How the Design of a 3D Printer Bridged Engineering Design Processes and the Agile Software Manifesto

Author(s):  
Steven Lindberg ◽  
Matthew I. Campbell

Abstract Individual engineering design projects face different challenges depending on their scale. Instead of dealing with problems of complex multidisciplinary systems, small scale design must overcome issues of limited resources. The philosophy of agile software development has been highly successful in addressing similar issues in the software engineering realm over the past two decades. Through the design and prototyping of a low-budget desktop stereolithography printer, the application of agile principles to engineering design process is explored. The printer’s design is discussed in detail to provide examples of successes and failures when these agile principles are put into practice. The paper concludes with a discussion of how agile principles could be leveraged in engineering design. The approach taken in this paper is more of a longitudinal study of a single design process over a twelve-month period as opposed to rigorous experiments that engage multiple users in short design scenarios. Nonetheless, this case study demonstrates how the application of agile principles can inform, improve, and complement traditional engineering design processes.

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Ayşegül Dedetürk ◽  
Aslı Saylan Kırmızıgül ◽  
Hasan Kaya

Engineering design process-oriented STEM activities are activities that involve solving a real-world problem with teamwork by using integrative engineering design and engineering applications using scientific and mathematical concepts and 21st century skills. The research aimed to examine the effects of engineering design process-oriented STEM activities, which were developed for sound concept, on the conceptual development of 6th grade students. In the research, comparative case study design was used. The study group consisted of 40 students attending a middle school in Kayseri, Turkey. The teaching was carried out by the activities in science curriculum in the control group, while it was carried out by engineering design process-oriented STEM activities in the experimental group. Each student was individually interviewed using 11 open-ended questions in a verbal format. The mean of Kappa coefficients of the questions was 0.93. As a result of content analysis, 11 categories, including 21 themes and 81 codes, were obtained. When the differences between pre- and post-interviews were examined, it was seen that conceptual understanding levels of the students in experimental group were more positive than the students in control group. This shows that engineering design process-oriented integrated STEM activities have positive effects on students’ conceptual understanding of sound. Keywords: case study, conceptual development, engineering design, STEM


Author(s):  
B.S.C. Ranjan ◽  
L. Siddharth ◽  
Amaresh Chakrabarti

AbstractIt is well-known that creativity is crucial for sustaining a product against competition. Many factors have been proposed in the literature as indicators of creativity, among which outcome-characteristics-based factors are considered the most reliable; among these, the creativity of an outcome is often indicated by two major factors:noveltyandusefulness. Only a few studies address as to how creativity assessment methods and their results can be used during the design process. To systematically address the issue of how to influence creativity of design solutions, the following questions have been framed. (1) Which factors should be used as indicators of creativityconsistentlyacross different phases of the engineering design process? (2) How can creativity be assessed in terms of these factors during the engineering design process? In this work, we considernoveltyandusefulnessas the necessary factors forcreativity. It is found, however, that it is not possible todirectlyassess theusefulnessof outcomes during the design process. Therefore,requirement satisfactionis used as a proxy forusefulness. We propose a creativity assessment method that usesnoveltyandrequirement satisfactionas indicators for creativity; the method can be used for assessing not only complete products but also ideas or concepts, as they evolve through the phases of the design process. The application of the method in design is explained using a detailed example from a case study.


Author(s):  
Angela Trego ◽  
Spencer Magleby

Abstract Virtual reality has received much attention in the past few years in relation to entertainment and simulation. Although there is much hype surrounding virtual reality, the underlying technologies and concepts could have a significant impact on computer-based design engineering tools. This paper explores the possible applications of virtual reality to the engineering design process. The objective of the described research is to explore opportunities to create tools, environments, and systems which will increase the designer’s productivity through the application of virtual reality (VR) technologies and concepts. Background on design, CAD and VR is presented to give a context for later proposals. Previous research in the application of VR to CAD is reviewed. Specific VR capabilities are presented to show their possible application in mechanical design and CAD systems specifically. The potential applications of VR are explored in a structured manner with examples for each category. The paper concludes with recommendations on further research and development directions.


Author(s):  
W. P. Neumann ◽  
J. Winkel

A case study in Volvo Powertrain is conducted to examine the distribution of responsibility for human factors in the companies’ engineering design process. Design decisions with human factors impact, and hence system performance implications, are identified in the design of both the product and the production system in a chain of decisions, spread across multiple stakeholder groups. Thus the organisational structure of the engineering design process appears to influence the ability to handle human factors appropriately at each stage of design. Responsibility (although perhaps not accountability) appears to be distributed throughout the engineering design process. Thus human factors aspects require careful coordination throughout engineering design.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 7909
Author(s):  
Faruk Civelek ◽  
Karl-Peter Fritz ◽  
André Zimmermann

The development and manufacturing of high-precision micro-mechatronic systems (MMS) is a challenging task, and the high demand for individualized products complicates the engineering design process (EDP) in particular. The established EDP for MMS is not designed for individualized products. This article gives an overview of the challenges (critical factors) in product development and manufacturing of individualized MMS (iMMS), a novel definition of iMMS, and describes a new qualitative methodology in order to tailor an EDP based on use cases, so-called “Tailored EDP-Methodology” (TEDP-Methodology). This TEDP-Methodology allows creating use-case-based product groups through the abstraction of the use cases and evaluating the requirements, which is essential to tailor or develop a new EDP. For the development of this new approach, a literature review and qualitative content analysis are prefaced. The TEDP-Methodology is critically examined and validated with a real case study for the development and manufacturing of an iMMS. This study shows critical points within the EDP. It shows fields of action for innovative tools to support the development process of iMMS and requirements for different product groups within iMMS. This article has both theoretical and practical implications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Lynn Village ◽  
M. Greig ◽  
Filippo A. Salustri ◽  
Saeed Zolfaghari ◽  
W. P. Neumann

In action research (AR), the researcher participates ‘in’ the actions in an organisation, while simultaneously reflecting ‘on’ the actions to promote learning for both the organisation and the researchers. This paper demonstrates a longitudinal AR collaboration with an electronics manufacturing firm where the goal was to improve the organisation’s ability to integrate human factors (HF) proactively into their design processes. During the three-year collaboration, all meetings, workshops, interviews and reflections were digitally recorded and qualitatively analysed to inform new ‘actions’. By the end of the collaboration, HF tools with targets and sign-off by the HF specialist were integrated into several stages of the design process, and engineers were held accountable for meeting the HF targets. We conclude that the AR approach combined with targeting multiple initiatives at different stages of the design process helped the organisation find ways to integrate HF into their processes in a sustainable way. Practitioner Summary: Researchers acted as a catalyst to help integrate HF into the engineering design process in a sustainable way. This paper demonstrates how an AR approach can help achieve HF integration, the benefits of using a reflective stance and one method for reporting an AR study.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Lynn Village ◽  
M. Greig ◽  
Filippo A. Salustri ◽  
Saeed Zolfaghari ◽  
W. P. Neumann

In action research (AR), the researcher participates ‘in’ the actions in an organisation, while simultaneously reflecting ‘on’ the actions to promote learning for both the organisation and the researchers. This paper demonstrates a longitudinal AR collaboration with an electronics manufacturing firm where the goal was to improve the organisation’s ability to integrate human factors (HF) proactively into their design processes. During the three-year collaboration, all meetings, workshops, interviews and reflections were digitally recorded and qualitatively analysed to inform new ‘actions’. By the end of the collaboration, HF tools with targets and sign-off by the HF specialist were integrated into several stages of the design process, and engineers were held accountable for meeting the HF targets. We conclude that the AR approach combined with targeting multiple initiatives at different stages of the design process helped the organisation find ways to integrate HF into their processes in a sustainable way. Practitioner Summary: Researchers acted as a catalyst to help integrate HF into the engineering design process in a sustainable way. This paper demonstrates how an AR approach can help achieve HF integration, the benefits of using a reflective stance and one method for reporting an AR study.


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