Submitted in partial fulfillment for Masters in Fashion, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2016. / In my practise-based action research self-study I have developed ways in which to improve my practice as a bridal-gown designer in a highly-competitive and import-driven bridal-gown market. My earnest intent was to improve my practice using action research methods whilst simultaneously developing a solution through critical reflection and practice-based approaches as an economically-sustainable designer of bespoke, cost-effective, competitively-priced bridal gowns. I realised the potential for professional influence and positive economic growth through entrepreneurial thinking, not only for me but for others; it was this which cemented a sense of values in me as an action researcher. I have displayed a healthy marriage between equally important views of practice as theory and the theory as practice. I explored relevant literature that would validate my practice and aid in answering my critical questions, which became evident as validation chapters in my study. Carrying out internships with three bridal gown designers opened my eyes to the real world of business, a sense of theory as practice, where I could see, first-hand, the effects the import industry had on local designers and what they were doing to survive. The conceptualisation of foundational bridal blocks was a solution to save time in my own creative process so that I could produce cost-effective bridal gowns at a competitive price, in a sustainable manner. Once I had explored and created my own interpretation of the foundation block concept that transformed into a small collection of bridal gowns, I used the foundation blocks as a starting point to design bridal gowns for ‘real’ bridal clients. My study is personal in nature; by way of using self-study methods and also the personal ‘one-on-one’ connection I have with my ‘real’ bridal clients. I extended this ‘personal factor’ by holding a public exhibition to which I invited my friends, family, the public and my peers to view and give critical feedback on my work as a bridal gown designer. / M

Elon saknar ett effektivt system vad gäller artikelplacering på lagret. Inkommande artiklar placeras på de platser där möjligheten finns att ta emot hela den inkommande volymen. Syftet med examensarbetet har två delar. En del är att ta fram en tydlig metod för Elon att använda vid en frekvensläggning samt att genomföra den valda metoden för 12 månader. Den andra delen är att simulera den totala körsträckan för truckförarna före och efter en frekvensläggning för det första kvartalet år 2021 med målet att uppnå en minskad körsträcka på 10 %. Arbetet ska även resultera i en färdig programmeringskod i Python som Elon ska kunna använda vid framtida simuleringar. Arbetet inleddes med en litteratursökning av relevanta metoder och tekniker som ska vara till grund för den frekvensläggning som genomförs i arbetet. De forskningsmetoder som identifierades och valdes var Design Research Methodology samt datainsamlingsteknikerna Litteraturstudie, Dokumentstudie, Intervju och Observation. Efter att en litteraturstudie genomförts valdes metoden ABC-analys som metod för frekvensläggning. Arbetet resulterade i en metod för frekvensläggning som innehåller fem steg som företaget bör följa och som beskrivs djupare i rapporten. ABC-analysen resulterade i att samtliga artiklar på lagret klassificerades i A-, B- eller C-klass efter uttagsfrekvens och ett platsbehov för varje klass beräknades. Den simulerade plockningen efter en frekvensläggning resulterade i en minskad körsträcka på 21,09 %. Arbetet kan utvecklas ytterligare genom att ta hänsyn till vilka portar det körs mer frekvent till, identifiera artiklar som ofta körs tillsammans och placera nära varandra, anpassa lagret efter kampanjvaror och dess tidsperioder samt om möjligt kunna torrköra plockning efter genomförd frekvensläggning i lagrets WMS som då resulterar i en noggrannare simulering. / The company Elon Group AB lacks an effective method when it comes to product placement within the warehouse. As of now incoming products are placed where storage space is available. The purpose of this work can be divided into two parts. One part is to create a method that Elon can use when placing their products using picking frequency, this method will be used in practice during this thesis when placing products using picking frequency for a period of 12 months. The second part of this thesis is to simulate the accumulated distance forklift drivers have driven before and after slotting by picking frequency for a period of 3 months. The goal is to accomplish a 10% decrease in driving distance after slotting has been made. The simulation requires a code in the programming language Python which is part of the thesis. The work started with a literature review to help choose the right methods. The methods that were identified and used were Design Research Methodology, literature study, document study, interviews and observations. After the literature study was made an ABC-analysis was chosen specifically as the method for conducting the slotting. The work resulted in a five step-method. The ABC-analysis resulted in all of the products being given a class (A, B or C) and the required number of storage bins for the different classes were calculated. The simulation showed a decreased driving distance of 21,09 %. The work can develop by taking into account that the exit-ports in practice do not ship out an equal amount of goods, identifying which products that are often picked together and placing them near each other, taking into account campaign products and if possible dryrun the warehouse WMS after slotting to obtain more accurate data.

Due to the global energy crisis there is a vast increase in demand for heat exchangers that reduces the energy consumption during energy transfer between mediums. The current manufacturing process for brazed heat exchangers at the world leading man-ufacturer, Alfa Laval, involves a partial assembly process called Plastic Flange Defor-mation (PFD). The current PFD process is conducted manually and is completely dependent on human presence. The great increasing demand for heat exchangers world wide creates the need for a more efficient and sustainable solution for the PFD process. To meet the capacity increase a higher level of automated process is required. The key areas to investigate in this thesis are quality control and component handling within the PFD process. Concepts for the key areas will be developed and two new concepts for the automated PFD cell will be presented. The used method for this thesis is a combination of the outline of Design Research Methodology (DRM) and the Analytical Hierarchy Approach (AHP) for the decision making process for the final PFD cell concepts. The Developed key area concepts are validated with either physical prototypes or virtually with solid mechanics analysis. The result showed that there exist different solutions and possibilities for handling the large variety of components within the PFD process. The quality controls are solved with a combination of vision systems and actuator motors. The first concept for an automated PFD cell consists of two collaborative robots with specially designed grippers, that allow the robots to handle all the components and perform the quality controls. The cell contains specially designed racks for loading and unloading the pressure plates and frame plates. The second concept is a larger more complex solution with four industrial robots, and with a cycle time half as low as the first concept. Both cells contain the same developed key area concepts. The AHP suggests the second concept with respect to the weighting of the criteria from the stakeholders. The conclusion of this work is that there are opportunities to automate and improve the PFD process using robotics and automated quality controls. The presented concepts can help Alfa Laval meet the increasing demand for heat exchangers in an efficient and sustainable way. / På grund av den globala energikrisen ökar efterfrågan på värmeväxlare som minskar energiförbrukningen genom energiöverföring mellan medium. Alfa Laval är ett världsledande företag som bland annat tillverkar lödda värmeväxlare, där tillverkn-ingsprocessen för närvarande innefattar en delmonteringsprocess som kallas "Plastic Flange Deformation" (PFD). Den nuvarande PFD-processen utförs manuellt och är helt beroende av mänsklig närvaro. Den ökande efterfrågan på värmeväxlare skapar behovet av en mer effektiv och hållbar lösning för PFD-processen. För att möta kapacitetsökningen krävs en högre automatiseringsnivå. De viktigaste områdena att undersöka i denna avhandling är kvalitetskontroll och hantering av komponenter inom PFD-processen. Koncept för dessa områden kommer att utvecklas och två nya koncept för den automatiserade PFD-cellen kommer att presenteras. Metoden som används i denna avhandling är en kombination av Design Research Methodology (DRM) och Analytical Hierarchy Approach (AHP) för beslutsfattandet av de slutliga PFD-cell koncepten. De utvecklade koncepten för nyckelområdena valideras med fysiska prototyper eller virituellt genom hållfasthetsanalys. Resultaten visade att det finns olika lösningar och möjligheter för hantering av den stora variationen av komponenter inom PFD-processen. Kvalitetskontrollerna utförs med en kombination av visionsystem och aktuatorer. Det första konceptet för en automatiserad PFD-cell består av två kollaborativa robotar med speciellt utformade gripare som tillåter robotarna att hantera alla komponenter och utföra kvalitetskontroller. Cellen innehåller speciellt utformade stativ för lastning och avlastning av tryckplattor och stativplattor. Det andra konceptet är en större och mer komplex lösning med fyra industrirobotar och med en cykeltid som är häften så låg som det första konceptet. Båda cellerna innehåller samma utvecklade koncept för nyckelområdena. AHP föreslår det andra konceptet med hänsyn till viktningen av kriterierna från intressenterna. Slutsatsen av detta arbete är att det finns möjligheter att automatisera och förbättra PFD-processen med hjälp av robotteknik och automatiserade kvalitetskontroller. De presenterade koncepten kan hjälpa Alfa Laval att möta den ökande efterfrågan på värmeväxlare på ett effektivt och hållbart sätt.

No description available.

The   purpose   of   this   pilot   study   was   to   identify   and   evaluate   different   business   cases   for   Epiroc’s  Parts   &   Services   Division   (PSD)   regarding   the   use   of   additive   manufacturing   (AM),   also   known   as  3D   printing,   for   their   spare   parts   within   the   mining   industry.    This   study   presents   an   approach   for  how   spare   parts   promising   for   AM   can   be   identified   and   shows   the   difficulties   with   AM.   The   study  follows   the   design   research   methodology   (DRM)   standard   for   research   within   product   and   process  development.   Through   interviews   and   literature   searches,   a   "top-down"   approach   was   applied.   A  developed   cost-benefit   model   accompanied   this   approach   and   was   used   to   identify   and   evaluate  potential   spare   parts   for   AM   from   Epiroc’s   current   spare   parts   portfolio.   The   results   were   evaluated  as   promising   for   several   of   the   spare   parts   in   terms   of   reduced   manufacturing,   procurement,   tool  cost,   and   lead   time   reduction,   which   results   in   increased   uptime   for   the   customer.   With   reduced   lead  times,   the   availability   increases   for   the   customer,   who   may   increase   Epiroc’s   sales   and   aftermarket  revenues   in   the   long   run.   There   is   also   great   potential   for   reducing   the   costs   for   warehousing,   where  spare   parts   of   low   demand   can   have   their   stocks   reduced   or   eliminated   by   securing   supply   through  on-demand   manufacturing.   Although   many   exciting   business   cases   have   been   identified   and  evaluated,   it   has   been   acknowledged   that   CNC-machining   in   many   cases   is   the   cheaper   alternative.  Despite   this,   it   is   worth   investing   in   AM   from   a   strategic   point   of   view   as   it   is   seen   as   a   tool   for   the  future.   Before   it   can   be   adopted   and   implemented,   Epiroc   should   do   test   trials   with   companies  offering   AM   services.   These   can   be   used   to   update   and   tune   the   cost-benefit   model   accordingly   to  increase   its   reliability   and   validity.   The   model   could   also   be   developed   further   to   incorporate   AM’s  additional   benefits,   such   as   weight   and   material   reduction   through   design   for   additive  manufacturing   (DfAM). / Syftet   med   denna   förstudie   var   att   identifiera   och   utvärdera   olika   affärsmöjligheter   för   Epirocs   Parts  &   Services-division   (PSD)   gällande   användningen   av   additiv   tillverkning   (AM),   även   känd   som  3D-printning,   för   deras   reservdelar   inom   gruvindustrin.   Denna   studie   presenterar   ett  tillvägagångssätt   för   hur   reservdelar   passande   för   AM   kan   identifieras   och   visar   på   svårigheterna  med   AM.   Studien   följer   "design   research   methodology"   (DRM),   vilket   kan   översättas   till  designforsknings-metodologin,   som   är   vanligt   förekommande   vid   forskning   inom   produkt-   och  processutveckling.   Genom   intervjuer   och   litteratursökningar   tillämpades   en   "top-down"-metod.  Detta   åtföljdes   av   en   utvecklad   kostnadsnyttomodell   som   tillsammans   användes   för   att   identifiera  och   utvärdera   potentiella   reservdelar   för   AM   från   Epirocs   nuvarande   reservdelsportfölj.   Resultaten  utvärderades   som   lovande   för   flertalet   av   reservdelarna   vad   gäller   reducerad   kostnad   för  tillverkning,   inköp,   verktyg   och   minskad   ledtid,   vilket   resulterar   i   ökad   drifttid   för   kunden.   Med  minskade   ledtider   ökar   tillgängligheten   för   kunden,   som   kan   öka   Epirocs   försäljning   och  eftermarknadsintäkter   på   lång   sikt.   Det   finns   också   en   stor   potential   i   att   minska   kostnaderna   för  lagerhållning,   där   reservdelar   med   låg   efterfrågan   kan   få   sina   lager   att   reduceras   eller   elimineras  genom   att   säkra   utbudet   genom   tillverkning   vid   behov.   Även   om   många   intressanta  affärsmöjligheter   har   identifierats   och   utvärderats   har   det   uppmärksammats   att   CNC-bearbetning   i  många   fall   kan   vara   det   billigare   alternativet.   Trots   detta   är   det   värt   att   investera   i   AM   ur   en  strategisk   synvinkel   eftersom   det   ses   som   ett   verktyg   för   framtiden.   Innan   AM   kan   anammas   och  implementeras   bör   Epiroc   göra   testförsök   med   företag   som   erbjuder   AM-tjänster.   Dessa   kan  användas   för   att   uppdatera   och   justera   kostnadsnyttomodellen   i   enlighet   med   detta   för   att   öka   dess  validitet   och   reliabilitet.   Modellen   kan   också   utvecklas   vidare   för   att   införliva   AM:s   ytterligare  fördelar,   såsom   vikt-   och   materialreduktion   genom   design   för   additiv   tillverkning   (DfAM).

Significant changes in demographics, including a growing ageing population and a larger number of people with disabilities, have made inclusive design an increasingly relevant notion in the design of products, services, and environments. However, there is considerable concern that the concept of inclusive design is rather limited in its current definition and applications and has not yet been thoroughly applied. This is possibly due to the conventional understanding and application of inclusive design, mainly rooted in and focused on physical aspects of inclusion, such as accessibility, usefulness, and usability. This limited focus has led various voices in design academia and industry to speak of the need for further consideration of the psychological and social aspects of inclusive design as the next step to facilitate inclusive design, and make impact. In this research, inclusivity on psychological and social levels, is referred to as "psychosocial inclusivity". The concept of psychosocial inclusivity, including a clear definition thereof and its application, is rather limited in the existing literature. Therefore, this PhD research aims to further explore this concept by establishing a clear definition and the dimensions thereof. In order to achieve this, an initial definition and dimensions of the psychosocial inclusivity in design are established through a critical review of existing literature from both social science and design perspectives. The initial definition and dimensions are then developed, refined, and evaluated through four empirical studies: the Delphi study (expert survey); field study I (ethnographic interviews with mobility scheme users); field study II (ethnographic interviews, creative workshop, and observation of older individuals); and an evaluation study (online survey of design academics and professionals). These studies have been designed based on a triangulation approach in order to enhance the reliability and validity of the outcomes. At the end of this research, the definition and dimensions for psychosocial inclusivity in design (Cognitive, Emotional, Social, and Value dimensions) are proposed. The outcomes of this research can enhance the understanding and knowledge of the concept of psychosocial inclusivity in design. Also, the definition and dimensions can be used by design academics and professionals or third parties to consider psychosocial aspects. The dimensions also can be developed as a complete set of framework or toolkit through further research.

The world is facing a food shortage as the world’s population increases and arable land decreases. Despite this, the food industry is wasteful, and 30% - 40% of all produced food is lost before reaching the end consumer. Emerging technologies aim to increase the amount of food that can be grown per m2 or allow the growing of food in climates or on lands previously impossible. Four main farming techniques utilising these emerging technologies are Controlled Environment Agriculture, Hydroponic Farming, Urban Farming and Vertical farming. When used together, these techniques form the basis for what can be called a Plant Factory. Despite the positive effects these technologies have on the production rate, few Plant Factories have managed to achieve profitability. By creating support for developing the post-harvesting system for a plant factory, this thesis aims to aid in the development of profitable plant factories. The thesis uses Design Research Methodology to achieve this aim in three parts. The first part identifies the underlying factors of the post-harvesting system affecting plant factory profitability. The second presents a set of support components that will aid the developers to improve key factors affecting profitability. The third part is a case study where the support components applicability at targeting the key factors are evaluated, and suggestions for further improvements and testing of the support is suggested.  Further, using Design Research Methodology, the methods used to develop support in this thesis are presented to easily be replicated by other researchers to aid them in developing support for other industries and circumstances. The suitability of the developed support was tested using the principles of an initial DS-II. The developed support proved very useful for the investigated case, and with its conditions, the application evaluation was considered a partial success. Two key factors were successfully improved and indicated that the intended support is ready for a comprehensive DS-II. A third support component needs more work to provide the intended support fully. Therefore a second  PS iteration is recommended before a comprehensive DS-II is done to increase its value.

Volvo Construction Equipment is considering applying modular design to their organisation in order to constrain the growing intangible information and parts assortment within the company, and as well to enable a rearrangement of production, sales and logistics in the near future of organisational growth and industrial footprint. Hence the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the opportunities and threats of implementing modular design to Volvo Construction Equipment. The analysis is scoped on the generic aspects of modularity and the organisational weaknesses within Volvo CE towards implementing a new organisational structure, product design and production with modular design. Modularity enables the company to move towards decupling the constraints of tangible sales and provides an opportunity to offer Product Service Systems as a Total Solution for each individual customer. By implementing the authors common knowledge and education within engineering revolving tangible and intangible products and services alongside with innovation, together with informal interviews of stakeholders, the results of the thesis was reached. The analysis of the results was reached by implementing Design Research Methodology to the structure of the thesis, research method and interviews made. There is a distinct opportunity for Volvo CE to implement modular design since the informational flows, innovation, research and development is enhanced by a correct modular design. Although there is a distinct risk in changing a well-established product design, development process and organisational structure, the opportunities to create a product service system strategy and to re harvest and recycle value within the company with modularity outweigh the risk. Incomprehension of how to optimize a modular design may amplify the reasons why Volvo CE is considering revising their products and organisation with modularity, thus the authors recommend implementing a generic and specific education in modularity within Volvo CE to ensure a shared language of modularity and enhance traceability of the development within the company. In order to enhance the organisational velocity around development, the authors also recommend a new computer environment which enables the different disciplines of engineering and marketing to modularise the product, services and processes while keeping the comprehension of the subject close to hand. This enables the organisational structure to change and improve towards modular deployment and to further accelerate Volvo CE’s growth, market share and revenue. / Volvo Construction Equipment överväger att tillämpa en modulär design till sin organisation i syfte att begränsa den växande immateriella information och det växande sortiment av delar inom företaget som finns idag. Volvo ser även till möjligheterna med modulär design för att möjliggöra en omflyttning av produktion, försäljning och logistik inom den närmaste framtiden för organisatorisk tillväxt och för att minska det industriella fotavtrycket. Därav syftet med denna uppsats; att undersöka möjligheter och hot för att genomföra modulär design i Volvo Construction Equipment. Analysen är fokuserad på generiska aspekter på modularitet och organisatoriska svagheter inom Volvo CE mot att genomföra en ny organisationsstruktur, produktdesign och produktion med modulär design. Modularitet möjliggör för företaget att gå mot att minska begränsningen av materiell försäljning och ger en möjlighet att erbjuda system med Product och Service lösningar som en helhetslösning för varje enskild kund. Genom att implementera författarnas gemensamma kunskap och utbildning inom teknik roterande kring materiella och immateriella produkter samt tjänster tillsammans med innovation, och med informella intervjuer av intressenter, har resultaten i denna avhandling uppnåtts. Analysen av resultaten uppnåddes genom att implementera metodiken Design Research Methodology till strukturen, forskningsmetod och gjorda intervjuer i avhandlingen. Det finns en tydlig möjlighet för Volvo CE att genomföra modulär design eftersom de informativa flöden, innovation, forskning och utveckling förstärks av en korrekt modulär design. Även om det finns en klar risk i att ändra en väletablerad produkts design, utveckling process och organisations struktur, är möjligheterna i att skapa en produkt strategi med servicesystem och att återvinna återvinna värde i företaget med modularitet väl värt risken. Oförståelse för hur man optimerar en modulär design kan innebära ytterligare risker och förklarar varför Volvo CE överväger revidera sina produkter och organisation med en ny design, och då kanske en modulär struktur. Detta har lett till att författarna rekommenderar att genomföra en allmän och specifik utbildning i modularitet inom Volvo CE för att säkerställa ett gemensamt språk för modularitet och öka spårbarheten av utvecklingen inom företaget. För att öka den organisatoriska hastigheten kring utveckling, rekommenderar författarna också en ny datormiljö som gör att de olika disciplinerna i teknik och marknadsföring ligger närmre till hands för att modularisera produkter, tjänster och processer samtidigt som förståelsen av ämnet blir enklare att uppnå. Detta maximerar effektiviteten i den organisatoriska strukturen för att förändra och förbättra mot en modulär utbyggnad och att ytterligare påskynda Volvo CE : s tillväxt , marknadsandelar och intäkter

H2 Green Steel AB was founded in 2020 to build a large-scale green steel factory in Boden, Norrbotten, Sweden. The factory consists of green hydrogen production, iron production and steel production. In 2030, the factory’s annual steel production will be 5 million tonnes annually. The objective of the thesis was to build a concept to improve a recommendation for a Hydrogenproduction site in an early stage of engineering. It included improving the understanding and basis for three criteria. The first criteria consisted of technical and customer requirements, seeing the requirements for the specific application of hydrogen as the critical factor. The second criteria consisted of further investigating how existing interfaces and utilities can be used in hydrogen production and building the basis for qualification. The third criteria consisted of adapting the concept to existing internal design tools by building it forward compatible. The thesis was initiated by bench-marking possible activities related to the recommendation acting as technical support and extensions to existing solutions. The research approach used was Design Research Methodology (DRM), held as the framework for execution. The result from the thesis delivers a database model built upon three linked packages providing a methodology of increased technical information, forward compatibility and a modular approach for design.

In this knowledge economy, organizations are leveraging their competence through the knowledge they possess. Managing knowledge will potentially retain the competence held by the organization if knowledge generated across its projects and units is captured, structured and reused. Even though many tools and techniques are proposed in the literature to support these activities, their adoption in industry has been meagre. This may be due to development of tools without basing them on substantial and careful descriptive studies. This raises the following research issues: the knowledge processes and knowledge sources available in organizations and their characteristics need to be understood better. To address these gaps, following objectives are addressed in this research: ♦ To understand the specific needs and capability of the organization for capture and reuse of product development knowledge and ♦ To evaluate various alternative supports for capture and structure of relevant, evolving product development knowledge for reuse. To address these objectives, two observational studies were conducted in the organizations. To get a broader picture about the knowledge processes occurring in the organization, a KRIT model is proposed which is an acronym for Knowledge of solutions-Requirements-Interactions-Tasks, in which interactions of the designers with people and tools play the central role in processing knowledge during design. The KRIT model is validated through the demonstration of the existence of its nodes and links. From the observations it has been found that interactions ‘designer working with computer’, ‘two designers working with a computer’ and ‘two designers interacting with each other’ are most frequently occurred, and occupied most of the time during designing. Any tools to support knowledge capture and reuse should support these interactions such that capture and reuse can be intuitive and in-built in a natural way into a designer’s work habits. It is emphasized that there is a substantial need to increase the percentage of time spent by designers on capturing knowledge during the design process. This increase in time would lead to decrease in a designers’ time spent on knowledge acquisition and dissemination provided designers are capturing reusable knowledge. To answer capture and reuse of knowledge in detail in the observational studies, a new taxonomy of knowledge is proposed. By linking the representations of argumentation, designer’s activities, and the artefact being designed, we argued that the expressiveness of this taxonomy is high compared to the others proposed in the literature. The taxonomy has three broad categories of knowledge: topics, classes, and activities. Based on the definitions of the factors used in the taxonomy and the analysis of the protocols, the factors in each group under each category are argued to be mutually exclusive. In order to study the links between the proposed categories and factors in the taxonomy of knowledge, a method for converting the questions and answers (from the protocol data) into a generic format is framed. The taxonomy is validated comprehensively, and is able to cover various stages of design. Most of the designers’ time was spent working with a CAD package, in which most of the kinds of knowledge mentioned in the proposed taxonomy of knowledge was neither captured not reused. The important observations noted by comparing the knowledge captured in the preliminary study and the main study are as follows: Compared to the preliminary study, process related information and knowledge are captured higher in the main study. In the main study behavioural related content is captured more; whereas in the preliminary study structural content is captured more. The factors organization, usage, maintenance and sales captured in the preliminary study are not at all captured in the main study. In order to assess the usefulness of the knowledge captured, the kinds of knowledge needs of designers were compared with the kinds of knowledge captured. The important observations about the knowledge needs are: Irrespective of the design stages, in almost 50% of the questions, designers interacted with others to know about old issues or proposals in both the studies. A designer’s time for designing would benefit considerably if the answers for these 50% of the old questions were captured and made available for retrieval in formal documents. In both the studies, proposals based questions played a vital role in the questions analyzed. It shows that considerable proportion of time was spent by the designers on validating, by asking questions, the answers known to them. In contrast to the preliminary study, the designers’ needs for process-related information or knowledge were much higher than that for product-related information or knowledge. Comparing the generic questions obtained from the knowledge needs and knowledge captured reveals that only 14% and 26% with product related content and only 10% and 11.3% of the process based content asked by designers during designing were captured in the preliminary and the main study. These results show that there is a mismatch between knowledge captured and knowledge needed by the designers. This may be one of the primary reasons for the poor usage of documents in the organization. The generic questions generated from the questions asked by the designers and various documents will act as a guideline to the designers for what knowledge and information should and should not to be captured. Due to restrictions in the observations, a questionnaire survey was conducted to achieve the objective to collect 10% of total number of employees’ perspectives about the issues considered in this research. The important observations from the analyses of the collected questionnaire are: Designers’ perceive all types of interactions as important and frequent for information generation and sharing. These results are contradictory to the personal observations in which only interactions ‘designer working with computer’ and ‘two designers working with a computer’ occurred frequently. This shows that designers are unable to identify the kinds of interaction which they perform in their daily activities. Due to this, the information processes occurring within these interactions are not perceptible to the designers. Designers perceive that they get the right information at the right time in only 4 or more out of 10 for most of the times. This perception illustrates there is substantial need for the development of support to satisfy the information needs of designers. Analyses of the types of questions reveal that the question asking behavior of the designers is not static; the major share of questions falling under the category ‘question from answer given’ could be interpreted as: designers often do not frame exact questions to fulfil their requirements; they grab the opportunity to take as much as knowledge as possible during an interaction. Analyses of the types of answers reveal that designers gave more inferences on their answers in order to give a better response, which in turn should help reduce the number of questions subsequently asked especially in the protocol coded as ‘new answer’. Two studies have been used to assess the effectiveness of seven tools for supporting knowledge capture and reuse. The important observations from the initial study are: Mobile E-Notes TakerTM is ranked higher because this equipment provides a blend of properties between the paper and computer. These observations stress the importance of features provided for knowledge generation, modification, capture and reuse in the system. The observations from analyzing the three top rated tools (Mobile E-Notes TakerTM, Tablet with viewing facility and Computer with RhinocerosTM CAD package) to understand influence of these tools on knowledge capture and reuse during conceptual designing are: The differences observed in the percentage of capture between the usage of the three tools demonstrate that tools have an influence on the knowledge capture activity. Even though none of the three tools capture adequate knowledge during designing, Mobile e-Notes TakerTM seems to be the best tool for capture compared to the other two tools, both in the original and redesign experiments. These results suggest that some other mechanisms should be added to these tools so that their effectiveness of capturing could be increased. One mechanism is to incorporate the proposed KRIT model and the taxonomy of knowledge during designing. This integration will be one of the good mechanisms to aid knowledge capture and reuse, because the knowledge capture will occur along with the knowledge creation process. We believe that through this integration the purpose to enhance the knowledge capture and reuse during the design process will be achieved.