Today's manufacturing industry is heading more and more towards a mass customization approach. This enables customers to individually specify product characteristics and unique design features to fulfill their exact needs. A common way to accomplish this is by means of design automation often used together with knowledge-based engineering. In this thesis, the order-to-delivery process for customized floor gratings at Weland AB is used as a case. This process is currently manual and dependent on several different departments. It results in a time consuming process which is prone to human errors. The purpose is to investigate how design automation can be used and implemented to automate and improve sections of the order-to-delivery process for customized products at an industrial manufacturing company. The objective is to develop a product configurator to automatically generate 3D models and documentation for production and sales support. The configurator succeeded in demonstrating the possible advantages of using design automation. It showed the possibility to reduce the construction department's workload and achieve faster time-to-offer for the sales department. Additionally it is concluded that using a product configurator reduces the risk of human errors and opens up possibilities for other improvements, such as reducing material waste in the production.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop an architecture for a Mass Customization information system that allows for product customization restrictions being dynamically expressed through the database. Method: A study evaluating an artifact made using Design Science Research. The evaluation was made using both a quantitative and a qualitative method. Findings: Building upon a literature review to establish a knowledge base, an artifact was created using React and Node.js to build a web application combined with a Neo4j graph database. The artifact allows for products and their inherent restrictions to be dynamically added and modified through constraints defined in their data. This data can be used in the web application to assemble and customize components, where the constraints can be enforced by the web application in real time without any modification to the application. The artifact can enforce all constraints that were intended and it was considered as a better overall solution for handling constraints compared to the currently used solution by Divid, a market leading company in the usage of Mass Customization systems with constraint handling in the context of ventilation systems. Implications: The results implicate that the usage of graph database systems in Mass Customization systems holds great promise, specifically as a new way to handle constraints between components dynamically. Limitations: The results from the expert panel only reflects the opinions of Divid and might not be true for other companies interested in this area. The artifact solution was successful in its purpose to illustrate the concept of dynamic constraint handling. However, it is still unclear if the system holds up in a professional context with more complex rules and heavy demands on performance.

This dissertation presents a method for the design of customizable products that interface with the human body. The method presented involves first, a consistent method of capturing and representing the human model so that the model can be used with CAx tools and solid modeling techniques. Second, it provides a design methodology based on feature structure planning and assembly modeling that provides a consistent structure to the design process so that it can be reused and parameterized. Third, a strategy for identifying parametric variables that are referenced to the human body is introduced. The core of this method is the definition of biomechanical products as an assembly model, where human data is defined as the base part. This research expands on traditional mating conditions in assembly model methods by identifying different ways products can interface with the human body. With the identification of these mating conditions, products can be designed to interact with the body in definable ways through the definition of parametric strategies. This dissertation also presents the necessary theoretical and numerical methods for implementation of these mating conditions in a CAD system.

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If we look at the construction industry, particularly the modular single-family construction industry, we often see that the design stage is distinctly separate from the construction and fabrication stages. This separation has been occurring for some time now, however, there is often a noticeable lack of understanding of the constraints in linking architectural design to modular construction for single-family housing. In addition, no framework exists which seeks to support overcoming these constraints for the architectural design process while simultaneously bringing knowledge of fabrication, materials selection, and modular construction to the early stage of design. Also, there is a lack of knowledge of fabrication and modular construction constraints by many architects. This research intended to focus upon mapping the design and manufacturing processes for a specific scale of projects: residential single-family units. The research also aimed to understand the relationships among design, the role of emerging technologies, and manufacturing within the modular home construction industry in order to develop a design process that is based upon mass customization, rather than mass production. Thus, qualitative research methods based upon a grounded theory approach were used for evaluating, capturing, and structuring knowledge. To achieve the greatest possible amount of useful information, case studies of on-site visits to manufactured housing production facilities and structured, in-depth, open-ended interviews of architects, engineers, production managers, business managers, and other knowledge-holders within the manufactured modular housing industry were performed. The aim of this research was to map the design and modular homes manufacturing processes in an effort to better understand the relationships between these two domains. The Integration Definition (IDEF0) for Function Modeling was used as a graphical presentation technique. The goal of using such a graphical technique was, first, to understand and analyze the functions of the existing "As-is" design-manufacture communication process; and second, to enhance and improve the communication and productivity performances among people working in the design, manufacturing, and production sectors. Using this graphical modeling method assisted with mapping the design and modular manufacturing processes, including organizations, teams, decisions, actions, and activities. Through this mapping process, strategies to improve the emergent relationships were proposed as a new "To-be" design and manufacturing framework for modular single-family housing projects. / Ph. D.

There is a wide range of applications for 3D printing technology with an additive manufacturing such as aerospace, automotive, marine and oil/gas, medical, consumer, electronics, building construction, and many others. There have been many pros and cons for 3D additive manufacturing. Even though 3D printing technology has many advantages: freedom to design and innovate without penalties, rapid iteration through design permutations, excellence mass customization, elimination of tolling, green manufacturing, minimal material wastes, energy efficiency, an enablement of personalized manufacturing. 3D additive manufacturing still has many disadvantages: unexpected pre- and post-processing requirement, high-end manufacturing, low speed for mass production, high thermal residual stress, and poor surface finish and dimensional accuracy, and many others. Especially, the issues for 3D additive manufacturing are on high cost for process and equipment for high-end manufacturing, low speed for mass production, high thermal residual stress, and poor surface finish and dimensional accuracy. In particular, it is relatively challenging to produce casting products with lattice or honeycomb shapes having sophisticated geometries. In spite of the scalable potential of periodic cellular metals to structural applications, the manufacturing methods of I∙AM Casting have been not actively explored nor fully understood. A few qualitative studies of I∙AM Casting has been reported. Recently, a sand casting of cellular structures was attempted, resulting in casting porosity and the sharp corners in the lattice structure of the cellular structural molds, a sharpness which prevent fluid-flow and causes undesired solidification, resulting in misrun casting defects. Research on the indirect AM methods has not been aggressively conducted due to the highly complex and multidisciplinary problems across the process – continuum modeling (thermal stress, flow, heat transfer, and water diffusion) with multiple materials (polymer, metals, and ceramic) for multiphase simulations – solid, liquid, and gas. As an initial step to fully understand the processing of I∙AM Casting, a quantitative study on I∙AM Casting is conducted in this work.

People are not always rational, rely on heuristics and are influenced by situational factors being conducive to biased decisions. Hence, the decision outcome cannot be explained by consumers’ preferences exclusively. This offers opportunities to service managers to steer the decision outcome into a desirable direction by a beneficial design of situational factors. In contrast to the discussed opportunities, situational factors can also become a pitfall for researchers and managers. I show that situational factors may compromise the validity of research results based on self reports in a service context, because the reported scores of research participants may be biased. Three perspectives related to service management are distinguished in this thesis: First, the customer independently of the service provider; second, the interaction of customer and service provider; third, the service provider independently of the customer. From the perspective of the customer, I investigate the impact of different defaults in a customization process on the decision outcome of different types of customers. From the perspective of the customer and service provider interaction, I point out a new solution to overcome a dilemma related to service productivity. Finally, from the perspective of the service provider, the possible contamination of service related constructs by socially desirable responding is examined.

People are not always rational, rely on heuristics and are influenced by situational factors being conducive to biased decisions. Hence, the decision outcome cannot be explained by consumers’ preferences exclusively. This offers opportunities to service managers to steer the decision outcome into a desirable direction by a beneficial design of situational factors. In contrast to the discussed opportunities, situational factors can also become a pitfall for researchers and managers. I show that situational factors may compromise the validity of research results based on self reports in a service context, because the reported scores of research participants may be biased. Three perspectives related to service management are distinguished in this thesis: First, the customer independently of the service provider; second, the interaction of customer and service provider; third, the service provider independently of the customer. From the perspective of the customer, I investigate the impact of different defaults in a customization process on the decision outcome of different types of customers. From the perspective of the customer and service provider interaction, I point out a new solution to overcome a dilemma related to service productivity. Finally, from the perspective of the service provider, the possible contamination of service related constructs by socially desirable responding is examined.

We test our hypotheses on 186 participants designing their own scarves with an MC toolkit. After completing the process, they submitted binding bids for "their" products in Vickrey auctions. We therefore observe real buying behavior, not merely stated intentions. We find that the subjective value of a self-designed product (i.e., one's bid in the course of the auction) is indeed not only impacted by the preference fit the customer expects it to deliver, but also by (1) the process enjoyment the customer reports, (2) the interaction of preference fit and process enjoyment, and (3) the interaction of preference fit and perceived process effort. In addition to its main effect, we interpret preference fit as a moderator of the valuegenerating effect of process evaluation: In cases where the outcome of the process is perceived as positive (high preference fit), the customer also interprets process effort as a positive accomplishment, and this positive affect adds (further) value to the product. It appears that the perception of the self-design process as a good or bad experience is partly constructed on the basis of the outcome of the process. In the opposite case (low preference fit), effort creates a negative affect which further reduces the subjective value of the product. Likewise, process enjoyment is amplified by preference fit, although enjoyment also has a significant main effect, which means that regardless of the outcome, customers attribute higher value to a self-designed product if they enjoy the process. The importance of the self-design process found in this study bears clear relevance for companies which offer or plan to offer MC systems. It is not sufficient to design MC toolkits in such a way that they allow customers to design products according to their preferences. The affect caused by this process is also highly important. Toolkits should therefore stimulate positive affective reactions and at the same time keep negative affect to a minimum. (authors' abstract)

Escritórios de arquitetura possuem um modelo de negócios ultrapassado, no qual grande parte dos clientes questiona o alto valor cobrado pelos profissionais ao mesmo tempo em que os arquitetos reclamam da má remuneração dos serviços prestados. No intuito de romper com essa realidade, este estudo tem como principal objetivo encontrar uma alternativa para o ganho de escala, utilizando como laboratório, a empresa do autor, um escritório de arquitetura de pequeno porte, situado na cidade de São Paulo. Valendo-se do referencial teórico de modelo de negócios, proposta de valor, customização em massa e inovação no setor de construção civil, o trabalho, uma pesquisa-ação, com a participação dos dois sócios da empresa e um integrante externo, seguiu a jornada de criação de um novo modelo de negócios composto por três ciclos: (1) problema (identificação e validação do problema enfrentado pelo público-alvo em questão); (2) solução (definição e validação da solução proposta ao problema); (3) modelo de negócios (conformação e viabilidade econômica do modelo proposto). Na primeira etapa do trabalho foi possível identificar o potencial do segmento de mercado de residências recém entregues pela construtora (unidades no contrapiso), composta por uma média de 23,6 mil unidades comercializadas por ano na cidade de São Paulo, permitindo a padronização dos processos e da produção com ganho de escala, através da customização em massa. A solução proposta na dissertação, baseada na principal necessidade do cliente, de tornar o apartamento habitável, foi a de produtizar os serviços da reforma através de pacotes, comercializados a um preço fixo, compostos por projetos de arquitetura pré-idealizados. Ao final dos ciclos e de estabelecer os onze componentes do modelo de negócios, a proposta da dissertação se mostrou com grande potencial de aplicação e ganho de escala, resultando em um fluxo de caixa positivo a partir do primeiro ano de atuação, onde o volume de clientes determinado foi de apenas 18 unidades / Architecture offices, in general, present an outdated business model, a reason why a great amount of the clients question the high prices charged by the architecture professionals. Meanwhile, the architects themselves complain about the poor remuneration for the provided services. In order to break with this reality, this study has as main objective to find an alternative to the gain in scale, using as a laboratory, the company of the author, a small architecture office, located in the city of São Paulo. Using the theoretical framework of business model, value proposition, mass customization and innovation in the civil construction sector, the work, a practical research, with the participation of the two partners of the company and an external member, followed the journey of creating a new business model composed of three cycles: (1) problem (identification and validation of the problem faced by the target public in question); (2) solution (definition and validation of the proposed solution to the problem); (3) business model (conformation and economic feasibility of the proposed model). In the initial part of the research, it was possible to identify the potential of the newly delivered houses market segment, by the construction companies (units in the sub-floor), composed of an average of 23.6 thousand units sold per year in the city of São Paulo, allowing the standardization of processes and production with gain in scale, through mass customization. The solution proposed in the present dissertation, based on the main need of the client to make the apartment habitable, was to produce the services of the reform through packages, commercialized at a fixed price, composed by pre-idealized architectural projects. At the end of the cycles and to establish the eleven components of the business model, the dissertation proposal presented a great potential of application and gain in scale, resulting in positive cash flow from the first year of operation, where the volume of determined customers was only 18 units