Product, Process, System Design Review Methods and Tools

A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2016) | Viewed by 29879

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ 07102, USA
Interests: product, process, system improvement by means of quality design reviews, and other advanced methods; sustainable lean and green engineering; integrated product and process design and advanced lean/flexible manufacturing/assembly/test systems; lean six-sigma quality system design methods and tools; interactive multimedia and virtual reality simulation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Systems engineering focused on quality product, process, and system design review is a major milestone within a product development process, whereby a product, process, or service system design is evaluated against its requirements in order to verify the outcomes of previous activities and identify issues before committing to it, and, if need, to be re-prioritize further design work.

Design reviews can and should be conducted at several phases of the engineering management, product/process/service system design process. This reduces waste, unnecessary cost and time-to-market delays. Design reviews also play a crucially important role in safety. Systems engineering focused on quality product, process, and system design reviews are essential to avoid recalls.

The ultimate design review, if successful, triggers product, process, and/or service system improvements (also known as continuous quality improvements) in all aspects, and eventually supports a successful product launch or product/process/service system release. In many safety-critical, and often harsh environments, such as in the case of underwater structures/exploration, aerospace, automotive mobility, robotics, computer numerical controlled machines, construction machinery, and others, designing reviews is compulsory, as part of design controls.

This Special Issue introduces systems engineering focused quality product, process, and system design review and management methods, and some tools, illustrated with many practical, real-world examples, industrial, and research use cases. We are interested in methods-based analytical, as well as practical use cases in product, process, and/or system design reviews, including hardware, software, as well as service-oriented industries.

Prof. Dr. Paul G. Ranky
Guest Editor

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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3101 KiB  
Article
Feedback-Based Eco-Design for Integrating the Recency, Frequency, and Monetary Value of Eco-Efficiency into Sustainability Management
by Rui Yang Chen
Systems 2016, 4(3), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4030030 - 14 Sep 2016
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 7104
Abstract
Customer feedback is used to understand customer requirements. Early design phases require the consideration of items including manufacturing, the environment, and sustainability management. Therefore, it is crucial that eco-efficiency is taken into account in the early design phases. Traditionally, eco-efficiency is considered only [...] Read more.
Customer feedback is used to understand customer requirements. Early design phases require the consideration of items including manufacturing, the environment, and sustainability management. Therefore, it is crucial that eco-efficiency is taken into account in the early design phases. Traditionally, eco-efficiency is considered only in terms of eco-design issues, not customer requirements based on business values such as Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM) value. In the meantime, integrating innovation from eco-design is one important aspect. Here, I propose that customer feedback-based eco-efficiency and TRIZ-based innovation can be considered in early eco-design based on the RFM value for sustainability management. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy-based AHP were integrated to explore the relative weights of RFM variables for business value evaluation. The innovative method of the paper is using a TRIZ contradiction matrix associated with engineering parameters for eco-design. The experimental study has been carried out, and it meets the forecasting business value for green product usage. The business value was used as the decision-making factor in order to evaluate both environmental and marketing performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product, Process, System Design Review Methods and Tools)
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5617 KiB  
Article
Model-Based Design and Formal Verification Processes for Automated Waterway System Operations
by Leonard Petnga and Mark Austin
Systems 2016, 4(2), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4020023 - 7 Jun 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 8697
Abstract
Waterway and canal systems are particularly cost effective in the transport of bulk and containerized goods to support global trade. Yet, despite these benefits, they are among the most under-appreciated forms of transportation engineering systems. Looking ahead, the long-term view is not rosy. [...] Read more.
Waterway and canal systems are particularly cost effective in the transport of bulk and containerized goods to support global trade. Yet, despite these benefits, they are among the most under-appreciated forms of transportation engineering systems. Looking ahead, the long-term view is not rosy. Failures, delays, incidents and accidents in aging waterway systems are doing little to attract the technical and economic assistance required for modernization and sustainability. In a step toward overcoming these challenges, this paper argues that programs for waterway and canal modernization and sustainability can benefit significantly from system thinking, supported by systems engineering techniques. We propose a multi-level multi-stage methodology for the model-based design, simulation and formal verification of automated waterway system operations. At the front-end of development, semi-formal modeling techniques are employed for the representation of project goals and scenarios, requirements and high-level models of behavior and structure. To assure the accuracy of engineering predictions and the correctness of operations, formal modeling techniques are used for the performance assessment and the formal verification of the correctness of functionality. The essential features of this methodology are highlighted in a case study examination of ship and lock-system behaviors in a two-stage lock system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product, Process, System Design Review Methods and Tools)
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1302 KiB  
Article
A Possibilistic Approach for Aggregating Customer Opinions in Product Development
by Md. Mamunur Rashid and AMM Sharif Ullah
Systems 2016, 4(2), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4020017 - 23 Mar 2016
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 6469
Abstract
One of the major tasks of product development is to collect the opinions of potential customers and to then find out the status of certain product features. The status of a product feature means whether or not it must, should, or could be [...] Read more.
One of the major tasks of product development is to collect the opinions of potential customers and to then find out the status of certain product features. The status of a product feature means whether or not it must, should, or could be included in the product, or even avoided. In doing so, a simple relative frequency-based computing approach is not sufficient. Rather, a logical computing approach is a better option. Based on this contemplation, this study describes a methodology to identify the status of a product feature in terms of must-be, should-be, or could-be categories, where the collected customer opinions are computed using a logical approach. Possibility distributions (i.e., fuzzy numbers) play a significant role in the logical computation. A Kano-model-based questionnaire is employed to collect the customer opinions. Through a case study, it is demonstrated that the proposed approach is effective in dealing with both the subjectivity and controversy that the customer opinions may exhibit. The results of this study are useful for making decisions in the early stage of a product development process in a lucid manner. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product, Process, System Design Review Methods and Tools)
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3186 KiB  
Technical Note
An Approach to Represent and Communicate Product or System Design Ideas at the Fuzzy-Front End of the Design Process
by Eliab Z. Opiyo
Systems 2016, 4(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4010008 - 26 Jan 2016
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 6869
Abstract
The primary challenge underscored and dealt with was how to represent the product’s or system’s use environment and processes and to communicate ideas and envisaged use contexts effectively at the fuzzy-front early stages of the design process. The work focused specifically on complex [...] Read more.
The primary challenge underscored and dealt with was how to represent the product’s or system’s use environment and processes and to communicate ideas and envisaged use contexts effectively at the fuzzy-front early stages of the design process. The work focused specifically on complex products or systems with physical, software and/or cyber components, and the question was how to represent, e.g., the operations of the product or system and the interactions between the user and the product or system betimes in the period between when an opportunity for a new product or system is first considered, and when the idea is judged to be ready to enter formal development. Several approaches are currently being used to express and to communicate ideas at the conceptualization, embodiment, and detail design stages of the design process, but none of them address the challenge described above. We therefore adapted and extended the abstract prototyping concept to allow for total representation of ideas, as well as of use environments and processes early on. Extended abstract prototyping (Ext-AP) entails using combinations of low and high-fidelity prototyping techniques to create cognitive virtual representations, which represent and help designers to express ideas and use contexts—namely, what complex product or system would be like, and how its users would interact with it. Real-world product development case studies have been used to demonstrate how the Ext-AP technique can be put into practice. One of the main observations from the application case studies is that the Ext-AP technique enabled the subjects to express ideas and use contexts more effectively early on. In addition, the extended abstract prototypes (Ext-APs) offered a low cost, yet effective solution for expressing ideas, representing concepts and using contexts, and allowed the subjects to think divergently, make associations, easily and quickly construct, combine, and evaluate alternatives, and work together on multiple ideas simultaneously. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Product, Process, System Design Review Methods and Tools)
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