Amalia Vanacore

Technical Section: Concept design for quality in virtual environment

The early identification of the optimal concept is a critical task of the design process in order to increase the chances of satisfying customers. The challenging aspect of the approach proposed in this work relies in the quality evaluation of virtual prototypes of new industrial products (i.e. concept designs) by adopting a statistical procedure previously applied to service industries. Following this approach, the optimal concept design is defined at the end of a process consisting of five phases: identification of the quality elements of the concept design, classification of the quality elements, generation and quality evaluation of product concepts and, finally, definition of the optimal concept. Currently, virtual reality (VR) environment offers the opportunity to evaluate the characteristics of different virtual prototypes by involving experts and/or customers, overcoming the need for several physical prototypes. On the other side, the dynamics of simulation and the stereoscopic visualization in VR environment provides a more realistic and impressive interaction with virtual prototypes than in CAD environment. The proposed methodology is fully exploited through two case studies: the choice of the optimal design for a traditional Neapolitan coffee maker, addressed by the Italian designer Riccardo Dalisi, and for a subassembly of a new minicar.

A service quality map based on Kano's theory of attractive quality

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a quantitative decision approach to the service quality management, developed on the basis of Kanos theory of attractive quality. The proposed approach aims at exploiting contacts with service made by “mystery guests” rather than traditional surveys on customer opinions.Design/methodology/approach – A specific probabilistic model of the process of serving quality is the adopted basic tool. Multiple comparison tests aimed at controlling the service quality are the core of the proposed decision approach. In order to collect the needed sampling data, a few mystery guests who experience many customer‐service contacts are employed.Findings – A quantitative decision methodology which both allows one to evaluate the actual service quality level and provides, via comparison tests, a tool to highlight the weak and strong points of the service delivery process.Originality/value – The proposed quality map is an original graphical tool, which enables one to pin‐point strengths an...

Non Parametric Control Chart by Multivariate Additive Partial Least Squares via Spline

Statistical process control (SPC) chart is aimed at monitoring a process over time in order to detect any special event that may occur and find assignable causes for it. Controlling both product quality variables and process variables is a complex problem. Multivariate methods permit to treat all the data simultaneously extracting information on the “directionality” of the process variation. Highlighting the dependence relationships between process variables and product quality variables, we propose the construction of a non-parametric chart, based on Multivariate Additive Partial Least Squares Splines; proper control limits are built by applying the Bootstrap approach.

An efficient and easy discretizing method for the treatment of noise factors in Robust Design

In this work, an efficient and easy statistical method to find an equivalent discrete distribution for a continuous random variable (r.v.) is proposed. The proposed method is illustrated by applying it to the treatment of the anthropometrical noise factors in the context of Robust Ergonomic Design (RED; Lanzotti 2006; Barone S. and Lanzotti A., 2007).

Statistical Design for Innovation in Virtual Reality

In this chapter, an original design strategy for product innovation is presented. This strategy is based on a continuous innovation process and takes advantages of both emotional design methodologies and participative design tools in virtual reality (VR). It combines techniques for user need identification and virtual reality experiments to simulate user-product interaction. This original combination of techniques allows the early evaluation of the quality of new product concepts, which is essential for the success of innovation.

Robust Ergonomic Optimization of Car Packaging in Virtual Environment

Ergonomic design of automotive seat is a very challenging task whose results may directly influence driver’s comfort and safety. Seat comfort can be improved by identifying car-packaging solutions that allow an optimal driver’s posture. In order to reduce the time and cost for testing, ergonomic analysis is carried out in virtual reality (VR) environment with digital human models (DHM) that can be used to simulate the anthropometric variability of a target population of users and thus verify the robustness of design solutions with respect to the anthropometrical noise factor. In this paper we illustrate a case study concerning the comfort improvement of a minicar packaging set up via robust ergonomic design (RED) with digital human models. The aim is the identification of the optimum levels for the seat control parameters that minimize the driver’s comfort loss with respect to a preferred posture. The approach adopted for the analysis of data obtained from the virtual experiments is based on the joint generalized linear modeling of mean and dispersion of the driver’s postural comfort loss (i.e. the ergonomic response of interest).

Improving Quality of Train Interiors Through a VR-Based Participative Design Approach

In this work we apply an innovative participative design approach for the quality evaluation of virtual prototypes of new industrial products (i.e. concept designs), by adopting statistical procedures and carrying out tests in an immersive VR environment. This methodology has been fully exploited through a case study concerning the choice of the optimal design for the interiors of a new regional train. Following this approach, the optimal concept design is defined at the end of a process consisting of five phases: identification of the quality elements of the concept design, classification of the quality elements, generation and quality evaluation of product concepts and, finally, definition of the optimal concept. According to the applied methodology after the identification of the customer’s needs, a structured set of quality elements has been defined and, successively, classified according to Kano’s theory. Following the approach of conjoint analysis, the design factors have been combined according to an experimental plan to form product virtual concepts. During the concepts generation phase we have explored those product architectures that integrate design characteristics correlated to the set of quality elements. The concepts have been created according to comfort, ergonomic and safety criteria. In particular we have considered the ergonomics of places and furniture dimensions, through the use of virtual manikins. The evaluation of the quality of the different concepts has been carried out in the VR laboratory (named “VRTest”) of the Competence Centre for the Qualification of Transportation Systems founded by Regione Campania according to an original statistical procedure and has involved a group of experts in train’s interiors design and a group of common users of regional trains.Copyright

A Critical Review and Further Advances in Innovation Growth Models

In recent decades, the literature on technology management has proposed S-curves as promising tools for analyzing the life-cycle of technological innovation in order to support company strategies and policies. Nevertheless, the scant attention devoted to the analytical foundations of the S-curve model has limited its capacity to actually model the performance of technological innovation.