelo de gest?o organizacional, sendo classificada como: din?mica e multidimensional. A interven??o governamental tem como papel atuar por meio de programas governamentais de subven??o para fomentar a inser??o dos processos inovativos nas pequenas empresas, devido aos custos e elevados riscos de desenvolvimento, fortalecendo a economia do pa?s emergente. A distribui??o desse recurso ? determinada por meio de crit?rios, sobretudo em julgamentos subjetivos, que s?o baseados em cren?as e percep??es quanto ?s oportunidades tecnol?gicas e de mercados dos agentes envolvidos no processo, sendo muito dif?cil de mensurar as probabilidades de sucesso do projeto em avalia??o. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo identificar as pr?ticas do processo de sele??o mais relevantes que devem ser inseridas nas linhas governamentais de fomento ? inova??o a Micro e pequenas empresas de base tecnol?gica da Funda??o de Amparo ? Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Norte (FAPERN). Para conduzir esta pesquisa, realizou-se uma sistematiza??o referente a 18 pa?ses, abordando um panorama de 41 programas em pa?ses estrangeiros e 29 editais brasileiros. Com base nos dados coletados, conduziu-se uma survey contemplando quatro editais da FAPERN (INOVA I, INOVA II, INOVA III e INOVA IV), 44 empresas, analisando suas respostas por meio da escala de Likert, obtendo o grau de import?ncia dado pelo entrevistado a cada um dos processos/crit?rios presentes no question?rio. Como resultado, elaborou-se uma proposta com os novos processos a serem utilizados nos pr?ximos editais da FAPERN, apresentando 13 itens in?ditos nos editais do RN. Pretende-se, assim, contribuir para uma melhor efici?ncia dos recursos p?blicos aplicados nas empresas subvencionadas brasileiras

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The main concern of this work is related with the development of an aggregate production planning model of a sugar and alcohol milling company. This mathematical model is based on the process selection model and the production lotsizing model, and aims to help the decision makers in the production planning and control process of determining the quantity of sugarcane crushed, the selection of sugarcane suppliers, the selection of sugarcane transport system suppliers, the selection of industrial process used in the sugar, alcohol and molasses production and the storage decisions related with this final products. The decisions are taken in a week bases and the planning horizon is the whole sugarcane harvesting season. To solve the mixed integer mathematical problem found in this modeling, we applied the GAMS modeling language and the CPLEX solver. A case study was developed in a sugar and alcohol milling company located in Rio Largo, state of Alagoas, Brazil. The results of this case study helped us to verify the applicability of the proposed model in the aggregate production planning of a milling company. Computational results are presented for some scenarios of one illustrative example and some scenarios in a real data application.
O objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver um modelo de planejamento agregado da produção que seja capaz de apoiar parte das principais decisões envolvidas no planejamento e controle da produção de uma usina de açúcar e álcool. Este modelo se baseia nos modelos clássicos de seleção de processos e dimensionamento de lotes de produção para representar o sistema de produção de açúcar, álcool, melaço e subprodutos, desde as principais decisões da etapa agrícola até as decisões de estocagem do produto final, passando pelas decisões da fase de corte, carregamento e transporte e, principalmente, as decisões de moagem e escolha do processo produtivo. As decisões são tomadas em períodos semanais e o horizonte de planejamento é o período de safra. Para resolver o modelo de programação linear inteira mista resultante, utilizou-se a linguagem de modelagem GAMS e o solver CPLEX. Um estudo de caso foi realizado numa usina de açúcar e álcool localizada no município de Rio Largo, estado de Alagoas. Neste estudo de caso, foi possível verificar a adequação do modelo proposto quando aplicado às decisões envolvidas no planejamento agregado da produção de uma empresa deste tipo. Resultados computacionais são apresentados, resolvendo-se alguns cenários de um exemplo ilustrativo e outros cenários de uma aplicação com dados reais.

Examensarbetet inom produktutveckling – konstruktion utfördes under perioden februari till juni 2013 och omfattar 15 högskolepoäng (C-nivå), och är den slutliga kursen inom högskoleingenjörsprogrammet Innovation och produktdesign. Examensarbetet behandlade problematiken kring produktionsanpassning och kostnadsoptimering av två stycken elektromagnetiska omrörare vid företaget ABB, Process Automation, Metallurgy i Västerås. Efter kontakt med handledaren från ABB, Jan-Erik Eriksson, påbörjades projektarbetet med att tillverkningsanpassa konstruktionen av produkterna ORD 43P och EM Stabilizer. För att åstadkomma kostnadsoptimerad och produktionsanpassad konstruktion tillämpade författarna följande produktutvecklingsverktyg: Design for Cost, Design for Manufacture och Design for Assembly. För att kontrollera att konstruktionen blev optimal, men också att den inte brister under belastning använde examensarbetarna det datorbaserade hållfasthetsverktyget finita elementmetoden i CAD-programmet SolidWorks. Val av komponenter baserades på komponenternas pris per kilo. För att välja det optimala materialet, det vill säga högsta hållfasthet till lägsta pris använde författarna materialdatabasprogrammet CES EduPack. De utvalda materialen från programmet kunde inte författarna påfinna som standard på marknaden, varför författarna ändrade strategi till att jämföra och välja material utifrån marknadsundersökning av standardmaterial hos leverantörer.   ORD 43Ps komponenter optimerades konstruktionsmässigt gentemot befintliga komponenter och härvstag och isolerplattor kostnadsreducerades markant. Komponenten stomme grundutförande undersöktes översiktligt.  Genom att produktutveckla komponenterna härvstag, isolerplattor och stomme grundutförande minskade kostnaderna för ORD 43P med 2,47 %.  Författarna ansåg att ORD 43Ps totala kostnader kan minska mellan 10-25 % eftersom många av dess komponenter är överdimensionerade och består av dyrare material än vad som krävs.  EM Stabilizer’s komponenter, lock och tryckluftsslang, utformades med optimal konstruktion och kostnadsreducerades.  Genom att produktutveckla komponenterna lock och tryckluftsslang minskade kostnaderna för EM Stabilizer med 1,3 %.  Författarna förmodar att EM Stabilizer’s kostnader kan minska, eftersom den är relativt ny på marknaden. ABB vill säkerställa att produkten uppnår sin garanterade livslängd genom att överdimensionera många av produktens komponenter och använda dyrare material än vad som är nödvändigt.
The thesis in product development – design was carried out between February and June 2013 and includes 15 credits (C-level), and is the final course of the Bachelor Program in Engineering, Innovation and Product Design.  The thesis dealt with the problem of adaptation to production and cost optimization of two pieces of electromagnetic stirrers at the company ABB, Process Automation, Metallurgy in Västerås. After contact with the supervisor from ABB, Jan-Erik Eriksson, the project work commenced to adapt the manufacturing design of the product ORD 43P and EM Stabilizer. To achieve cost-optimized production and production adapted design, the authors applied the following product development tools: Design for Cost, Design for Manufacture and Design for Assembly. To verify that the design was optimal, but also that it did not break during stress, the authors used the computer based module finite element method of the CAD program SolidWorks.  The selection of components was based on the component’s price per kilo.  To select the optimum material, that is high strength and affordable, the authors used the material database software CES EduPack. The materials selected from CES EduPack could not be found by the authors as standard material at the market. Therefore, the authors changed strategy to compare and select materials based on market research of standard materials with suppliers. The components of ORD 43P were optimized in terms of design in comparison with existing components coil bracket and insulation boards. They were also cost reduced significantly. The component frame base was examined briefly.  Through product development the components coil bracket, insulating boards and frame base the total cost of ORD 43P was reduced by 2,47 %.  The authors found that the total cost of ORD 43P could be reduced between 10-25 % as many of its components are oversized and made ​​of more expensive materials than needed.  The components of EM Stabilizer, cover and pneumatic hose, were designed with optimum design and was cost reduced.Through product development the components cover and pneumatic hose the costs of EM stabilizer were reduced by 1,3 %.  The authors assume that the costs of the EM Stabilizer can be reduced, because it is relatively new at the market. ABB want to ensure that the product reach its guaranteed life by over-sizing many of the components of the product and use more expensive material than necessary.
Kostnadssänkningsprojekt

碩士
淡江大學
管理科學研究所企業經營碩士在職專班
94
The industry of medical device is always supposed stable and potential. But due to the financial worse of the National Health Insurance system, the overall profit of this industry is getting lower than before. Comparing to China, the market in Taiwan is small, the foreign supplier isn’t initiative now. The distributors in Taiwan have to be more aggressive to find the new product overseas directly. Under the situation, what is the product strategy of the distributor? What is the process of the decision making for new product? From the distributor situation, the study is to investigate the process of decision making for the product strategy by the distributor. The study selected the departments of General Surgery and Cardiovascular. Both were sorted into equipment and consumable products. So there were four distributors providing their valuable experience for the study. The purposes that distributor present product are to enhance the long term relationship with customers and the leading situation of the distributor in its field. There are five factors for these two purposes, they are the product integration, the competitive ability of the product, the sources of the products, the customer’s benefit, and the company’s benefit. What are the roles of the five factors in the decision making? From the result of the study, to enhance the long term relationship with customers, the ranking of the five factors are the competitive ability of the product, the product integration, company’s benefit, customer’s benefit and the source of the product. It’s the same ranking by the two distributors for consumable products. It’s different between the two distributors for equipment. To enhance the leading situation of the distributor in its field, the ranking is the same to the previous group. The process of decision making is something to do with the property of the products, it’s nothing to do with the department. The process of the decision making is on the basis of the ranking of the five factors, the competitive ability of the product, the product integration, company’s benefit, customer’s benefit and the source of the product.

by Ashraf Alkhairy.
Also issued as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1991.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-114).
Supported in part by the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT.

碩士
東海大學
工業工程與經營資訊學系
100
Recently, people had paid much attention to products with environmental issues along the environmental protection consciousness had been enhanced. Product Life Cycle can separate to five stages：Material, Manufacturing, Distribution, Using and Disposal. Generally, the main source of environmental impact mostly happened in material stage, manufacturing stage and using stage. The material selection is the first stage of a product, and it will effect to the next stage of product life cycle directly or indirectly. Therefore, the scope of research will focus on material selections. The material selection mostly was evaluated by single dimension, such as cost, each kind of material properties or environmental impact. This research will establish a decision model with multi-criteria material selection by multiple dimensions. It can provide a basis or reference to the material selection. Decision model will be separated by three stages. First, according to the product design, we can follow Quality Function Deployment and Material Selection Chart to choose the materials which can satisfy the requirements of product design. The materials which can satisfy the basic requirements of product design and material selection chart will enter the next stage to be evaluated the appropriateness of materials. Second, analyzing the appropriateness of materials by cost, quality (or each kind of material properties) and environmental impact assessment. Finally, this research will use Gray Situation Decision Making integrate all the evaluated factors. It can use a single and overall evaluating score to help enterprises with material selection decision making.

Mathematical modeling of heat transfer is a common method utilized in designing thermal processes for food, modeling degradation kinetics of microorganisms and nutrients, designing food processing equipment as well as for process optimization and for ensuring scale-up feasibility of a product. It is essential to have all the necessary components for modeling including the geometry, boundary conditions, initial temperature, and the temperature-dependent thermal properties. Getting temperature-dependent thermal properties of food product is difficult due to the lack of effective and efficient devices or techniques. To show the influence of temperature-dependent thermal properties, retort processing of potato soup was simulated using both temperature-dependent (dynamic) and fixed thermal properties. Three methods, TPCell, Choi-Okos predictive model and KD2 Pro, were used to determine the thermal conductivity at 25°C and 120°C for comparison. The proximate composition of the sample was determined for prediction of thermal properties with the Choi-Okos model. The accuracy of simulation was evaluated based on the temperature at the cold spot and corresponding sterilization value. Results suggested that using temperature-dependent thermal properties in heat transfer modeling increased the accuracy of the simulation. Simulation performed with temperature-dependent properties obtained from TPCell matched very closely with experimental heat penetration data. Additionally, the sensitivity of temperature-dependent thermal properties obtained from TPCell in detecting variation in product formulation was evaluated. Four variations of potato soup were prepared to compare their respective lethality value. Thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and density of the potato soups were measured, and simulation was performed using the measured thermal properties and a scheduled process as boundary conditions. Thermal properties of food product changed with the formulation which affected the processing time to achieve minimum lethality value. A significant difference in thermal conductivities was seen for these potato soups causing the scheduled process to be only suitable for thermal processing of some formulations while others would be undercooked that could lead to food safety risk. Since the thermal conductivity measurements were sensitive in detecting the difference in the formulation, it can be used as a tool to select a formulation that can best suit the processing conditions of the heat penetration tests. The technique described can be used for any thermal processes in the food industry including pasteurization, retort, and aseptic processing. This application will be beneficial for the industry to pre-screen the iterations and only select formulation that suits the scheduled process for successful heat penetration trials and reduce trial costs.

碩士
明志科技大學
工業工程與管理研究所
102
A company should increase their new product development efficiency to maintain its competitive advantage when product life cycle has been shortening. This may help a company leverage its external suppliers’ technology capabilities when the supplier partners that can meet the company needs are available all over the world, given that the supply chain is following the trend of globalization. However, the development process could thus become very time-consuming because the increased number of available suppliers makes the selection process of suppliers more complex. To deal with this issue, this study proposes a two-stage evaluation structure for selecting new product development suppliers to help a company conduct initial selection of available suppliers and screen out those who are not qualified during the development process, so the complexity of further supplier selection may be reduced. This evaluation structure will first use the DCOR as a basis to construct new product development process that meets a company’s needs. Then, it will apply DSM, DMM, and MDM to analyze the process, organization and components. The analysis results will show the interaction relationship between the organization and the process, the dependent relationship between the organization and components, etc. Along with the supplier’s collaborative capability index, these factors can serve as initial selection criteria for suppliers. Finally, supplier performance index will be applied to these selected suppliers to evaluate the best cooperation partners for the company. Following the steps provided above, a company may conduct the collaborative capability evaluation to select suppliers with excellent interaction capability out of numerous suppliers, so as to shorten the new product development process. Besides, the company may be able to choose correct components from these qualified component suppliers in an appropriate process, so these suppliers can get involved with the early stage of the new product development process and the overall performance of the company can increase.

The rapidly evolving global market scenario raised multiple challenges for an organization such as: change in customer needs and lifestyle, increased competition, compulsion to enter into new markets, pursue to innovate and so on, which raises an additional challenge for organization to sustain and succeed. In order to meet these multiple challenges, continuous New Product Development (NPD) turns out to be one of the essential tasks for any organization to improve market share, profitability and to succeed. In this scenario, a new product portfolio with best mix of new projects that ensures strategic alignment, balance of portfolio and improves organizations’ potential gain is compulsion. However, From the literature, it is observed that, ‘As nearly half of initial NPD ideas occur informally or without a specific goal, even a best performing organization requires a major improvement in the decision making process of Project Evaluation and Selection (PES)’. This emphasizes the significance of decision on Project Evaluation and Selection (PES) of NPD. Additionally, huge investments and resources need to be employed based on decision that is taken at PES phase of NPD. Thus PES turns out to be a crucial and essential phase of New Product Process (NPP). All these stated aspects of this challenging and crucial strategic decision of PES provoke for the requirement of an efficient management system and decision making model. In the literature the management system and decision making processes for formulation of portfolio is termed as “New Product Portfolio Management (NPPM)”. Though various researchers have been focusing on this particular issue of improving NPPM Performance, from the analysis of literature, to the best of our knowledge, it is observed that no one has identified or considered an exhaustive list of possible evaluative dimensions while taking the decision on PES of NPPM (PES-NPPM). This thesis makes an attempt to address this research gap, and the scope of this study is pertained to three sectors of manufacturing industry, namely, Automotive, Electronics and Machine Tools. Accordingly, the main objective of this thesis is “ In order to achieve this particular objective the following sub-objectives, methodologies, and analysis are carried out. For this purpose, first and foremost analysis of literature on PES is carried out. Accordingly, five evaluative dimensions are identified for PES-NPPM and they are: (i) Strategic Fit; (ii) Portfolio-Innovation Balance; (iii) Risk-Uncertainty Estimation; (iv) Cost-Revenue Estimation and (v) Optimized Resource Allocation. Furthermore, it is observed that, there is no study considering all the five evaluative dimensions simultaneously for PES-NPPM either to analyze their impact on performance of NPPM or to develop a decision making model. Thus, we are addressing a new problem configuration in the area of PES-NPPM. Additionally, though the requirements of multi-criteria models for PES-NPPM is discussed both in academic and practioners points of view, the real demonstration of the applicability of multi-criteria models are given a scant treatment in the literature. . By the end of the achieving this objective, we identified five distinct evaluative dimensions which are used in different combinations for PES-NPPM. Further, for measuring each of these five evaluative dimensions, we identified 23, 11, 15, 10, and 18 measurement variables respectively. Based on the evaluative dimensions considered in this study, a framework work is proposed for PES-NPPM. Due to the limitation of empirical evidences on considering the identified evaluative dimensions and respective measurement variables towards the proposed initial framework for PES-NPPM, another exploratory study: a case study method is carried out. In addition to the process of triangulation, the case study approach is carried out to understand (a) significance and nature of the identified measurement variables of all the five evaluative dimensions for PES-NPPM, and (b) real-life practices in decision making process of PES-NPPM and to identify the requirements of decision making tools. Accordingly, 12 case studies (4 each) from three manufacturing sectors, considered in this study, are conducted. Further, 12 case study reports are prepared and inferences are drawn. The inferences drawn are verified by conducting an individual brain-storming session with 3 academicians and 4 practitioners. The detailed analysis of the 12 case study reports endorsed the necessity of considering all the five identified evaluative dimensions in the proposed framework for PES-NPPM. In addition, the case study analysis revealed some of the variables originally considered for measuring the evaluative dimensions are not really the measurement variables, whereas those variables are expected to impact the decision making environment of PES-NPPM (or) NPPM Performance. Further those non-measurement variables are classified into (a) Characteristic Variables of PES-NPPM, and (b) Moderating variables for NPPM. Based on this, case study analysis identified 8 characteristic variables and 8 moderating variables. This specific observation resulted to analyze further the existing literature in order to identify if there exist any additional variables which impact decision making environment of PES-NPPM (or) NPPM Performance. Thus, from the analysis of literature and case study analysis 17 characteristic variable and 13 moderating variables are identified. Additionally, For this purpose, Partial Least Square – Path Modeling (PLS-PM) (or) regression analysis is conducted depending upon type of variables with 104 observations (representing 34, 39, and 31 observations of the three sectors respectively) to analyze the relationships between characteristic and moderating variables on decision-making environment of PES-NPPM and NPPM Performance respectively. From case study analysis, it is observed that the decision making tool required should provide: (a) ability to incorporate judgmental scores along with financial and other quantitative metrics, (b) ability to attain a balance of portfolio and consider interactions among project, and (c) ability to provide alternatives and rank the alternatives. In addition to the observation drawn from the case study analysis on the need of MCDM based tool(s), analysis of the literature is carried out to verify the same. As this problem scenario considers both quantitative and qualitative data for the development of a decision making tool, an appropriate technique/methodology needs to be employed. Based on analysis of literature and the case study reports, this study proposes an integrated Data Envelopment Analysis and Balanced Scorecard (DEA-BSC) model for individual PES. Further, the proposed DEA-BSC model is extended for evaluation of new product portfolio. In the process of formulation of new product portfolio, first, every new product project is evaluated with the proposed integrated DEA-BSC model. Second, an algorithm is designed to generate alternate portfolios with the selected set of efficient new product projects. Then, DEA-BSC model is employed to evaluate the generated portfolios. At this step, an accumulation functions are proposed which considers interactions among projects. These accumulation functions determine the overall input and output of the portfolio along with interactions involved. Accordingly, the proposed integrated DEA-BSC model for portfolio evaluation is expected to result in a balanced portfolio with profitable new product projects. In addition, the workability of the proposed integrated DEA-BSC model is demonstrated by developing a suitable numerical example. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out on proposed DEA-BSC model to analyze the robustness of the results. In summary, this thesis examined a problem of decision making of NPPM. Further, this problem was retained with main focus on PES phase. Accordingly, the major contributions of this thesis are as follows: Identified an exhaustive lists of evaluative dimensions: (i) Strategic Fit; (ii) Portfolio-Innovation Balance; (iii) Risk-Uncertainty Estimation; (iv) Cost-Revenue Estimation and (v) Optimized Resource Allocation. Also identified the significance of these five dimensions in case of PES-NPPM. In addition, all the five evaluative dimensions are considered simultaneously for development of a multi criteria decision making tool for PES-NPPM. Identified the required measurement variables for each of the evaluative dimensions, considered in this study, that are essential for PES, and analyzed their influence on performance of NPPM. Identified and analyzed characteristic and moderating variables that influence decision making environment of PES-NPPM and performance of NPPM respectively. Identified the requirements of a decision making tool for PES-NPPM and developed an integrated DEA-BSC model for PES. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed integrated DEA-BSC model is considered to be the first hybrid model applied to PES-NPPM. Furthermore for implementing the proposed DEA-BSC model, an algorithm is proposed in this study and this is expected to assist decision maker for selecting the right set of projects for new product portfolio with higher development potential, profitability and minimize the associated risk. Identified possible project interactions caused due to external or internal factors and accordingly proposed an accumulation function to capture these interactions. Proposed an algorithm for formulation of new product portfolio and accordingly proposed a detail step-by-step procedure for implementation of the proposed integrated DEA-BSC model. Though this study analyzes the impact of characteristic variables on decision-making environment of PES-NPPM, we limit to link this impact to DEA-BSC Model. In this study, an attempt is made to capture the moderating effect on NPPM Performance, but this study limits to link this moderating effect in proposed DEA-BSC model. Finally, the validation of the workability of proposed DEA-BSC model is limited to the numerical example considered in the study and not to the real-life problems scenarios.

博士
國立交通大學
工業工程與管理系
89
Understanding customers’ buying behavior can be a clue of providing new product development. Customers’ Behavior Model provided by Sheth, Mittal, and Newman in 1991 explained why customers purchase a specific product. The functional value deriving from this model has been regarded as the priority trigger of customers’ choices. Therefore, this thesis would like to introduce the concept of functional value into the new product development process, and bring up a referable conceptual framework when enterprises want to decide the functional value of next generation product for responding external environmental changes. Besides, because products can be goods or services, the products discussed in this thesis can also be divided into tangible products and intangible services. In respect of tangible products, due to the inexorable trend of 3C integration, the new products with integrated function will be future style. Therefore, the product and the functional value discussed in this thesis focused on 3C-related products and product functions, respectively. In view of the importance of early stage among the new product development process and the key roles of market and technology played to drive the success of new products, what conceptual framework concerns would be market demand research and technological analysis, two up-front activities of early stage of new product development process. In conceptual framework regarding tangible products conducted in this thesis, product functions have been distinguished into improvable existing functions and increasable additional functions. The market demand research activity focuses on identifying the demand intensity of customers to these functions; the technological analysis activity focuses on identifying the technological alternatives, the degree of difficulty to improvement the existing functions, the probability to building in the additional functions, and so on. Besides providing framework, this thesis adopted several methods to execute the framework, including Market Survey, Expert Opinion Method introduced in technology forecasting methodology, and Analytic Hierarchy Process. Finally, this thesis derived simple formula and drew matrix to integrate the information resulting from market demand research and technological analysis activities. In respect of intangible services, because of the rapid change of technology and the trend of organizational downsizing, professional service has become more and more important. Therefore, the service discussed in this thesis focused on professional service, which the target market is organizations. Based on past research, one of the success factors to develop new professional service was to identifying the customer’ demand and providing services conforming with demand, so the functional value concerned by framework was service contents. Moreover, in the framework conducted by this thesis, customer demand could be derived from understanding customers’ awareness, motivation and interested services, provided contents, and purchase desire. In order to further verify what have been mentioned above, this thesis selected Digital TV receivers and Business Information Services respectively to prove them. After verification, we did get some conclusions revealing the feasibility of this conceptual frameworks and analysis methods.

Design For Manufacturing (DFM) and Design For Assembly (DFA) have become important design philosophies in product design practice. Component process selection and assembly combination decisions are key issues in DFM and DFA. As philosophies, it is important and imperative to derive some general guidelines in these aspects to support product design at early design stages. Since low product cost, short time-to-market, and high product performance are the three most important goals in the development of consumer products, and since injection molding and stamping are the two most commonly used manufacturing processes in the production of consumer products, in this dissertation, we focus on the process selection of injection molding and stamping based on the comparison of product costs (including tooling cost, processing cost, material cost and assembly cost), production time periods (including tooling time period, processing time period, and assembly time period), and product performance (including strength, stiffness, corrosion resistance, aesthetics, etc.). Some general guidelines and conclusions to determine if a component should be injection molded or stamped, and if an assembly should be combined into a single component or not are generated. A hybrid evaluation method based on the Pahl-Beitz method and the Dominic method is developed for product performance evaluation. A product evaluation method based on an overall evaluation of cost, time, and performance is proposed as well. In addition, several examples with components and assemblies from real products are analyzed and evaluated by using the guidelines and the overall evaluation method to illustrate the concepts and the feasibility of the approaches introduced.

碩士
國立高雄應用科技大學
金融資訊研究所
98
This study uses Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) to explore the factors of the valuation while consumers purchasing accident insurance merchandise. This research can help consumers purchasing accident insurance merchandise what their really needs. Furthermore, it can reduce the false probability of the merchandise design and make a win-win situation for consumer and insurance company. In the research, we induce five major types and 21 classes of index. By using the procedure of AHP, decision importance among factors can be evaluated. The contributions of this research are as follows: 1.Factors of purchasing accident insurance merchandise. 2.Construct a standard valuation process of the accident insurance. 3.Evaluate the factor decision weight of purchasing accident insurances for general customers, and customers with different gender and occupation. (1)Purchasing experience, valuation and feedback from the merchandise. (2)Business personnel, friends and relatives introductions, the guarantee of the content, pricing, those five factors are currently used as standard evaluation. 4.Gender and occupation apply as a distinction. Put forth a suggestion according to the result of this research, the insurance company can target different segment for different needs, not to sell or promote the wrong merchandise and cause rejecting by consumer or penitence after purchasing.

Transformable products (or transformers), those with two or more functional states, are increasingly utilized by our society. As the mobility and complexity of life increases, so must the adaptability of the products which we use. We need new design techniques to develop more adaptable devices, such as transformers. The purpose of this study is to propose a response to the question “When is it preferable to implement a design approach focused on developing transformable products over an approach focused on developing primary function, non transforming products?” Our response to this question comes in the form of a method. The method helps a designer or design team consider the benefits of developing a transformer at an early stage in the design process. Research includes a deductive and an inductive study which are used to identify transformation indicators or context properties and usage factors that identify when it is preferable to build a transformable device. Static function-state indicators are also presented. These are contrary to transformation indicators in that they identify contexts suitable for developing non-transforming devices. Our technique seeks to improve the outcome of a design project by encouraging the consideration of transformable solutions and aiding in the selection of an appropriate design process. This method for testing the presence of these indicators in exemplary design contexts is presented. One such application is the design of an autonomous bridge-health monitoring system.
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碩士
國立臺灣科技大學
工業管理系
104
Given the innovation of technology and the revolution of industrial production process,　recently, the nature has gradually been polluted and human being’s living environment is under threat of those bad situations. Taiwan, an international IT (information technology) original equipment manufacturer (OEM) strategic country, is now facing both domestic and international law restrictions, request of green purchasing by international leading companies, barrier of green trade identification, enhancement of social environmental consciousness, demand of green product by international environmental groups, and the trend of execution of environmental law by European Union (EU).Therefore, the traditional supply chain system needs to be changed. Green purchasing combines the environmental concern and issue into the process of upstream and downstream suppliers. Through this green plan, the company could develop its own green supply chain and excavate new business opportunity. In addition, this study expects that company could match to global marketing environmental demand, enhance corporate social responsibility, and achieve the goal of sustainable operation. By using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and literature survey regarding green supplier evaluation, this study discusses the contents of green supplier selection with three dimensions, environmental dimension, strategic dimension, as well as supplier execution capability dimension. After analyzing the questionnaire survey data, the result shows that the key dimension for choosing a new green supplier is supplier execution capability followed by strategic dimension. The last one is environmental dimension.

In South Africa household debt has increased rapidly over the past few years, therefore illustrating the importance of analysing liability usage behaviour of individual members within the household. In order to comprehend the behaviour of South Africans regarding liability usages, this study provides insight into why individuals find it necessary to obtain liability products as well as to indicate whether liability products are used to address the financial needs for the purpose it was developed for. To achieve the aim of this study, it was firstly necessary to develop a theoretical framework for the process of selecting credit products when satisfying financial needs. Secondly, the characteristics and intended usage purposes of different credit products available in South Africa were discussed and a debt classification framework was developed. Finally, data obtained from the Finscope South Africa survey was analysed according to the developed frameworks following a combination of two approaches. Firstly, a qualitative approach was used to identify the different financial needs which are satisfied when using liabilities. The financial needs identified were classified according to Alderfer’s existence relatedness growth (ERG) theory and the factors that have an influence on liability usage. Secondly, a quantitative approach was followed to indicate which financial needs are fulfilled when using different credit products. The results of this study suggest that individuals do not use liabilities only for the purpose what the products were originally developed for. The findings clearly indicated that individuals mainly use liabilities to satisfy basic needs which are classified as existence needs according to Alderfer’s ERG theory. Based on the data analysis a variety of factors such as access to credit and certain demographic characteristics have an influence on liability usage behaviour of individuals. The results further show that individuals mainly use informal, unsecured, short-term loans when satisfying their financial needs which might indicate that South Africans are unable to access formal credit products.
Financial Accounting
M. Phil. (Accounting Science)