Jérémy Bonvoisin

Field of Research in Sustainable Manufacturing

Sustainability has raised significant attention in manufacturing research over the last decades and has become a significant driver of the development of innovative technologies and management concepts. The current chapter aims to provide a structured overview of the wide field of research in sustainable manufacturing with a particular focus on manufacturing technology and management. It intends to describe the role of manufacturing in sustainability, outline the complementary approaches necessary for a transition to sustainable manufacturing and specify the need for engaging in interdisciplinary research. Based on a literature review, it provides a structuring framework defining four complementary areas of research focussing on analysis, synthesis and transition solutions. The challenges of the four areas of research manufacturing technologies (“how things are produced”), product development (“what is being produced”), value creation networks (“in which organisational context”) and global manufacturing impacts (“how to make a systemic change”) are highlighted and illustrated with examples from current research initiatives.

Implications of Open Source Design for Sustainability

In order to cope with the challenges of sustainability, systematic methods have been developed for improving the ratio between usefulness and environmental impact of products. These necessary efforts are however constrained if the surrounding business model patterns are not challenged at the same time. In this article, open source design (OSD) is presented as a potential concept leading towards alternative and eco-efficient production and consumption patterns. Potential advantages of OSD for environmental sustainability are hypothesized and confronted with the analysis of the environmental friendliness of four open source products. Two synergies between sustainable design and OSD are identified (product modularity and design for local manufacturing) as well as corresponding challenges for further research.

Design Principles for Do-It-Yourself Production

The increasing access of people to fabrication capabilities has stimulated the emergence of personal fabrication settings and inspired post-industrial production scenarios. One strategy to support personal production is to increase technology literacy and access for citizens to means of production. Yet, so far, the deliberate design of products so they can be realized by individuals, an activity termed here as “design for do-it-yourself (DIY) production”, has been under-explored in academia. The present article aims to formalize the know-how gained by practitioners who designed products for production in do-it-yourself settings. It provides an original definition of DIY and the formulation of 14 design principles for DIY production to support practice.

Vielfalt und Stand der Open-Source-Hardware

Die letzten zehn Jahre bildeten den Schauplatz fur das Aufkommen einer Vielzahl von Projekten zur Entwicklung von Open-Source-Hardware (OSH), welche das dezentrale Entwicklungskonzept der Open-Source-Software (OSS) auf die Welt der physischen Produkte ubertragen. Diese Projekte sind gekennzeichnet durch die Offenlegung von technischen Daten zur Stimulation von Feedback, Replikation und kollaborativer Entwicklung. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Nutzung des offentlichen Raums von OSH-Projekten, welcher durch das World Wide Web und Online-Plattformen zum gemeinsamen Datenaustausch bereitgestellt wird, um ihre Produkte als „open source“ zu veroffentlichen. Hierfur wird eine Stichprobe mit produktbezogenen Daten von 76 OSH-Produkten empirisch erhoben und bewertet. Einerseits werden dadurch Schlussfolgerungen zum derzeitig erreichten Entwicklungsstand des OSH-Feldes gezogen. Andererseits werden Verhaltensweisen von OSH-Projekten aufgezeigt und die Vielfalt an existierenden Ansatzen anhand von unterschiedlichen dokumentationsspezifischen Auspragungen eingeordnet.

Formal system for the expression of target-oriented design heuristics

In design, it is generally neither possible to list all solutions to a given problem nor to prove whether a solution is optimal. In this context, guidance can be provided to designers in the form of heuristics, i.e. solutions validated by practice which have proven to lead towards satisfactory solutions but which are not guaranteed to be optimal or perfect. This article contributes to the development of supportive design tools by providing a first formal system for the expression of target-oriented design heuristics and their collection in consistent sets.