Jože Duhovnik

Skills for effective communication and work in global product development teams

This paper presents a systematic discussion of the specifics of communication and work within a virtual development team, which is of crucial importance for competitiveness in the course of globalization. With advances in technology, work within virtual teams is gaining ever-greater importance. However, in this process, special knowledge and skills of virtual team members are a greater obstacle than technical equipment. Work within a virtual product development team requires intense communication, which is possible via videoconferencing. The contribution of this paper consists of a set of recommendations on how to develop necessary skills for effective communication and work in virtual development teams. The recommendations can be applied in both university and industrial environments. The paper is based on experiences from the international course on European Global Product Realisation that provided students with initial experiences in working within a global team. The authors believe that skills and technical equipment will need to be constantly supplemented and upgraded so that they will become practically independent of personal meetings (i.e. the distance between team members).

Learning the methods and the skills of global product realization in an academic virtual enterprise

This paper reports on and draws conclusions about the international course called European Global Product Realization. It was organized to provide university students with knowledge about distributed product development in virtual enterprises. The philosophy of the course is discussed together with its structure, contents, organization, infrastructure, deliverables and the experiences. Necessitated by globalization, the principles of operation of virtual enterprises were used in organizing the course. The knowledge accumulated in global product realization by the participating companies and academic sections provided the basis for the course and for the student projects. The organizers put the students of three European universities into the position of evolving young professionals who act as both knowledge producers and knowledge consumers. The design and engineering students took part in academic lectures and industrial case studies in a virtual classroom and practised collaborative product development in the emulated virtual enterprise. The academic virtual enterprise framework has been confirmed to be a solution for opening the conventional educational institutions. Our future work will concentrate on how to exploit disciplinary and operational research as the engine behind academic learning and teaching.

Simulation of unsteady flow and runner rotation during shut-down of an axial water turbine

The paper describes a novel method for prediction of water turbine characteristics during transient operating regimes. It is based on numerical flow simulation with finite volume method. The whole axial turbine flow-passage is considered in the computation. During the observed time interval, the runner grid rotates and both the distributor vanes and runner blades simultaneously change their positions. The rotational speed of the runner is dependent on computed flow field. Rotational speed, axial force and pressure at selected points are predicted and compared to prototype measurement data. Convergence of results has been shown by using better influential computational parameters. The method was applied on an industrial case to show that it is useful for engineering practice

Conceptual design of technical systems using functions and physical laws

Since the operation of technical systems can be explained using physical laws, why then might we not use them explicitly in designing these systems? The characteristic initial binding variable, with which appropriate physical laws are sought, first needs to be extracted from the function of the future technical system. If there are several appropriate physical laws (i.e., operators), we evaluate them using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The most suitable is then selected with regard to the chosen criteria based on design requirements. When one physical law is not sufficient for the design of a technical system, several laws are linked together using binding variables to form a conceptual chain (i.e., macro-operator). Such a chain does not only contain supporting physical laws; physical laws indirectly introduce basic models of shape, their basic topology, geometry, and basic material properties into the chain. A prototype computer-aided design system is based on the prescriptive conceptual design model presented below.

Conceptual design chains with basic schematics based on an algorithm of conceptual design

On the basis of the premise that technical systems are designed by chaining physical laws, the LECAD laboratory has developed a conceptual design algorithm and also based on it a computer program with 139 physical laws (we began with only 30). This paper presents the algorithm and its later supplements, the principle of performing the chaining, an example of the conceptual design of a simple technical system and an analysis of the results obtained using the computer program. The purpose of this analysis was primarily to show the effects of the supplemented algorithm on the generation of conceptual design chains, and the fact that a combinatorial explosion does not occur.

Fluid and kinetic parameters near the plasma-sheath boundary for finite Debye lengths

In a recent paper by Kuhn et al. [Phys. Plasmas 13, 013503 (2006)], it has been demonstrated that in a plasma, the polytropic coefficient γ is a spatially varying quantity rather than a global constant as usually assumed in fluid theory. Assuming cold ion sources and using the asymptotic two-scale approximation (in which the ratio of the Debye length over the characteristic presheath length, e, is set to zero), it was found that the γ profile exhibits a sharp peak (with values roughly between 6 and 8) at the plasma-sheath boundary. In the present paper, it is shown that in a finite e approach, this sharp peak is smoothed to a regular maximum, which for increasing e (e.g., decreasing plasma density) decreases and finally disappears. In any case, assumptions like γ=1 and/or γ=3, which are customarily encountered in the context of fluid approaches, are disproved. Although the present results were obtained for collisionless plasmas, it is reasonable to assume that the behavior uncovered holds qualitatively fo...

Extension of the Bissell–Johnson plasma-sheath model for application to fusion-relevant and general plasmas

This article presents an approach to solving a special Fredholm-type integral equation of the first kind with a particular kernel containing a modified Bessel function for applications in plasma physics. From the physical point of view, the problem was defined by Bissell and Johnson (B&J) [Phys. Fluids 30, 779 (1987)] as a task to find the potential profile and the ion velocity distribution function in a plane-parallel discharge with a Maxwellian ion source. The B&J model is a generalization of the well-known Tonks–Langmuir (T&L) [Phys. Rev. 34, 876 (1929)] discharge model characterized by a “cold” ion source. Unlike the T&L model, which can be readily solved analytically, attempts to solve the B&J model with a “warm” ion source have been done only numerically. However, the validity of numerical solutions up to date remains constrained to a rather limited range of a crucial independent parameter of the B&J integral equation, which mathematically is the width of a Gaussian distribution and physically repre...

Navigated active learning in an international academic virtual enterprise

Active learning is an educational paradigm that has been reinvented and methodologically underpinned many times in order to intensify learning in various forms. This paper presents a complex approach to active learning in a design-centred academic course with international participation. Research and design were considered as vehicles of active learning in the academic virtual enterprise environment established for the course. The former provided a methodological framework for exploring and structuring dispersed information and knowledge, and for constructing new ones. The latter supported the further development of the creative design capabilities, skills and experiences of the students by involving them in a project presented by the problem-owner partner company. The students formed international design teams, collaborated with industrial and academic experts, managed their own work, acquired information and knowledge in a systematic way, conceptualized and prototyped products according to real-life expectations, and persuaded the partner company to buy their concept products. The course proved to be an excellent active learning environment also for the educators, who could verify new pedagogical concepts and gained experience with the daily management of an academic virtual enterprise.

Development Process with Regard to Customer Requirements

Today, it can be maintained that the customer is a ‘king’ as he will buy only the products that satisfy his needs and wants. The companies of today are facing new challenges: global business and local operation, standardization, and individualization of products, demanding customers and fierce competition. The company wants to achieve shorter product development time, lower costs, high quality of the product, and finally, customer satisfaction. In order to achieve the set goals, the company has to take into account the customers wants and needs during the new-product-development process. This article presents the mode of description of processes that allow recognition of suitable natural systems and their transformation into technical systems and a model for management of development process. The phases of quality functions deployment (QFD) during the new product development process along with the location for collecting customer needs and wants are presented. A detailed description is given on information resources for obtaining data on customer needs; the methods for obtaining, structuring, and evaluation of the data obtained. The results of testing the proposed methodology of taking into account the voice of the customer in the process of developing a new Vario Flow product in a company that produces and sells medical equipment in domestic and foreign markets are also included.

The Analytic Hierarchy Process and Functional Appropriateness of Components of Technical Systems

SUMMARY The model of designing enables a partial recording of a conceptual design phase, but decisions and substantiation of the selection of individual components (of different complexity) are also required for a more complete recording. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, which corresponds to the selection of components in the phase of conceptual design, when there are no quantitative measures of functional appropriateness of components and the detailed shapes and dimensions have no priority connotation, was used to supplement the model of designing. The advantage of this method is above all in the establishment of the relative importance of criteria (i. e. design constraints) following their mutual comparison, and in a mutual comparison of alternatives (i.e. components) according to an individual criterion. The method itself can also serve to record expert knowledge about the influential criteria and functional appropriateness of alternatives according to individual criteria, while the users n...