Current life cycle assessment tools are often deficient in assisting design for sustainable manufacturing efforts. Integrating an improved assessment method into a decision support framework will provide a means for designers and engineers to better understand the impacts of their decisions. A unit process modeling-based sustainability assessment method is presented to assist design decision making by accounting for and quantifying economic, environmental, and social attributes. A set of these sustainability metrics is defined as a basis for comparison of component design alternatives. The method is demonstrated using two titanium component production alternatives that represent typical design for manufacturing scenarios. The modeling method significantly increases the resolution of sustainable manufacturing metrics over conventional assessment techniques, and is one aspect of the overall decision support framework developed. Additionally, fixed sum importance weighting, weighted sum modeling, and scenario analysis were selected as easily employed and transparent design decision techniques to provide the remaining elements of the framework. The demonstration of the decision support framework for titanium component manufacturing illustrates that the sequential approach developed can assist engineers in developing more sustainable components and products. / Graduation date: 2012

Interest in accounting for environmental impacts of products, processes, and systems during the design phase is increasing. Numerous studies have undertaken investigations for reducing environmental impacts across the product life cycle. Efforts have also been launched to quantify such impacts more accurately. Life cycle energy consumption and carbon footprint are among the most frequently adopted and investigated environmental performance metrics. As efforts continue to incorporate environmental sustainability into product design, struggles persist in concurrent consideration of environmental impacts resulting from the manufacturing processes and supply chain network design. Thus, the objective of this research is to present a framework for reducing product cradle-to-gate energy consumption and carbon footprint through simultaneous consideration of manufacturing processes and supply chain activities. The framework developed in this thesis relies on unit process modeling, and is demonstrated for production of a bicycle pedal. It is shown that simultaneous consideration of manufacturing and supply chain processes can impact decision-making and improve product environmental sustainability at the design stage. The work presented contributes to the state of the science in sustainable design and manufacturing research. In addition, a point of departure is established for the research community to move current efforts forward for concurrent consideration of multiple stages of the product life cycle in pursuit of environmental, economic, and social sustainability. / Graduation date: 2012

This thesis explores the relationship between culture and human-centred design in Botswana, a topic on which there is little previous research. The pinnacle of good product innovation is when it is grounded on sensitive cultural analysis of users' culture; however, it has been observed that designers have not yet been able to encode cultural phenomena to the same extent as cognitive and physical human factors. The study develops a theoretical framework of cultural analysis, comparing traditional with contemporary socio-cultural factors that can be applied to designing products. The content analysis method was used to extract and synthesise traditional and contemporary socio-cultural factors from Botswana's cultural sources. An experimental study was undertaken in Botswana to investigate how socio-cultural factors can be integrated in product design, and the participants' challenge was to transfer and apply these into product features that reflect Botswana's culture. This data was analysed using the qualitative method of textual and visual content analysis. A culture-orientated design model has been proposed to assist designers to consciously integrate culture in their design practice. The framework demonstrates how to specify, analyse and integrate socio-cultural factors in the early stages of the design process by advancing local thought, content and solutions. It advances a new approach to design education, theory, research and practice. It emerged that culture can be used as a resource of information and a source of inspiration for product innovation that connects with users' traditions. The research findings show that culture-orientated products have meaningful content that reflects users' lifestyles as well as providing them with symbolic personal, social and cultural values, and that these aspects facilitate product acceptance.

The Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS) is a non-profit organization that performs sea rescue operations around Sweden’s coast line and lakes. In their sea rescue work, they came up with an idea that could be used to prevent accidents that are caused by harsh weather. According to Trafikverket, two out of three accidents at sea can be related to bad weather. Today, the SSRS have a weather application that you can download and note the weather where the different national weather stations are located. The data for this application is gathered from SMHI and YR.no. The SSRS wants to complement this data with their own weather measurements from specific places in e.g. the archipelago. To be able to do this they want to develop a portable and self-sufficient weather station. The weather station will be overseen by the SSRS rescue personnel, who will transporting and installing the weather station onto specific place. The weather station shall express the SSRS design profile, blend into the environment, and be easy to transport and install. The SSRS doesn’t have any prior products of that sort, and through a market study of competing or similar products / ideas, it became clear that this product would be innovative. By studying the environment which the weather station will be placed and faced with, and who the different users are and their requirements, a requirement framework was established which the end result would need to fulfil.  Through different methods and analysis of what people from different background think and feel about the archipelago, a joint view of what the archipelago associates with was established in order for the weather station to be designed to t into the desired environment. Studies and innovation around technical functions that the weather station should be able to perform, have led to different design restrictions in order for the weather station to be able to work. The end result of the project is a concept of a self-sufficient and portable weather station, making it possible to be transported and installed by one person. The design of the weather station has been made to make it blend into the environment and up close be able to identify as a product of the SSRS. The design has also been made to be user friendly for those handling it. / Svenska Sjöräddningssällskapet (SSRS) är en ideell organisation som utför sjöräddningar runt Sveriges kuster och insjöar. I deras sjöräddningsarbete, har de kommit på en produktidé för att förebygga olyckor orsakade av oväder. Tra kverket har noterat från deras statistik att två av tre olyckor på sjön kan kopplas till dåligt väder. SSRS har idag en väderapplikation som man kan ladda ner och notera vädret omkring där de nationella väderstationer är placerade. Informationen till applikationen baseras på data hämtad från SMHI och YR.no. SSRS upplever att de vill komplettera denna information med egna vädermätningar från specifika platser i exempelvis skärgården. För att kunna göra detta behövs en portabel, självförsörjande väderstation. Väderstationen skall hanteras av SSRS räddningspersonal som transporterar ut och installerar väderstationen på de specifika platserna. Denna väderstation ska då uttrycka SSRS designprofil, smälta in i naturen, och vara lätt att transportera och montera. SSRS har inte någon tidigare liknande produkt, och genom marknadsundersökning konstaterades att denna produkt är mycket innovativ. Genom att studera miljön som väderstationen kommer placeras i och utsätta för, samt vilka de olika användarna är och deras krav på produkten, kunde ett ramverk skapas inom vilket projektets resultat skulle uppfylla. Genom olika metoder och analyser av vad personer med olika bakgrund tycker och tänker om skärgården, kunde en gemensam bild skapas i där väderstationen har samma uttryck. Studier och innovation kring tekniska funktioner som väderstationen skulle kunna utföra, har lett till designrestriktioner för att väderstationen ska kunna fungera. Slutresultatet av projektet är ett koncept på en självförsörjande portabel väderstation, vars funktioner gör det möjligt för en person att transportera och installera stationen. Formgivningen av väderstationen har skapats för att få den att smälta in i naturen, och på nära håll kunna identi eras som en produkt från SSRS. Designen av väderstationen har även gjorts användarvänlig för att förenkla hanteringen av den.

Due to the detrimental effects of ride vibrations on occupants and increasing safety concerns, improvement in vehicle dynamic characteristics has become a key focus of researchers. Typically, ride and handling problems have been dealt with independently. There is a dearth of vehicle models capable of capturing occupant biodynamics and its implication on vehicle ride and handling. Also in general, the objective of conventional control systems has been to attenuate vertical dynamic response of the sprung mass of a vehicle. Feedback control based algorithms are predominantly used in active/semi-active suspensions that ignore the biodynamics of occupants. In the current work, a new 50 degree-of-freedom (DOF) combined nonlinear multi-occupant vehicle model is developed using the lumped parameter modelling (LPM) approach. The current model provides a platform for performing a combined study of ride, handling and occupant biodynamics. The model is capable of simulating the combined effect of sitting occupancies, road inputs and driving maneuvers on biodynamic responses. It is analyzed using MATLAB/SIMULINK functionalities and validated by independently correlating the computed responses with existing experimental results. A study is performed on ride behavior of a vehicle-occupant system under two different transient road inputs. In addition, the effect of road roughness on vehicle ride is also studied. Random road profiles are generated from road roughness spectrum given in the ISO 8608:1995 manual. Insights are developed into the ride dynamics of a vehicle traversing over roads of classes A, B, C and D at given test velocities. The effect of sitting occupancies and vehicle velocities on lateral dynamics is also studied. Results underscore the need for considering sitting occupancies while analyzing vehicle dynamics and also highlight the potential of the current model. Furthermore, a Moore-Penrose Pseudoinverse based feed-forward controller is developed and implemented in an independently acting semi-active seat suspension system. Feasibility of feed-forward control in primary suspensions is also investigated. Finally, issues of stability, performance and limitation of the controller are discussed.

Suspension systems and wheels play a critical role in vehicle dynamics performance of a car in areas such as ride comfort and handling. Lumped parameter models (LPMs) are commonly used for assessing the performance of vehicle suspension systems. However, there is a lack of clarity with regard to the relative capabilities of different LPM configurations. A comprehensive comparative study of three most commonly used LPMs of increasing complexity has been carried out in the current work. The study reported here has yielded insights into the capabilities of the considered LPMs in predicting response time histories which may be used for assessing ride comfort. A shortcoming of available suspension system models appears to be in representation of harsh situations such as jounce movement which cause full compression of springs leading to ‘jerks’ manifested as high values of rate of change of acceleration of sprung mass riding on a wheel. In the current research work, a modified nonlinear quarter-car model is proposed to account for the contact force that results in jerk-type response. The numerical solution algorithm is validated through the simulation of an impact test on a car McPherson strut in a Drop Weight Impact Testing Tower developed in CAR Laboratory, CPDM. This is followed by a detailed comparison of HCM and QCM to examine their suitability for such analysis. For decades, wheel bearings in vehicles have been designed using simplified analytical approaches based on Hertz contact theory and test data. In the present work, a hybrid approach has been developed for assessing the load bearing capacity of a wheel ball bearing set. According to this approach, the amplitude of dynamic wheel load can be obtained from a lumped parameter analysis of a suspension system, which can then be used for detailed static finite element analysis of a wheel bearing system. The finite element modelling approach has been validated by successfully predicting the load bearing capacity of an SKF ball bearing set for an acceptable fatigue life. For the first time, using a powerful commercial explicit finite element analysis tool, a detailed dynamic analysis has been carried of a deep groove ball bearing with a rotating inner race. The analysis has led to a consistent representation of complex motions consisting of rotations and revolutions of rolling elements, and generated insights into the stresses developed in the various components such as balls and races. In conclusion, a simple yet effective fuzzy logic-based yaw control algorithm has been presented in the current research. According to this algorithm, two inputs i.e. a yaw rate error and a driver steering angle are used for generating an output in the form of an additive steering angle which potentially can aid a driver in avoiding straying from an intended path.

Uma das principais características do ambiente organizacional é a velocidade com que o processo de globalização é impulsionado pela informação, a disponibilidade de novas tecnologias da informação e uma demanda crescente dos consumidores. Neste contexto, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi examinar a relação entre os processos de gestão do conhecimento, inovatividade e inovação de produtos no setor têxtil Brasileiro, com base em um modelo teórico que representa o impacto positivo que os processos de gestão do conhecimento tem sobre a inovatividade e inovação de produto. Nesse contexto, essa pesquisa baseia-se nas teorias de Visão Baseada em Recursos, Visão Baseada em Conhecimento, Capacidades Dinâmicas e Difusão de Inovação. O método de pesquisa consistiu em uma abordagem quantitativa, seguida de uma abordagem qualitativa. A fase quantitativa, que incluiu uma pesquisa de 157 indústrias têxteis Brasileiras, permitiu testar o modelo teórico proposto, enquanto a fase qualitativa, realizada com entrevistas e análise de conteúdo, possibilitou a complementação dos resultados quantitativos. Na fase quantitativa, foi enviado um questionário estruturado às 157 indústrias têxteis de 13 Estados Brasileiros. Na fase qualitativa, os dados foram tratados por análise de conteúdo, através de codificação de categorização de entrevistas e análise aberta, axial e seletiva. Os resultados quantitativos mostraram que os processos de gestão do conhecimento influenciam a inovação do produto através do "processo linear", que difere do modelo proposto entre o processo de gerenciamento do conhecimento e a inovação de produtos. Os resultados qualitativos se originaram em um terceiro modelo; um modelo integrado de gestão do conhecimento e inovação de produtos. Os resultados qualitativos também indicaram que os processos de gerstão do conhecimento podem ser lineares e dinâmicos, o que gerou um terceiro modelo que abrange ambos os modelos propostos. Portanto, essa pesquisa contribui para a geração de dois modelos específicos. Um alternativo, que representa a realidade pesquisada onde os processos de gestão do conhecimento ocorrem um após o outro, resultando em inovação de produtos através da inovatividade. Um integrado, que une resultados quantitativos a resultados qualitativos, da visão de dez especialistas do setor têxtil brasileiro, com base em uma proposição linear de relações dinâmicas entre o processo de gestão do conhecimento e a inovação de produtos. / Submitted by Ana Guimarães Pereira (agpereir@ucs.br) on 2017-08-22T16:32:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Paula Patricia Ganzer.pdf: 32929766 bytes, checksum: de484d8b6407064628546ce866ba3269 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-22T16:32:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Paula Patricia Ganzer.pdf: 32929766 bytes, checksum: de484d8b6407064628546ce866ba3269 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-22 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, FAPERGS. / One main feature of the organizational environment is the speed with which the globalization process is driven by information, the availability of new information technologies and an increasingly demand from the consumers. In this context, the objective of this research was to examine the relationship between the processes of knowledge management, innovation and product innovation in the Brazilian textile sector, based on a theoretical model that represents the positive impact that the processes of knowledge management Innovation and product innovation. In that context, this research bases itself from the theories of Resource Based Vision, Knowledge Based Vision, Dynamic Capabilities and Innovation Diffusion. The research method consisted of a quantitative approach, followed by a qualitative one. The quantitative phase, which included a survey of 157 Brazilian textile industries, allowed us to test the proposed theoretical model, while the qualitative phase, conducted with interviews and content analysis, made possible to complement the quantitative results. In the quantitative phase, a structured questionnaire was sent to the 157 textile industries from 13 Brazilian States. In the qualitative stage, data were treated by content analysis, through interviews categorization coding, and open, axial and selective analysis. The quantitative results showed that the knowledge management processes impact on product innovation through “linear process”, which differs from the proposed model between knowledge management process and product innovation. The qualitative results originated in a third model; an integrated model of knowledge management and product innovation. The qualitative results also indicated that the knowledge management processes can be both linear and dynamic, which generated a third model that covers both proposed models. Therefore, this research contributes to the generation of two specific models. An alternative one, which represents the researched reality where knowledge management processes occur one after the other, to result in product innovation through innovativity. An integrated one, which joins quantitative results to qualitative results, from the view of ten specialists of the Brazilian textile sector, based on a linear proposition of dynamic relations between knowledge management process and product innovation.

No âmbito das organizações empresariais, é premente a necessidade constante de lançamento de novos produtos e serviços em função da redução do time to market, o que vem requerendo maior precisão nas decisões de portfólio de oportunidades de inovação. Em específico, as questões de portfólio vêm sendo tratadas primordialmente na gestão de produtos e projetos, o que acaba por ocorrer tardiamente no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), com preocupações concentradas na revisão ou gestão do portfólio de produtos e/ou projetos. Desta forma, há um descompasso entre a geração de oportunidades de inovações e o aproveitamento destas, como produtos e projetos, o que prejudica as organizações na identificação e valoração de suas inovações; na antecipação de oportunidades que venham a se tornar inovações; no equilíbrio das escolhas dentre vários critérios inclusive não financeiros; bem como, no direcionamento do portfólio a partir de uma estratégia harmônica. Visando instrumentalizar as organizações para suprir estas dificuldades, uma vez que elas carecem de métodos e técnicas que tratem o portfólio de forma mais ampla, o objetivo da pesquisa foi propor um Método de Referência na Geração do Portfólio de Oportunidades de Inovação (MERGE-OI), o que possibilitou que organizações empresariais brasileiras gerassem e selecionassem um portfólio de oportunidades de inovações de forma mais precisa, independente de seu porte e segmentação econômica. O MERGE-OI foi aplicado em cinco empresas representativas de três segmentos econômicos: alimentos e bebidas, construção civil e eletroeletrônico. A aplicação em campo permitiu validar a sua consistência e coerência. Quanto aos métodos, esta pesquisa é primordialmente observacional e de análise de conteúdo, sendo que, os mesmos foram empregados tanto como métodos quanto técnicas, o que consolidou o desenvolvimento da pesquisa em sete grandes etapas. Foram obtidos três grandes resultados advindos da pesquisa: o método de referência MERGE-OI (diagramas de atividades, entradas, saídas, documentos e arquitetura); a validação do MERGE-OI de acordo com critérios de redução de incerteza e utilidade, bem como, o portfólio de oportunidades de inovação das cinco empresas em que se aplicou o método em campo. De forma mais ampla, esta pesquisa trouxe à tona a importância da integração entre as disciplinas de gestão de inovação, gestão de produtos e gestão de projetos. / In the context of business organizations, there is an on-going need of products and services launch on a regular basis due to time to market shortening which has been taking better choices in portfolio decisions on innovation opportunities. In particular, the issues of portfolio has been considered primarily in product and project management, which usually occurs late in the product development process (PDP) focused on reviewing and managing the portfolio of products and projects. Therefore, there is a gap between the generation of innovation opportunities and its implementation as products or projects, which affects organizations in several aspects as identifying and valuing their innovations, detecting opportunities in earlier stages such that they can be turned into innovations, balancing choices among several criteria including non-financial as well as driving portfolio decisions from strategy. In order to overcome these difficulties, since there are a lack of methods and techniques that addresses the portfolio more broadly, this research goal was to propose a reference method for portfolio generation for innovation opportunities (MERGE-OI), which has enabled business organizations to create and select a portfolio of innovation opportunities with more assertiveness, whatever the size and market segmentation. The MERGE-OI was applied in five representatives enterprises on three economic sectors: food and beverage, construction and electronics. A field survey allowed the method to be validated in terms of consistency and coherence. Regarding the research method, this research is primarily observational and content analysis, an the same methods were employed as well as techniques, which consolidated the research development in seven major steps: each of with two main phases: pre-analysis and exploration, consolidating a research corpus based on documentary and research techniques. The three main results obtained were: the reference method MERGE-OI (activity diagrams, inputs, outputs, documents and architecture), the validation of MERGE-OI according to criteria such as usefulness and precision, as well as the portfolio of innovation opportunities in the five enterprises in which MERGE-OI was applied. More broadly, this research has highlighted the importance of integration among subjects such as innovation management, product management and project management.

Capes / Existem diversas formas de se conduzir um Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP), todas com o mesmo objetivo: organizar as atividades e o fluxo de informação. Complementarmente, o desafio em desenvolver produtos sustentáveis é cada vez maior, à medida em que os recursos naturais vão se esgotando. Neste contexto, surge a Avaliação de Ciclo de Vida (ACV), um método que visa mapear todas as etapas que envolvem um produto, desde a fabricação até o fim de vida ou descarte. Contudo, muitos produtos ainda não são projetados para permitir reaproveitamento. Este trabalho buscou uma alternativa para a avaliação de um PDP a partir do modelo Stage-gate, utilizando-se a abordagem da Toyota chamada Set-based (desenvolvimento de um conjunto de alternativas), na busca de se obter um produto mais sustentável, com a adoção de mais de sessenta estratégias de fim de vida, distribuídas ao longo de cinco estágios de desenvolvimento. O resultado culminou na elaboração de uma ferramenta-protótipo a ser utilizada por projetistas. Um desenvolvimento hipotético foi conduzido para a verificação da utilidade desta ferramenta e, ao final do processo, uma ACV foi realizada como forma de verificar a eficiência da ferramenta em atingir o objetivo inicial, estabelecendo-se uma comparação entre um banco existente e as alternativas resultantes do desenvolvimento utilizando a ferramenta, onde pode-se verificar uma melhor performance ambiental principalmente com relação ao destino final dos componentes. Algumas melhorias na utilização do SimaPRO e na melhoria da sistemática proposta também estão apontadas nas conclusões. / There are several methods to manage a Product Development Process, all with the same purpose: to organize the activities and information flow. Among these methods, Stage-Gate appears to be one of the most adopted. In the other hand, the challenge to develop sustainable products grows bigger as resources grow smaller and Lifecycle Assessment arises to evaluate all phases of a product, from manufacture to disposal. Many products nevertheless are designed without consider its posterior reuse. This research has aimed at a way to evaluate environmental impact of a product’s end-of-life during a PDP, using a Stage-gate model improved with the insertion of Toyota’s Set-based approach and more than sixty end-of-life strategies, distributed over development stages. The result was the preliminary prototype of a tool, to be used by product designers. A case study was carried out to test the effectiveness of the proposed tool where, in the end of the development process, a Lifecycle Assessment is performed to an actual seat and the resulting seat alternatives. It was possible to verify improvements in the environmental performance mainly in product’s end-of-life destination, which was the target of this research. Also, improvements are highlighted concerning SimaPRO’s interface and the tool itself.

Uma das atividades mais rentáveis conduzidas pelas indústrias da atualidade é o desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Uma das etapas a serem consideradas no desenvolvimento de novos produtos é a definição do processo de fabricação do produto. Nas etapas iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de produto, a definição dos processos relacionados é realizada de maneira estimativa. Somente quando da industrialização do produto é que realiza-se o estudo de tempos de produção, leiaute, entre outros. Deste modo, diversas composições de processo que poderiam ser implementadas são ignoradas, porque estas somente serão estudadas em futuros aperfeiçoamentos do processo produtivo. Diversos estudos tem sido conduzidos, voltados para a otimização do processo, em termos de balanceamento de linha, tempos de produção e leiaute. Entretanto observa-se que, nas etapas iniciais de desenvolvimento do produto, o processo de fabricação não é corretamente endereçado, sendo realizados apenas estudos superficiais. O objetivo do presente trabalho é construir um modelo para definição mais precisa dos processos produtivos a partir do projeto de produto. Para tal, foi realizada a revisão da literatura quanto a projeto do produto e otimização do processo, abordando quatro principais temas: i. estudo de tempos; ii. balanceamento de linha; iii. desenvolvimento de leiaute; iv. conceitos de manufatura enxuta; por serem estes os que mais impactam no processo de tomada de decisão. Com base no referencial teórico, desenvolveu-se um modelo para a definição de processo de forma otimizada, na etapa inicial do desenvolvimento de produto. Um estudo de caso em uma empresa do ramo automobilístico foi conduzido para verificar a viabilidade do modelo, comparando os resultados obtidos pelo modelo atual de desenvolvimento de processo contra o modelo proposto por este trabalho. Os resultados obtidos indicam que o modelo adere à realidade, permitindo uma definição robusta do processo fabril, ainda em estágios iniciais do PDP.