Federico Rotini

Discussion and Concluding Remarks

The Chapter presents a discussion about the global achievements of IPPR. The proposed method represents an original contribution in terms of the tools for supporting both BPR and NPD tasks. More specifically, it suggests modeling techniques capable to represent the functioning of a business process linking the phases to the aspects of value supplied to the user. Novel assessment metrics have been defined aimed at identifying the process bottlenecks in terms of the ratio between generated customer satisfaction and involved resources. Furthermore, original guidelines have been identified to support the user in performing new value proposition tasks oriented towards the definition of new product profiles. The tests have confirmed reliability and consistency of the feedbacks provided by IPPR. Eventually, further studies have been planned to expand the potentialities and the reliability of the methodologies, among them some are included in ongoing research activities.

Model and algorithm for computer-aided inventive problem analysis

The paper presents the research activity developed by the authors in the field of computer-aided inventive problem solving: an original model and a dialogue-based software application have been developed by integrating the logic of ARIZ (Algorithm for the Inventive Problem Solving) with some OTSM-TRIZ (General Theory of Powerful Thinking) models in order to guide a user also with no TRIZ education to the analysis of inventive problems. The paper demonstrates that through a dialogue-based interaction it is possible to guide the user towards a proper formulation of the problem statement, which is an essential step of any conceptual design activity. The proposed software system, although still at a prototype stage, has been tested with students at Politecnico di Milano and at the University of Florence. The paper details the structure of the algorithm and the results of the first validation activity; then, it discusses about the possibility to integrate the proposed approach into a new generation of CAD systems.

A new design paradigm for the development of custom-fit soft sockets for lower limb prostheses

This paper presents a new 3D design paradigm for the development of specific custom-fit products, such as the soft socket of prostheses for lower limb amputees. It is centered on the digital model of the human body and, contrarily to the traditional process almost manually based, it considers the integration of methods and tools coming from different research and application fields: Reverse Engineering, Medical Imaging, Virtual Prototyping, Physics-based Simulation, and Rapid Prototyping. The paper describes the techniques adopted to acquire and create the digital model of the residual limb, the procedure to generate the socket model, the strategy developed for the functional simulation of the socket-stump interaction and, finally, the realization of the physical prototype. Each design step is described with the related problems and the obtained results. Both trans-tibial and trans-femoral amputees have been considered; however, for now the complete process has been validated for trans-tibial prostheses. Major outcomes of the proposed approach stand in a better quality of the final product, in a shorter involvement of the amputee implying a lower psychological impact, in a limited use of physical prototypes, and in a shorter development time. Moreover, the resulting paradigm answers to the Collaborative Engineering guidelines by optimizing the interaction between different domains and enhancing their contributions in a homogeneous development framework.

Computer-aided embodiment design through the hybridization of mono objective optimizations for efficient innovation process

Current product lifecycle management (PLM) systems properly support the development of a product from the embodiment design stage to detail design and manufacturing phases; on the contrary, marginal support is provided to the earliest stages of conceptual design. Besides, the front end of product development is supported by an emerging technology, namely computer-aided innovation systems (CAI), which nevertheless are still poorly integrated with the following phases of the design process. The paper presents an original computer-based approach aimed at supporting embodiment design phases, which results very efficient for improving the interoperability of CAI and PLM systems and thus at extending the domain of application of these tools. The potential of the approach proposed by the authors is clarified through three exemplary case studies.

An original design approach for stimulating the ideation of new product features

An analysis of the computer-aided tools supporting idea generation in product planning has been performed.The main lacks of the available tools have been identified.A new approach has been developed for supporting the identification of valuable product features.The tool has been tested through experiments in academia and industry.Experiments show the capability of the tool to enhance quantity and novelty of ideas. The manuscript illustrates a method, implemented in a computer application, which supports the identification of new product features in the early phases of engineering design cycles. In the practice, such a task is commonly carried out through cognitive techniques that generate random and unstructured stimuli. These approaches and the computer-aided tools that implement them suffer from a scarce exploration of the design space. This criticality is faced by introducing an original classification of value drivers, thus organizing a large set of concepts consisting of stimuli for generating new product ideas. The proposed method combines the concepts belonging to different categories of the classification in order to identify scenarios in which the product can provide unprecedented benefits for customers and other stakeholders. Experiments in academia and industry show the capability of the developed method and prototype software to increase the number and the novelty of ideas, reveal previously overlooked drivers for customer satisfaction and enhance the definition of stimulated design requirements.

Business re-engineering through integration of methods and tools for process innovation

A business process may be considered a technical system that generates value by turning available resources into products or services to be sold. When the process is not able to exploit all available resources in terms of market demand, raw materials, etc., the value generated by the system decreases owing to a lack of functionality or performance. The current paper presents an original road-map, based on the integration of different methods and tools (namely IDEF, TRIZ, TOC), able to support the analysis of an industrial production process in order to identify business opportunities that are not exploited to their maximum extent. The proposed approach goes from the As-Is process to the definition of a To-Be model by moving from the actual reality to the economic domain and then back to the desired or expected future reality. The link between these two domains is constituted by the functional domain, and the identification of the functional needs is the step to define innovation challenges aimed at removing business limits. An application of the road-map to improve the production process of solid biofuels is also presented as a case study in order to clarify and validate the proposed approach.

Process Value Analysis for Business Process Re-engineering

Abstract Two decades of studies about business process re-engineering have proposed several strategies for the reorganization of a production process aimed at costs saving and waste reduction. Nevertheless, there is still a substantial lack of suitable means to measure if and how much the production phases contribute to deliver value, i.e. satisfaction, to the end user. The present paper proposes a methodology aimed at supporting business process re-engineering activities by taking into account the impact each phase of a process has on the value perceived by the customers. The methodology swivels on process value analysis, that is performed through the evaluation of both the customer perceived benefits originated from the process phases, and the resources spent in the same phases. On the basis of customer satisfaction requirements, guidelines are defined in order to identify both process evolution strategies and resource reorganization activities allowing the market competitiveness of products and/or services that the process sells to be preserved and improved. The methodology has been applied to a case study in the field of the Italian footwear industry in order to assess its efficiency.

Towards the fine-tuning of a predictive Kano model for supporting product and service design

Kanos theory analyses only the ‘current situation’ concerning the extent of customer satisfaction, which results from fulfilling monitored product/service attributes. Such an issue hinders the exploitation of Kano surveys for long-time design projects. On the other hand, trends regarding the shift of quality attributes reported in literature are not supported by rigorous research. In order to highlight evidence about changes in the main drivers for customer satisfaction, the authors have individuated and subsequently examined surveys of three analogous products or services performed by different research groups. The use of a quantitative reference model linking the performance of quality attributes to the ensuing satisfaction provides a clear picture of the transformation occurring within the role played by a plurality of customer requirements. The results of the investigation show remarkable differences in the evolution of quality attributes and point out new needs for the organisation of an experiment to validate the existing hypotheses that concern the transformation of Kano categories. More specifically, the paper stresses the importance of performing repeated tests with the same group of customers, paying attention to industrial sectors where performance is progressing quickly, considering uncertainties related to the output of Kano surveys.

Multi-objective topology optimization through GA-based hybridization of partial solutions

In a recent project the authors have developed an approach to assist the identification of the optimal topology of a technical system, capable of overcoming geometrical contradictions that arise from conflicting design requirements. The method is based on the hybridization of partial solutions obtained from mono-objective topology optimization tasks. In order to investigate efficiency, effectiveness and potentialities of the developed hybridization algorithm, a comparison among the proposed approach and traditional topology optimization techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GAs) and gradient-based methods is presented here. The benchmark has been performed by applying the hybridization algorithm to several case studies of multi-objective optimization problems available in literature. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed approach is definitely less expensive in terms of computational requirements, than the conventional application of GAs to topology optimization tasks, still keeping the same effectiveness in terms of searching the global optimum solution. Moreover, the comparison among the hybridized solutions and the solutions obtained through GAs and gradient-based optimization methods, shows that the proposed algorithm often leads to very different topologies having better performances.

Computer-Aided Problem Solving - Part 2: A Dialogue-Based System to Support the Analysis of Inventive Problems

The paper illustrates an original model and a dialogue-based software application that have been developed by integrating the logic of ARIZ with some OTSM-TRIZ models, in order to guide a user, also with no TRIZ background, to the analysis of inventive problems. The dialogue-based procedure brings to the construction of a model of the inventive problem, which is used both to trigger new solutions by highlighting different solving perspectives and to start an automatic knowledge search within technical and scientific information. The prototype system has been tested with students at Politecnico di Milano and at the University of Florence. The paper details the structure of the algorithm and the results of the first validation activity.