Herbert Birkhofer

An effective and efficient method to design services: empirical study for services by an investment-machine manufacturer

Knowledge in practice on how to design offerings of services and products effectively and efficiently is demanded in manufacturing industries. This article discusses some empirical results obtained from designing services at a manufacturer, who had implemented information-communication networks to their customers and adopted a structured method to design services. It demonstrates that the method worked for a real-scaled problem to generate several effective solutions with input of approximately five person-months. This is contributed largely by the technique addressing customer value through extension of quality function deployment. Simultaneously, it is pointed out that special efforts are needed to prepare the ontology used to describe the model.

Implementation of DFE in the Daily Design Work: An Approach Derived From Surveys

In this paper, three surveys were carried out at the Darmstadt University of Technology to reveal the problems regarding the implementation of DFE. It furthermore attempts to bridge the gap between approaches mainly proposed by researches from university and the current practice in industry. The first survey gives a good overview about current DFE practice in companies with certified environmental management systems (EMS). The second survey summarizes the general experience of consultants from university and industry, who are well-versed in implementing methods in industry. The third and last survey was carried out at ‘environmental champions’ and inspects the differences between the individual applications. With these three surveys as a background, an approach for successful implementation of DFE will be derived. Finally, the concept is divided into different levels of implementation, based on the prerequisites of the company and the effort the company is willing to invest. Therefore, the concept can be used by large companies, as well as by small- and medium-sized companies.Copyright

From design practice to design science: the evolution of a career in design methodology research

This article outlines the authors career in design practice and design research over a period of about 40 years. Throughout this period, research was motivated by the needs of design practice and the intention to create substantial support for it. A development from design practice to design science can be discerned. The 1970s and 1980s were spent as an engineering designer and consultant. An academic career as a university professor starting in 1990 was motivated by the desire to support the design of ‘good’ products in companies with specific methodologies and tools to improve efficiency and effectiveness of design work. Supporting many companies across a broad range of areas, from small-to-medium-sized companies to global players, similarities of methodical support increasingly became obvious and questions concerning the common ground of such company-oriented work arose. At the end of the 1990s, the focus on research work changed more and more towards efforts to find models, methods and knowledge based on common and scientific formula. Superficially, research outcomes in the last decade seem to be more abstract and theoretical, but in fact their applicability was widened substantially because of the reduced number and increasing clarity and simplicity of models and methods. This approach of consolidating design research findings to get a well-founded, but limited number of supporting methods and tools is congruent to the task of designers in practice to create complete product documentation for a given task in a limited time.

Value-chain-oriented service development by means of a "two-channel service model"

In today’s industrial market, capital-good producers not only sell an appropriate device solution (hardware and software), but also need to customise their offers with their own or additionally pu ...

Ecological design for the usage phase: an interdisciplinary approach to design for environment

The primary contributor for environmental damage caused by electric consumer products is the usage phase Environmental damage incurred during usage is primarily determined by user behavior, which, in turn, is influenced by the product design While very general predictions of the effects of system features may be made on the basis of expert assessment, for more precise estimates empirical testing is required In the current study the vacuum cleaner is used as an example product. Analyses of users revealed a number of ecological unfavorable behavior patterns It is argued here that technical support may be needed The vacuum cleaning process is analyzed regarding to the influence of environmental relevant user behavior, as well as to technical influence factors. From the analyses two product concepts were developed and realized as functional prototypes. The current work is based on an interdisciplinary cooperation of mechanical engineering and work psychology.

Modularization of Design Knowledge as a Basis for a High Quality Competence Pool in Product Development

Contents of product development knowledge have to be available in a broad range and rank high in quality for teaching, learning and application. Individuality in presenting and high flexibility in use and arrangement are requested. Furthermore, the collaboration of different authors with different background is aimed to create a common competence pool in the range of product development. Therefore an approach to modularization, filing and accessing of various contents of product development knowledge will be applied. Contents of product development knowledge are modularized based on three levels — elements, modules and containers — and they are linked and integrated into the competence pool. Considering the requirements of different users, individual and specific documents can be created out of the modularized contents, e.g., material for a specific lecture. Appropriate modularization is considered as a basis for higher quality and improvement of communication and collaboration.Copyright

Interaction between individuals: Summary of Discussion

Considering the multitude and variety of factors that determine interaction between individuals, it is sensible to establish a common understanding of the issue as a starting point for a detailed discussion. This common understanding can be achieved by a shared mental model of interaction between individuals, i.e. a system with related elements (Fig. 6). This model, which is based on the holistic view in Fig. 5, can also be used for emphasizing independent objects of research and facilitating the demarcation of research areas and their objectives.

Optimization of Sheet Metal Products

Linear flow splitting enables the forming of branched sheet metal products in integral style. To optimize those products design parameters have to be based on market requirements. We show that methods that are also used in Operations Research can, in principle, be applied to solve these optimization problems. For this, engineers provide constructive parameters that describe the demands of customers in a mathematical way. Based on these descriptions, we develop a two-stage model. First, a topology and shape optimization of branched sheet metal products is carried out, where the best-possible product is automatically designed by solving some OR models. Then, in stage two, we deal with the problem of how to incorporate manufacturing constraints for sheet metal products. The solution to this model corresponds to a construction plan. The entire approach is demonstrated in the design and construction of a cable conduit.

Neue Ansätze in der Maschinenkonstruktionslehre

Die Maschinenelemente selbst und das industrielle Umfeld, in denen sie entwickelt, produziert und angewandt werden, haben sich in den letzten Jahren drastisch gewandelt. Zum einen steigt die Vielzahl der Maschinenelemente durch neue Werkstoffe und neue Fertigungstechnologien stark an, zum anderen entstehen durch das veranderte industrielle Umfeld mit dem Trend zum Einsatz vorgefertigter Teilsysteme neue Prozesse in der Konstruktion. Im Zuge der Outsourcing-Strategien von Unternehmen werden Maschinenelemente zu einem grosen Anteil als Zulieferkomponenten von hochspezialisierten Zulieferern bezogen und in die eigene Entwicklung neuer Produkte integriert. Neben dem Gestalten von Maschinenelementen in der Zulieferindustrie hat dadurch das Gestalten mit Maschinenelementen bei den Anwendern eine vergleichbare Bedeutung erlangt [5].

Design and Manual to Construct Rainout-Shelters for Climate Change Experiments in Agroecosystems

Climate change models predict reduced summer precipitations for most European countries, including more frequent and extreme summer droughts. Rainout-shelters which intercept part of the natural precipitation provide an effective tool to investigate effects of different precipitation levels on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. In this study, we evaluate and describe in detail a fixed-location rainout-shelter (2.5 x 2.5m) with partial interception of natural rainfall. We provide a complete parts list, a construction manual and detailed CAD drawings allowing to rebuild and use these shelters for rainfall manipulation studies. In addition, we describe a rainout-shelter control treatment giving the possibility to quantify and account for potential shelter artefacts. To test the rainout-shelters, we established the following three treatments each in eight winter wheat plots of the agricultural long-term farming system comparison trial DOK in Therwil (Switzerland): (1) A rainout-shelter with 65 % interception of rainfall, (2) a rainout-shelter control without interception of rainfall and (3) an ambient control. The rainout-shelter effectively excluded 64.9 % of the ambient rainfall, which is very close to the a priori calculated exclusion of 65.1 %. In comparison to the ambient control plots, gravimetric soil moisture decreased under the rainout-shelter by a maximum of 11.1 percentage points. Air temperature under the rainout-shelter differed little from the ambient control (-0.55°C in 1.2 m height and +0.19°C in 0.1 m height), whereas soil temperatures were slightly higher in periods of high ambient temperature (+1.02°C), but remained basically unaffected in periods of low ambient temperature (+0.14°C). A maximum edge effect of 0.75 m defined a sampling area of 1 x 1 m under the rainout-shelter. The rainout-shelters presented here, proved to sustain under heavy weather and they were well suited to be used in agricultural fields where management operations require the removal of the rainout-shelters for management operations. Overall, the results confirmed the good performance of the presented rainout-shelters regarding rainout-shelter artefacts, predictable rain exclusion, and feasibility for experimental studies in agricultural fields.