Engineering complex systems and New Product Development (NPD) are major challenges for contemporary engineering design and must be studied at three levels of: Products, Processes and Organizations (PPO). The science of complexity indicates that complex systems share a common characteristic: they are robust yet fragile. Complex and large scale systems are robust in the face of many uncertainties and variations; however, they can collapse, when facing certain conditions. This is so since complex systems embody many subtle, intricate and nonlinear interactions. If formal modelling exercises with available computational approaches are not able to assist designers to arrive at accurate predictions, then how can we immunize our large scale and complex systems against sudden catastrophic collapse? This thesis is an investigation into complex product design. We tackle the issue first by introducing a template and/or design methodology for complex product design. This template is an integrated product design scheme which embodies and combines elements of both design theory and organization theory; in particular distributed (spatial and temporal) problem solving and adaptive team formation are brought together. This design methodology harnesses emergence and innovation through the incorporation of massive amount of numerical simulations which determines the problem structure as well as the solution space characteristics. Within the context of this design methodology three design methods based on measures of complexity are presented. Complexity measures generally reflect holistic structural characteristics of systems. At the levels of PPO, correspondingly, the Immunity Index (global modal robustness) as an objective function for solutions, the real complexity of decompositions, and the cognitive complexity of a design system are introduced These three measures are helpful in immunizing the complex PPO from chaos and catastrophic failure. In the end, a conceptual decision support system (DSS) for complex NPD based on the presented design template and the complexity measures is introduced. This support system (IMMUNE) is represented by a Multi Agent Blackboard System, and has the dual characteristic of the distributed problem solving environments and yet reflecting the centralized viewpoint to process monitoring. In other words IMMUNE advocates autonomous problem solving (design) agents that is the necessary attribute of innovative design organizations and/or innovation networks; and at the same time it promotes coherence in the design system that is usually seen in centralized systems.

This is an interdisciplinary research project in which the methods of Industrial and Product Design Engineering are focused upon a problem in Orthopaedics. One of the most controversial areas in Orthopaedics is the reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). The current twin-instrument method for locating the ACL is difficult for surgeons with fewer than 500 surgical experiences. This was clearly demonstrated by Kohn, Busche and Cans (1995), and confirmed by Sommer, Friederich and Muller (2000), Sudhahar, Glasgow and Donell (2004), and Kuga, Yasuda, Hata et al. (2004). The above research indicates that the problem is not only one of anatomical location, but of how the operation takes place. The aim of the research was, therefore, to develop a new and improved surgical instrument and technique for locating the ACL anatomical landmarks. The research described in this thesis employs a number of design methods that can be used separately or in combination (hybrid process). They form the theory base that guides the design process. This allows the designer to engage in a flexible process that is effective in finding design solutions to the problem. Within this process, iterative case studies were employed in order to design a new surgical device for ACL reconstruction. The thesis describes a series of designed devices (case studies) that were iteratively developed and surgically tested, leading to a penultimate device. This latter device was tested via a number of surgical operations. The device provides a new method for externally locating the internal ACL attachment points. The research has resulted in a commercial association with Smith and Nephew Surgical Australia and BrainLAB AG Germany for the commercialisation of this technique. At the time of writing, the next stage of research and development is under way. This is using a frameless computer-aided image guidance system in the place of X-ray.

<p>Windy Scandinavia is the manufacturer of the luxury yacht Windy 52 Xanthos. There is a storage application in the aft sofa on the boat that doesn’t live up to the standard and functionality level that Windy represents. This report describes the mechanical design process of this storage application, which currently has bad functionality and is expensive for Windy in production.</p><p>The aim of the project was to develop the existing storage application to a low cost application. Simple and effective for Windy to produce and assemble, with the directives of access to the front or from above to the sofa.</p><p>A feasibility study of the existing application was made to get a picture of disadvantages and advantages to keep for further concepts.</p><p>The concept development included three steps; each step implied further development in level of detail. Starting with a range of concepts covering all different possibilities of access to the storage space, and ending up with a couple of concepts developed in detail with costs and knowledge of productions methods.</p><p>The result became a standard application; a hatch with gas dampers. The reasons why this became the result was because of the low cost, simplicity and functionality. Small modifications of existing moulds and no new components or production methods needed.</p><p>Conclusion of the result is that it fulfils the requirement specification and thereby is a proper result. The conceptual design phase generated many different concepts, from these concepts a result satisfying the requirements emerged.</p>

<p>This report is one part of a masters thesis in mechanical engineeing. Is is executed at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Linköping Insitute of Technology in cooperation with Saab Aerosystems in Linköping.</p><p>A tool for concept generation called a quantified interactive morphological matrix has been created. It is based on rules of thumb and approximations concerning aircraft fuel systems.</p><p>The tool can be used for discarding bad concepts, with regard to weight, power consumption and MTBF, during the concept phase of a fuel system design process. The tool is ready for calibration towards a future specific area of use. It is open for validation and optimization and is specifically designed to be easily modified for different future products.</p><p>Suggestions for future use has been given concerning expansion, implementation, validation and optimization.</p>

The notion of sustainability has become an extensive area of research ever since the term emerged in the late 1980s, due to the negative effects of unsustainable production and consumption patterns on environmental stewardship, social equity and economic development. There have been various approaches developed for product design and education within the context sustainability. Biomimicry is one of those approaches, and its implications for product design education have recently started to be explored. In this study, an educational tool - Biomimicry Sketch Analysis (BSA) - was developed and integrated into the idea-generation phase of an educational design project at the undergraduate level in the Department of Industrial Design at the Middle East Technical University (METU). This integration is analyzed throughout the graduate thesis study, to understand and explore the implications of the biomimicry approach for sustainability in product design education. The educational tool within this approach was found as influential among the third year industrial design students for the idea-generation phase, yet the results of this study included both pros and cons for the incorporation of the BSA exercise.

Due to the impact of active matrix liquid crystal display (LCD), twisted nematic (TN)/super-twisted nematic display (STN) industry confronts the market recession worldwide. Therefore, STN-LCD companies try to seek another development opportunity positively. However, developing new market can not be achieved in the short term. Some corporations actively strengthen their competitive advantage by technical innovation in order to possess more important position in the industry. This research apply case study method and chose E-Company as sample company who ranked the third in Taiwan STN-LCD industry in terms of production capacity to find out the business model of E-Company through literature generalization, strategies analysis of rivals and enterprise interview. This study found that the business model of E-Company is that strengthening the ability of horizontal integration and expanding the application field of display. By way of business process reengineering (BPR) and implementing product life-cycle management (PLM) system, E-Company integrates the products of downstream customers and offers technical support and services during concept planning phase of product development. Customers and suppliers can early involve the product development and reduce the cost of design change via collaborative design. Besides, collaborative design offers E-Company the capability to integrate the design chain information about product development and reduce time to market. Key word: Business Model, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Product Life-cycle Management (PLM), Collaborative Product Design (CPD)

新產品開發向來是企業維持成長之重要條件，特別在現今全球化及網際網路快速發展衝擊下，即使是跨國企業也難以個別力量即時、快速回應瞬息萬變的顧客需求、市場結構及技術競爭等挑戰；近年來企業紛紛透過協同開發模式，將部分、甚至全部的設計、研發、製造、運籌等功能委外，以求縮短開發時間、降低成本、甚至提高品質、提升競爭力，使企業得以不斷多樣化且快速在市場上推出新商品、新服務行銷全球；因此，協同開發已成為現今企業經營發展之重要議題，唯有透過即時、有效的協同運作，企業才能快速整合產品生命週期各階段的資源分配、組織變動及資訊溝通等作業，以創造協作網絡成員間最大利益。 / New Product Development has always been critical for company growth, facing the impact of mega speed from globalization and technology, even multinational enterprises could hardly respond to the intimidating challenge of various customer needs, market change and new technology competition individually. For the past decades, enterprises have been pushing forward outsourcing either partially or completely their design, R&D , logistics and many else to shorten lead time, to even make out better cost down and quality assurance that leads to stronger competitiveness in a way that the enterprises would be able to accelerate various new product launch and also fulfill the needs of global customer service. Collaborative product development is the key to activate all this and has been an important issue in modern business management. Through only instantly, effectively collaborative cooperation could enable enterprises to generate the maximum benefits via fast integration of resources allocation, organization transformation and information exchange from each stage of product life cycle. The existing research references referring to collaborative development are mostly generic evaluation, specific industry or detail case studies are rarely presented, especially the consumer health care industry that has been fast growing through recent years. This research reviews the new product development and commercialization process of 3M Consumer Health Care products in 2008. Through reference researches, stack holder interviewing and detailed information analysis, it points out key success factors of this collaborative development from the case study, and also uses it to review and discuss how it would affect in each stage of the new product commercialization with perspectives from both internal and external angles, and mostly to bring out the advice of new product collaborative development for consumer health care with best optimization of better effectiveness, quick-respond vendor collaboration and shorten lead time as a reference for industry. Keywords: Consumer Health care, Collaborative development, New Product commercialization.

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Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera utlokaliseringen av tekoindustrin i EU15. Man finner svaren i följande frågor: Vilka faktorer bidrar till omflyttning av produktionen till låglöne-länder? Vilka är vinnarna och förlorarna på denna omstrukturering? Hur klarar den Euro-peiska tekoindustrin av dessa utmaningar? Att redogöra för varje EU-land är för omfattan-de därför valdes Sverige och Portugal beroende på att respektive land har en utvecklad och mindre utvecklad ekonomi. Därutöver riktas deras produktion mot olika sektorer av teko-industrin vilket möjliggjorde landsjämförelsen. Största delen av datan har samlats från SourceOECD’s hemsida då den innehåller information som är viktigast for uppsatsen. Re-sultatet visar att när industrin utvecklas och marknaden till slut blir överhettad börjar indu-strilandet att flytta produktionen utomlands, fokuseringen ändras och impörten blir allt vik-tigare. Denna process sker gradvis med hjälp av liberalisering av världshandel och EU ut-ökning. / The purpose of this paper is to analyze the location dynamics of textile and clothing industries in the EU15. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: What are the factors that contribute to the relocation of European production to low-wage countries? Who are hurt by these changes and who gain? How does the European textile and clothing industry cope with these challenges? It is beyond the scope of this paper to analyze the T/C industry of each EU15 member state. Instead, it specifically investigates Sweden and Portugal’s textile and clothing sectors simply because the former represents Europe’s old economy while the latter the most recent one. In addition, each country devotes its production to the different sectors of the industry, hence this cross-country comparison. Majority of the data is gathered from SourceOECD as the webpage contains information of most value to this paper. The result of this study shows that as an industry matures and competition heats up pricing measures, the developed country moves production operations overseas, ends up as a net importer of the good and shifts focus toward other activities. This process takes effect gradually but the liberalisation of world trade and European enlargement are a few contributing factors which helped anchor relocation decisions.

The aim of this paper is to present an outline of an interactive design model that can be used for Service Engineering of functional sales concepts. This paper also aims to show how the previous service engineering research relates to this new model. A further aim is also to verify the overall outline of the interactive design model. The proposed model’s overall outline has been confirmed by and discussed with eight companies and further supported by the output from the literature review, and seems to be relevant for different types of functional sales offers. Therefore, the conclusion is that the proposed model gives a relevant image of important lifecycle activities for Service Engineering of functional sales offers.