Hardware design as a basis for functional product development

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LICENTIATE T H E S I S

Luleå University of Technology The Polhem Laboratory Division of Computer Aided Design

:|: -|: - -- ⁄ -- 

Hardware Design

as a basis for Functional

Product Development

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Hardware Design

as a basis for Functional

Product Development

Magnus Löfstrand

Division of Computer Aided Design

Luleå University of Technology

Licentiate Thesis, Luleå University of Technology 2004:62 ISSN: 1402-1757

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ii Licentiate thesis 2004:62

ISSN: 1402-1757

ISRN: LTU - LIC -- 04/62 -- SE

Division of Computer Aided Design Luleå University of Technology SE-971 87 Luleå

SWEDEN

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Preface

I would like to thank my supervisor, Assistant Professor Tobias Larsson, my assistant supervisor, Professor Graham Thompson, and Professor Lennart Karlsson (for life-cycle support). Others worthy of note include my colleagues Belinda López-Mesa, Dr. Peter Törlind, Andreas Larsson, and Mattias Bergström.

This work has been carried out within the Polhem Laboratory in cooperation with the Polhem Laboratory partner companies. Hägglunds Drives AB and Bengt Liljedahl deserve a special mention for his continuous interest in and support for the project. Additionally, Bengt-Olof Elfström at Volvo Aero Corporation has been a great help.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for allowing me to be distracted for periods of time and for their help in lengthy as well as spirited discussions.

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Abstract

The business environment of the manufacturing industry is changing from a hardware based product focus to a process and function focus. A current industrial interest is the development and sale of functions. This function could be realised as a product based on hardware, software, and services, and may be sold as a function rather than as hardware. This function view is referred to as Functional Products (FP).

The new focus for the customer is on value rather than hardware, creating new challenges for how engineering hardware design may best be carried out.

To develop a functional product, several parties need to be involved in the particular project; those suggested being supplier, seller, sub-contractor, customer, and end user.

Since the functional product not only consists of hardware, but also of services, the relations between manufacturers and customers will change. Product development will be conducted in networks to an increasing degree, where assignments, activities of, and relations between involved parties will be continuously changing.

This thesis introduces the area of functional products and related literature from a hardware engineering design perspective. It starts from a holistic approach and introduces the area of functional products in relation to traditional hardware design and development. Product and process issues considered important are raised and discussed, i.e. the value of hardware product versus value of functions, an increased need for integration, communication and collaboration over cross-disciplinary borders, and an increased need for simulation support to be able to increase the predictability of design concepts.

Simulation as an activity to verify the capabilities of the hardware product must be taken for granted in functional product business negotiation.

Lengthy needs exploration and identification stages are likely early on in functional product development. The concept verification stage in the product development of functional products is thought to increase until integrated simulation support has been developed to support system simulation of functional products.

Additionally, issues brought forward in this thesis include: - Processes necessary for functional product development.

- Value for the customer and ownership of the hardware with the introduction of the FP concept.

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vi functional products.

The thesis is to some degree written for exploratory purposes. The author invites the research community and industry for a continuous discussion of the issues raised in the thesis.

Keywords

Functional Products, Product Development, Engineering Design, Collaborative Design.

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Thesis

This thesis comprises an introductory part and the following appended papers:

Paper A

Löfstrand, M., Thompson,G. “Design Managemet Lessons learned from two studies in New Product Design” International Conference on Engineering Design Stockholm, Sweden, August 19-21, 2003.

Paper B

Löfstrand, M, López-Mesa, B., Thompson,G. “The use of Product Development Process as a means of Implementing Company Strategy” International Product Development Management Conference, Brussels, Belgium, June 10-11, 2003.

The following paper is related to the thesis, but not included:

Löfstrand, M., Larsson, T. “Demands on Engineering Design Culture for Implementing Functional Products” submitted for publication at International Conference on Engineering Design, Melbourne, Australia, 15-18 August, 2005.

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Collaboration: The act of working together to reach a common goal. Cooperation: The act of working together to reach (partly) separate goals. Design: Design involves making choices via decisions [1] and finding ways to realize these choices to change existing situations into preferred ones, to create an artefact (Adapted from Simon [2]). The fundamentally descriptive nature of design research has been identified by Blessing et.al. [3].

Design methodology: 1 An arrangement of design methods, 2 the study of design methods, e.g. the field of design methodology [5].

Design process: A series of operations performed in the making or treatment of a product.

Effectiveness: Doing the right things [4]. Efficiency: To do things right [4].

Engineering design: The activity of designing technological artefacts [5]. Engineering design research: Research that investigates the activity of designing technological artefacts [5].

Epistemology: According to Love [5], the study of how reality is represented by theory created as a result of a research method. Also defined as A branch of philosophy that deals with the varieties, grounds, and validity of knowledge. Hermeneutics: The branch of theology that deals with principles of exegesis (an explanation or critical interpretation, especially of the Bible).

Information: The representation of knowledge in the public domain [5]. Knowledge: The facts, feelings or experiences known by a person or group of people [38].

Methodological perspective: The research perspective, based on the ‘world view’ and the assumed means of representing reality in theory, that guides the choice of research methodology [5].

Metodik (Swedish), Methodik (German): An arrangement of design methods, usually pronounced methodology in the English language. Methodology actually means “the study of methods”.

Ontology: The study of the human assumptions and values about existence (‘the study of being and existence’ (Webster Comprehensive Dictionary 1986)). The adjective ‘ontological’ refers to that aspect of a subject concerning human Phenomenon: An occurrence, circumstance or fact that is perceptible by the senses [6].

Plausibility: Apparent validity, Standard for people related research instead of certainty. (Compare to Nelson & Stolterman [71] discussions on “true” and “real”.)

Positivist: One that emphasizes observable facts and excludes metaphysical speculation about origins or ultimate causes.

Pre-understanding: The result of the integration of ones experiences, assumptions, and values.

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Process: A series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result. Product: That which is sold to a customer.

Relevance: If something is pertinent to the matter at hand.

Reliability: Yielding the same or compatible results in different clinical experiments or statistical trials.

Research method: A collection of research techniques [5]. Research technique: An elemental research action [5]. Science: Traditionally, the natural sciences.

Tangible artefact: A man-made construct, at least partly tangible. (In a functional product, hardware is obviously tangible, whereas software and services are mostly intangible.)

Technology: The practical application of science to commerce or industry. Theoretical framework: The complete theoretical basis of a particular research project, including both the theoretical perspective and the choice of methodologies, methods, and techniques [5].

Theory of science: The branch of philosophy that analyses the nature of science and research. (Relations between ontological perspective, epistemological perspective, methodological perspective, methodology, method, and technique are examined.)

Usability: The quality of being able to provide good service. Usefulness: The quality of being of practical use [7].

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1 Introduction and background

Chapter 1 concerns the aim and scope of the research and attempts to explain the reasoning with respect to the theory of science concerning this particular project. The chapter briefly describes how the project has evolved and how it was carried out. It includes a short description of the research process to date, for the purpose of pre-understanding. In addition, a section considered as important definitions is included. The research environment is described shortly for the purpose of general understanding, as well as giving the reader an understanding of how access was gained to the participating companies in the project.

1.1 The vision

Contrary to today’s common products mostly consisting of hardware, a functional product consists of hardware, software, and services. The customer not only pays for the combined services of the functional product, but also for their availability. This thesis shows that a shift from a product focus to a process and function focus is needed for companies wishing to develop functional products. The functional product will (like common hardware products) mainly consist of hardware. The question is: How shall the

functional product be developed?

The researcher would eventually like to see a functional product developed by a hardware producing company, sold and used, and the effects of its use studied.

1.2 Thesis layout

This thesis is structured as follows;

⎯ This chapter concerns the aim and scope of the research and attempt

to explain my reasoning with respect to the theory of science concerning this particular project. It also briefly describes how the project has evolved and how it was carried out. The model of assumptions and the research question are introduced.

⎯ Chapter 2 (Research Approach) Chapter 2 deals with the effectiveness

of the research (doing the right things) and efficiency (doing things right).

⎯ Chapter 3 (Knowledge Domains). Chapter 3 introduces what are

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16 thesis in the literature.

⎯ Chapter 4 (Hardware Design as a basis for Functional Product

Development). In this chapter, the functional product area is introduced from as wide a perspective as is suitable to do from an engineering standpoint. Identification of the knowledge domains and a theoretical example of a functional product are included.

⎯ Chapter 5 is a discussion of the appended papers.

⎯ Chapter 6 indicates the direction for future research.

1.3 Aim and scope of research

The aim of the research is to investigate how the effects of the new business environment, namely Functional Products, affect the development of hardware for the purpose of supporting designers and design teams.

The goal of the research is to be able to support designers and design teams developing functional products by developing prescriptive models for such development.

The scope of the research is engineering product development with a focus on human action as it relates to the design process and on the actual product. Therefore, what designers create and how they create it is of interest, when handling new requirements for the engineering design process.

1.4 The research culture

The research culture at the Division of Computer Aided Design takes a user’s perspective on things, i.e. a development perspective that is characterised as:

• Academic research in the development of scientific, technological, and applied industrial advances.

• In close collaboration with industry [8].

• Improvement-centred rather than merely product-centred.

• Improvement pertaining to designers and design teams doing collaborative (and possibly distributed) engineering design.

• This leads to a need (as a division) to study both designers in practice and their technologies and products.

• Using appropriate methods from applicable fields.

Design is by nature an interdisciplinary, integrative discipline [21]. In that spirit, designers and indeed design researchers must integrate and develop methods from other fields. Neither design methods nor design research methods are carved in stone and must often be integrated and updated to fit the current problem and environment.

Design involves making choices and finding ways to realize these choices. Merely looking at the world and describing it is not enough to change the

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world. Design is about change, where the aim of change in manufacturing industry is to improve the current situation to a better or preferred one. As a consequence, design research is about finding out new and improved ways to implement change. To do research about design is not necessarily always about implementing changes, yet if one were to be studying a design process involving no changes it is improbable that it would actually be a design process.

1.5 Academic and industrial importance

The academic importance of this project may be described by the following conclusion: for each product development process, company or design team studied, the organisational context differs.

Academic importance

• This thesis describes in general terms how engineering design will be affected by the development of functional products.

• Functional products require increased process integration that focuses on the functional product offer.

• The product focus needs to change to a process focus and function focus.

Industrial importance

• The way the hardware is developed needs to change somehow, with the introduction of functional products.

• This thesis elucidates that functional products will have a certain effect on the way business will be carried out.

• New ways to do customer relationship management need to be developed, with a focus on company - customer meetings rather than department – customer.

1.6 Research question

How will the engineering design process change due to functional product perspective?

Focus 1: Human-centred

What do designers do when handling new requirements for the engineering design process?

Focus 2: Development-centred

What are designers developing when dealing with new requirements for the engineering design process?

1.7 Justification for the research

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reasons for this research: changing markets, design cost, the changing nature of product design and increased industrial focus on decreased lead times.

Changing markets

The market has been rapidly and extensively changing in recent decades. Markets that were once local have become global, while increasingly smaller companies have become actors in the global arena. According to Bitner [9], today’s markets are changing due to deregulation, the use of telecom and internet-based processes, internationalization, strategic alliances, and advances in technology. Sahlman [10] identifies three main changes:

1. Deregulation of the financial and transportation markets. 2. (Continuous) development of the microprocessor.

3. Internet based economy.

An added change is the industrial interest in functional products [43]. The effects of the introduction of functional products will be discussed in Chapter 4.

Design cost

According to Barton & Love [11] [12], design cost depends greatly on the design concepts that are typically produced at the beginning of a product development project. About 70% of the total design cost is attributed to these concepts. In addition, González and Palacios [13] have shown that almost 40% of all new products fail in their markets.

The changing nature of product design

The product design area has been going through significant changes [60] the last two decades. This is apparent if one examines the litterture mentioned in section 3.5. Academically, one interest of this project is to find out just how theory building in this area will be affected by the concept of functional products.

Increased industrial focus on decreased lead times

As always, demands on product development are ever increasing [14], e.g. reducing lead-times, increasing quality, increasing the accuracy of the predicted outcome of design concepts, etc. In the aeronautic industry one has developed an interest in being able to develop a 7-day proposal [15], that is: being able to build digital models, verify concept functionality by relevant simulations and finally to simulate production and sales of the product, all in seven days. To do this, the importance of accuracy in the predicted outcome of design concepts increases to new levels.

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Interest in functional products has been expressed in a range of Swedish companies: Volvo Aero Corporation, Hägglunds Drives AB, and AB Sandvik Coromant. These three companies are all part of the Polhem Laboratory., International interest in functional products has been expressed within the

European Union 6th_{framework program VIVACE [15]. Additionally, Fransson}

[16] identifies two more Swedish industrial companies SKF Service AB [17] and Ovako Hofors [18] as interested in functional products.

1.8 The research environment

The Polhem Laboratory

The Polhem Laboratory is a competence centre initiated by NUTEK. Member organisations of the Polhem Laboratory include 11 Swedish industrial companies and three divisions of Luleå University of Technology and the Polhem laboratory is funded by VINNOVA [19] (formerly NUTEK). This project is funded by the Polhem Laboratory.

The main goal of the research within the Polhem Laboratory is to develop technologies for product development and manufacturing through integration of design, manufacturing, materials engineering, and maintenance for application in the Swedish industry. A parallel mode of operation is instrumental in developing better products with shorter lead-times at lower costs, and for adapting products for manufacturing and maintenance.

The Division of Computer Aided Design

Formed in 1989, the division traces its history to the 1970s with a strong foundation in computational methods for finite element modelling and simulation (FEM). Over the years, the division has evolved to work with a broader spectrum of simulation methods, including multibody dynamics (MBS) and Simulation of Materials Processing (SMP) as well as other simulation methods to support product development in its different phases. The division’s three main research areas are Engineering Design, Modeling and Simulation, and Distributed Collaborative Engineering. There is also research concerning learning and teaching models for the purpose of continually supporting the undergraduate program. Figure 1 describes the research areas at the Division of Computer Aided Design. The boxes above the dashed line describe what parts of these research areas directly support the research concerning functional products. While the other part of the figure does support indirectly, it is absolutely essential for success, since this is where the division develops knowledge that may later be applied directly.

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2 Research approach

Chapter 2 deals with the effectiveness of the research (doing the right things) and efficiency (doing things right).

2.1 Case study research

The main approach has been case study research. Gummesson [20] identifies eight criteria for case study research, albeit general enough to be considered by any researcher.

The researchers’ general interest is in action. In the case of functional product development the most pertinent questions and problems are assumed to arise during development. In other words, when the first functional product is designed (in the first actual industrial demonstrator) it will be possible substantiate the result of Chapter 4.

There are those that act, those that understand what happened and those that do not. Schrage [8] argues will we get more value from better managing our

innovation process to get a prototype? Schrage asks, or from better using the prototype to manage our innovation process?

Based on of Paper B, were the use of product development process as a means of implementing company strategy is suggested, the researcher currently agrees with the later part of Schrage’s question.

Aside from Gummesson [20], other authors who discuss quality in research and in particular design research include Friedman [21], Blessing [22], Horváth [23], and Jones & Jacobs [24].

2.1.1 Corporate context

A number of people at three companies were interviewed, i.e. Hägglunds Drives AB [25], Volvo Aero Corporation [26], and Volvo Car Corporation, [27]. It was decided to conduct research in these companies due to their long-standing collaboration with the Polhem Laboratory, ensuring what was considered adequate access to the companies and the objects of study. The cooperation concerns development projects in industry and student projects cooperating with industry. Distributed collaborative engineering technologies were used when constructive and available [28]. The research has a bottom-up

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approach as the engineers were approached by the researcher. Discussions with other engineers allowed for different situations to be interpreted and understood the best. The research was also carried out for such engineers as these. The interviews have been mostly based on the 4P+N [29] and ALUO [30] methods (Advantages, Limitations, Uniqueness, Opportunities for change). The interviews had a structure with the use of a predefined set of questions (see appendixes), but were conducted semi-structured to allow the interviewees to express themselves freely. This approach was used to acquire what Glaser [31] calls emergence rather than forcing to acquire the pertinent information. Some recent considerations of ethnography, as an analytical procedure to notice what people do or say that they do also influenced the researcher. Examples of related studies using such methods in engineering

design research include Boujut & Laureillard [32] and Bucciarelli [33].

However, this research does not claim to be an ethnographic study. This approach has been chosen to find out about the actual needs of the interviewees and their reasoning, and has been supplemented with studies of secondary sources (project documents, strategy discussions, etc.).

Yin [34] suggests that a case study method rather than experiments or surveys when “a how or why question is being asked about a contemporary set of

events, over which the investigator has little or no control”. Consequently, a

case study approach is suitable in this project.

The researcher’s background, the process of research, the background, etc., so that the researcher’s conditioning and pre-understanding may be partly described. The main parts are introduced here:

• M.Sc. in mechanical engineering from Luleå University of Technology • The Polhem Laboratory

• Distributed Collaborative Engineering / Collaborative design tools • Collaborative work in design

• The Design Society summer school

2.2 Research method

Blessing et al. [3] have described the research process as described in Figure 2 below. Other interesting research process models have been proposed by Roozenberg & Eekels [35] and another discussed by Randall & Rouncefield [36].

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Figure 2: Design Research Methodology framework.

1. Identify criteria for success 2. Description 1

a. Observation and analysis 3. Prescription

a. Based on the outcome of the previous stage and assumptions of an improved situation, a method or tool is developed to encourage or support problem definition.

4. Description 2

a. The method or tools are applied to validate the method or tool i. Is the problem definition supported? (link 2a)

ii. Did the method support the criteria for success? (link 2b) The DRM framework, though not strictly followed, also had an influence on the researcher. (Blessing et.al. claim that applying the method [once] validates it; however, this may simply be a typographical error.) It is important to recognise that based on the DRM framework, this work has only reached half way: In terms of the DRM framework, the project has reached the start of stage 3: Prescription.

2.3 View on theory of science

No deep discussion about the theory of science will be attempted. Simply stated, induction is about looking at the world and describing your interpretation of it, thereby creating a theory about some phenomenon you

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have observed. However, deduction is about testing a theory in the world.

Figure 3: The experimental learning model.

The type of learning process experienced during the course of this project to date has been described by Kolb [37].

Looking at Figure 3 above, conducting actual pure inductive research is not believed possible since no one is considered to be totally unbiased, requiring the researcher to be less conditioned, i.e. not having been conditioned, contrary to what has actually occurred (see chapter 1). Therefore, the world (or carry out research) cannot be regarded without any preconceived notions. It is concluded that knowledge, and the way it is created, is culturally as well as socially dependant. Therefore, the background of the project is described in chapter 2.

2.3.1 What is research?

Research is creating new knowledge for other researchers and people outside one’s own research community (described in Chapter 3). Ideally, the knowledge should be used to instigate a change for the better in society.

This work agrees with the first definition of research from The Collins English Dictionary [38]: “Systematic investigation to establish facts or

principles or to collect information on a subject”. Furthermore, knowledge

should be useful for society. The focus on usefulness is probably an effect of the research culture and an effect of being involved in applied research.

2.3.2 Knowledge creation

All research involves somehow gaining access to certain data, after which it is organised and may be called information, and is then interpreted to form knowledge. Figure 4 describes relations between theory and knowledge, as translated from Andersson [39]. The aim, when described in terms of Figure 4,

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is to create a prescriptive model of a useful functional product development for industry.

Figure 4: Relations between theory and knowledge.

In science, i.e. natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc., the type of systematic investigation is said to be scientific, meaning to conform with the principles or methods used in science. In science one deals mainly if not exclusively with the facts and not with feelings and experiences, i.e. in science, certainty is the criterion. In this project thus far, there cannot be any objective true knowledge created by the research; therefore, the standard has to be plausibility rather than certainty. In engineering design the standard may be either plausibility or certainty, depending on the object of study and the chosen methods.

2.3.3 The development perspective

There is a long tradition in science to do research to improve some aspect of society related to the research, an investigate-describe-improve approach. It is the author’s belief that this approach has been inherited by many engineering based designers. An example of this could in be observed in the introduction to the Stanford University Joint Design Program and their definition of what design is [40]:

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“Design concerns itself with conceiving and designing products for the benefit

of society. This process requires resolution of constraints arising from technical, aesthetic, human and business concerns. A designer uses his or her creativity, imagination and technical knowledge to satisfy these requirements and create products to satisfy human needs.”

2.4 Quality criteria and metrics

Blessing [22] identifies that not enough verification and validation of findings takes place in engineering design research. According to Blessing all researchers in engineering design are guilty of this and because they all address something different, few attempts are made to bring results together She also notes a the lack of established research method and methodology and that although referencing islands exist, there is no agreed upon terminology for even the most basic terms. Therefore, Chapter 3 describes the main influences of this project while section 1.10 introduces terminology and definitions considered most relevant for this thesis. An attempt has been made to study the situation without the perspective of engineers and occasionally with their perspective as a way of checking plausibility. Thereafter, new ideas have been discussed with interviewees. This approach accounts for the semi-structured format of the interviews. The entire layout and contents of this thesis is an attempt to increase the plausibility of the result.

Duffy and O’Donnell [41] suggest a design research approach described partly by their figure, Figure 5. Based on the research framework of Duffy and O’Donnell, this thesis describes the reality of the author (parts of chapter 1 & chapter 2) and the envisaged reality by descriptive phenomena models in Figure 12. It also describes prescriptive phenomena models in Figure 11 and Figure 14.

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Figure 5: Research framework according to Duffy and O´Donell.

Duffy and O´Donell state that:

“A distinction is made here between validation and evaluation. The former focuses upon ascertaining a degree of truth for a particular hypothesis or result. Thus, if a hypothesis or result is proven to be true then it is regarded as being validated. Evaluation, according to some criteria, measures the relation between a result, concept, method, tool, etc. against a datum of some kind such as a requirements specification, known practice, or performance targets.”

Love [5] uses what he defines as a “constructivist perspective on validating engineering design theory” when setting up the following points to be used for validation.

• Internal consistency: Is the description of the speculation true to the speculation itself and does it coherently describe what is speculated? • Accuracy: Does the speculation fit the data it was derived from?

• Bounds: Does the speculation define what is included in it and what is not?

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Internal consistency is in thesis improved by:

• Method selection - interviews and document comparison. • The sources - different people were interviewed.

• Feedback

- The conclusions were discussed in a group setting with interviewees after completion of the studies.

- The content and conclusions were discussed with other researchers during the studies.

Accuracy is in thesis improved by: • Interviewing different people

• Stringent attempts at interpretation

• The semi-structured nature of the interviews, allowing interviewees and researcher to develop a shared understanding of the examined phenomenon.

The bounds:

The main speculations in this thesis are introduced in Figure 11. The bounds are described in Figure 11 and discussed in section 4.1.

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3 Knowledge domains

Chapter 3 introduces what are considered relevant literature fields to position the thesis in relation to existing theory.

3.1 The research area

A clarification of the research areas is shown in Figure 6 following. This chapter describes the starting point in literature. Identifying literature for the remainder of the project as described in Figure 15 has been a significant part of the project. Chapter 5 starts with service literature in relation to hardware related customer requirements and ends with a discussion about and examples of functional products. Finally, Chapter 6 describes the future of the project, including relevant research areas.

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Functional products have been identified as the industrial need which is one of the reasons for this project. Hardware and engineering design is the researchers’ education and training and are therefore the starting point for the project as well as the academic area this thesis attempts to influence. The Polhem Laboratory industrial partners have been identified as the industrial context since they allow access to the phenomenon, in this case their past, present development processes, expertise and educated suggestions concerning future engineering design and development needs. The interest in early product development phases was derived from the fact that nowhere else in the product development process is the problem as hard to grasp as there. As Brooks [42], when discussing product development of software, observes that: The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding what

to build. No other part of the conceptual work is so difficult as establishing the detailed technical requirements.

3.2 Functional Products

Brännström et.al [43] defines a life cycle model of functional products as described in Figure 7 following.

Figure 7: Lifecycle model of the functional product.

Nytomt et al. defines functional products as: “Functional Products consist of

the integration of hardware and services, the customer pays only for the function and in some case the supplier retains ownership of the hardware and at the same time performs all the actions necessary to keep the hardware operable. The complete support system for the hardware is known as services” [44].

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3.3 Service development

Related literature to this work include the concept of functional sales have been addressed by Ölundh [45], who discusses Mont’s [46] schematic representation of a Product Service System (PSS).

Figure 8: Schematic representation of a Product Service System.

Gadrey [47] sees services as the bundling of capabilities and competences (human, technological and organisational) to organise a solution for the customer.

According to Cooper & Edgett [48], services have four main characteristics: • Intangibility

- Unlike [tangible] products, services have no physical form • Inseparability

- The act of supplying a service is virtually inseparable from the

customer’s act of consuming it.

• Heterogeneity

- …services on the other hand, generally are never delivered the

same way twice…

• Perishability

- Unlike tangible products, services are produced at the same time

they are consumed.

Edvardsson et al. [49] draw similar conclusions.

Cooper & Edgett [48] identify three cornerstones of performance for effective new service development: product development process, new service strategy and resource commitment, as described in Figure 9.

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Figure 9: Cornerstones of performance for effective new service development.

A comparison between selling goods and functions is given by Abrahamsson & Eriksson [50] (adapted into Figure 10 below).

Figure 10: A comparison between sales offers of goods and functions.

3.4 Product development

The purpose of engineering design literature is to explain how to develop hardware to meet a requirement specification. Product development literature such as Womack & Jones [75 ] and Smith & Reinertsen [51] offers a broader view and generally aims to describe how to generate a product (hardware, service or whatever) to meet the customer needs. Product Development

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literature provides a rather wide picture of how to understand needs, and develop and sell products.

3.5 Engineering design

There has been an ongoing debate that what is considered “traditional product development”, i.e. literature describing hardware design, should better consider the voice of the customer, the customer needs or whatever one may choose to call it. There has never been a product development process not described as customer oriented, it is only that different companies (and researchers researching different companies) have focused on whatever bottleneck has existed in their organisation at a specific time.

Ullrich & Eppinger [52] define product development as “the set of activities

beginning with the perception of a market opportunity and ending in the production, sale and delivery of a product”.

With definitions as wide as these, it seems reasonable for the definition of product development to not need to be redefined because of a change of the product definition.

Research into engineering design (and product development) is a relatively new area of research. Several strands of design theory are being created; those with the primary inputs for this research are listed below.

• Functional modelling

A modern classic in the area of engineering design is Pahl & Beitz [53] from 1984. They divide the development process into four stages: clarification of the

task, conceptual design, embodiment design and detail design. Cross [54]

states that considerable work on these kinds of models and on other aspects of

rationalizing the design process has been done in Germany. The professional engineers body Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI), has produced a number of VDI-guidelines in this area, including VDI-2221, Systematic Approach to the Design of Technical Systems and Products. VDI interest in systematic

design dates back to the 1960s when the WDK was formed, it is regarded as a cornerstone in forming the Design Society [55] whose members now focus on many different strands of design. Other relevant titles concerning functional modelling in design are Hubka & Eder [56], Jones [57] Ullman [81], Thompson [58], Suh [59], Wheelwright & Clark [60],Ullrich & Eppinger [52] and Otto [61]. Within this area it is possible to separate design processes and design methods. Method classification [62] [63] and method selection have recently gained interest in this area.

• Creativity and innovation

Another strand of design research concerns creativity and innovation, where Kelley [64] is often quoted. Others include Davis [65] and Van de Ven et al. [66].

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34 • Design as a social process

Socio-technical aspects of design are another area of interest in the design research community. Authors such as Valkenburg [67] and Minneman [68] have impacted this strand of design research. Valkenburg identifies the changing nature of design research from individual design (up until the early 1990s), to team design [69] and to design as a social process.

• Theory , meta-theory and philosophy

In 1989, Finger & Dixon [70] claimed that design was in a pre-theory stage, but there has recently been a growing interest in the design community to define the design research area in relation to meta-theory; notables are Love [5], Friedman [21], Blessing [3], Nelson & Stolterman [71] and Bucciarelli [72].

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4 Hardware design as a basis for functional

product development

Chapter 4 introduces the functional product area from as broad a perspective as is deemed suitable to do from an engineering standpoint. Identification of the knowledge domains and a theoretical example of a functional product is included.

The total offer is presently thought to be a functional product that overlaps a number of research areas, including Product Development, Engineering Design, Modelling and Simulation, Collaborative Work, Industrial Organisation, Business Management, Law, etc. The term functional product refers to a product that is possible to sell as function instead of simply hardware, software, or services. This is one of several possible ways to form what Nordström & Ridderstråle [73] call a total offer including both tangible and intangible assets, such as knowledge, financial offer, service deals, etc. Due to price and development costs of such products it is assumed that functional products are mostly of interest to the business –to-business environment. Normann & Ramírez [74] even argue that it is no longer possible to draw a distinct line between products and services, as all products include services vital for their value.

The underlying idea of design for functional products is to meet the individual needs of customers, whatever the need is. Providing a certain function is a way to meet one possible need, such as torque/(h,rotation) power/h, 365 days/year or a perfectly functioning collaborative working environment using dedicated broadband only when needed, for example 20h/week.

Functional Products consist of hardware, software, and services. Hardware includes, e.g. a motor, a truck, or a computer, all of which have been sold the traditional way for years. Due to development in recent decades, the hardware itself often includes software to a varying degree, e.g. a modern truck. However, in this discussion it shall continue to be called hardware. Software has also been sold as hardware for years and is included in a growing number of products. Services, one of which is a traditional service, can include service, condition monitoring, etc. The most important service (in the broader sense) is probably availability – the user should pay only for what he needs, when he needs it. For the concept of Functional Products to work, this service must also

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be absolutely reliable, or rather, as reliable as having been agreed upon. Finally, the offer must be flexible and adaptable to the individual customer. Only then is a functional product being offered.

4.1 Model of assumptions

Figure 11 describes a model of assumptions for functional product success in industry, as developed based on discussions with interviewees, colleagues, business entrepreneurs and academic advisors.

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Based partly on Paper B, a need exists to understand that communicating needs in terms of services requires cooperation, an understanding of each company’s goals and the possibility of negotiating these goals at a managerial level. However, based on results from Paper A, it would be useful to integrate several company functions (Market, Design, Production, etc.) when negotiating, even in the beginning of the development process. The design of Figure 11 has been evaluated through a pre-study at Volvo Aero Corporation and is at the moment a speculation rather than a verified model.

4.2 Characteristics of functional products

Functional products have a range of characteristics, some the most important ones are listed below.

• Resources are geographically distributed

• Carried out in cross-disciplinary teams, thereby increasing the demand for improved communication between team-members.

• Knowledge intensive

• Increases the need for integration and synergy further • High value hardware core

• Live-cycle responsible seller

• High-risk and high gain enterprises

• Specific contractual agreements are important to regulate the issues of liability, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), ownership, risk, and profit sharing.

• Ways to build up trust become increasingly important to create a win-win situation. This in turn increases the demand for improved communication between team-members.

One might argue: these characteristics are not specific to FP development,

all current-day product development has these characteristics. While this is

true, the degree of importance of these issues increases substantially compared to current product development processes, since the degree of interaction increases.

4.3 Examples of functional products

Many different levels of a functional product conceivably exist. Transportability might be sold to an end user whose only interest is to have his goods at hand when he needs it. At this level the customer might or might not care how his goods are being transported. If the transportation is carried out by air, e.g. by Boeing, Volvo Aero Corporation may have sold their motor as thrust/hour, which for them is the top level of their functional product. However, the level which the user is interested in is only to have his goods on hand when he needs it.

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On a much lower level in the same transportation system even such a simple thing as a hole may be developed and sold as a functional product sub-system.

1. Transportability 2. Ton-km

a. Air Cargo (Thrust/h)

b. Road transportation (Hp/h, Trucks, Busses…) c. Train (Track-Tonnage/h)

d. Sea (Hp/h, Thrust/h) 3. Rotation/hour (Nm/(turn & h)

With this background the services part of a Functional Product is the packaging, i.e. the complete system excluding the hardware. The packaging in turn depends on the over all solution which is created by the business case.

4.4 Services implications for functional product development

An aim of this work is to develop methods and tools to design a functional product, with special emphasis on the needs-to-concept stage of the product development process.

One issue of the concept of functional products is that most industrial companies with a long existence have a long tradition in developing hardware products, possibly leading to both a useful practice and a potentially restricting PD tradition.

• Changing from sales of hardware to sales of functional products requires a culture change in a multi-culture environment of functional product development. In his work Total Quality Development, Clausing [80] identified the need for a culture change to implement Total Quality Development. It would make sense to assume that the same is true for functional product implementation.

A starting point for discussion concerning functional products as a whole is: Hardware development increases in importance in terms of the functionality of the product (absolutely must be according to agreement) and decreases in importance in terms of product value. In the background of this project lies the fact of new business drivers, as described in Figure 12 below. Figure 12 also tries to show how we might expect to see other business drivers in the future. It is suggested that the business environment will continue to change, with functional products being the current, but not the final business interest. Therefore, a continued evolution of the product offer is likely. Womack, Jones, & Roos [75] discuss elements of lean production. These elements might be something that could support the Lean society [76], identified by Bengt-Olof Elfström (research director, Volvo Aero Corporation). Lean society is suggested in Figure 12 as a likely development in society after functional

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products. The Swedish Technology Foresight project [77] have published documents [78] that describes possible new trends in Swedish societal transformations, very much related to the concept of lean society. It does not seem useful to theorise further concerning additional societal shifts. However, it is strategically important to be aware of their coming. The idea of the lean society is for companies to make money on doing as little as possible while using as few resources as possible and still meeting the customer needs. The current industrial trend is rather to carry out as much work as possible, to satisfy the customer.

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Figure 12: The changing nature of the business environment.

In seeing the total offer (using Brännström’s [79] nomenclature) as value based according to Abrahamsson & Eriksson [50], it is necessary to investigate which product will supply the value and what kind of customer requirements are typically applied in today’s product development for hardware. This has been done by Ullman [81] and is described below.

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4.4.1 Implications for customer requirements capture

The importance of listening to the customer has been identified by many engineering design researchers, including Clausing [80] in his discussion “voice of the customer”. This is described by Ullman with seven types of customer requirements [81]:

• Functional performance (Flow of energy, flow of information, flow of materials, operational steps, operation sequence)

• Human factors (Appearance, force and motion control, ease of controlling, and sensing state)

• Physical requirements (Available spatial envelope, physical properties)

• Manufacturing requirements (Materials, quantity, company capabilities)

• Life-cycle concerns (Diagnosability, testability, reparability, cleanability, installability, retirement)

• Resource concerns (Time, cost, capital, unit, equipment, standards, environment)

• Reliability (MTTF, Reliability)

Functional products include an increased focus on immaterial requirements from customers. No longer will measurable, technical requirements be the sole criteria for measuring the success of a product. In the design community, this success has so far been evaluated by how well it is able to meet the technical requirements. Measuring the success of a product from a customer’s perspective has traditionally been a job for marketing departments. It is not argued that this job should be carried out by design departments, but instead carried out in concert. Such a course would free some marketing resources that in the context of functional products might be better spent considering other marketing related activities. To best evaluate the customer’s possible future needs, one such activity might be future strategic choices that will eventually be necessary due to the changing nature of the business environment. Current customer value models are discussed below.

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4.5 Customer value

Hallander [82] uses Blanchard’s [83] and Slack’s [84] models of total system value to describe customer value and finishes her reasoning with: “the main

problem today, however, is rather to effectuate all of these demands in product development within an organization.” In the case of functional

product development, this problem multiplies. However, it is suggested that it will not be possible to effectuate all of these demands within a single organisation. Slack’s model of customer value is described below.

Figure 13: Model of Customer Value.

The question of how the engineering design process regarding hardware will actually be affected by the concept of functional products remains to be seen. However, one notices a challenge in defining who the actual customer is (what group of people, potentially from different companies). Who will define the product value, which creates new inputs for the hardware design process?

Who (or what group of people, potentially from different companies) will define the product value, which creates new inputs for the hardware design process? By creating the first physical artefact, an industrial prototype of a functional product, it may be possible to use that development process as a means of implementing a company strategy concerning functional products. Such an approach would agree with the bottom-up implementation of change suggested in Paper B. Schrage [8] points out that: The value of a prototype

arises from how productively people interact around its iterations over time. Or, more simply, the value of prototyping arises from how people behave around prototypes. Hence the dual focus of the research question in this thesis

and the communication and relation building parts of Figure 11 has been developed.

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4.6 Conclusions concerning the product design domain

There seems to be two main strands of product design research.

The first strand concerns performing design, as has been discussed in sections 3.4 and 3.5. In this strand the view of designing is changing from design as a stage-gate process towards design as a collaborative process.

The second strand is that of design management, as exemplified by, for example Bennett [85].Hales might be called somewhat of a crossover between these two strands with his book Managing Engineering Design [86].In the management of design strand, design will likely be considered as a stage-gate process for the foreseeable future.

A general design theory able to include all work in these two areas of design research is still not ready, though based on the earlier discussion at the end of Chapter 3, design can no longer be said to be in a pre-theory stage. Rather, the design research community is currently forming its own group of related theories, and it seems with a focus on relevance and usability. Hence, it might be concluded that current design is in a pre meta-theory stage.

4.7 Summary

Societal transformations create new interests in industry to be met. The latest focus is on functional products. The next transformation may be from functional products to the concept of lean society. It is strategically important to be aware of when and how these transformations are occurring. The idea of the lean society is for companies to make money on doing as little as possible while using as few resources as possible and still meeting the customer needs. The current industrial trend is rather to carry out as much work as possible, to satisfy the customer.

The change in society responsible for the industrial interest in functional products is suggested to occur due to a further increased industrial focus on decreased lead times and the inability to totally develop their products in-house. This, in turn, is due to the complexity of the product. It is no longer possible to have all resources within one company. Hence, the issue of globalisation is suggested to increase in the future.

The new customer focus is on value rather than hardware, creating new challenges for how engineering hardware design may best be carried out. Who will define the product value, which creates new inputs for the hardware design process? What will happen to traditional hardware related customer requirements? How will answers for these questions be developed in a geographically distributed network of companies and competences where people have different cultures and business models? How may new business models be developed that may take into account that hardware development increases in importance in terms of the functionality of the product and decreases in importance in terms of product value?

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The cost of design errors in the development of functional products is assumed to increase because of the many partners involved in development (see Figure 14). Therefore, simulation increases in importance since the functional products carries with them an increased importance of increasing the accuracy of the predicted outcome of design concepts. The current industrial focus on speed also creates additional new needs on both modelling and simulation. In addition, interest in simulations of the capabilities of the entire functional product will increase as we approach the lean society

The concept of Functional Products indicates that risk and profit sharing rather than regular sales will be the basis for the total offer or new business deal. Therefore, a Risk Diagnosing Methodology such as that proposed by Keitzer et al. [87] will become increasingly important.

By creating the first physical artefact, an industrial prototype of a functional product, it may be possible to use that development process as a means of implementing a company strategy concerning functional products.

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Product development will be conducted in networks to an increasing degree where assignments, activities of, and relations between the involved parties will be continuously changing. The hardware will not be specified by the customer, but the specification, and indeed the whole functional product, will be developed in collaboration with the involved companies.

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5 Discussion of the appended papers

Chapter 5 discusses the appended papers and puts them in relation to the functional product focus of the thesis.Relations of papers in thesis

Paper A Creating understanding.

Paper B Identifying the product development process a means for bottom-up implementation of change.

5.1 Paper A: Design Management Lessons Learned from two Studies in New Product Design

Published at: International Conference on Engineering Design 2003

Authors: Magnus Löfstrand

Graham Thompson

Authors contributions to paper A:

M. Löfstrand conducted the interviews, the transcriptions, much of the analysis, and wrote the drafts. G. Thompson conceived the project and provided advice on how to proceed as well as proofread the draft of the paper. He also contributed to the analysis through helpful discussions and generally facilitated publishing the paper.

The object of study: Previous development projects in industry. Results

This article developed into mainly engineering management related issues in the design of a hardware product. Management and management style in terms of resource management and decision making arose as important points. Other interesting points were the implications of introducing new solid modelling tools in a live project and identifying the positive aspects of engineering design methods in early concept stages. Finally, the importance of cooperation between the design division and the market division was identified. Similar observations after an automotive industry case study were made by Valkenburg & Maaikes [88] made similar observations after a case study in the automotive industry. Their result is curiously similar to that in paper A.

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5.2 Paper B: The use of Product Development Process as a means of Implementing Company Strategy

Published at: International Conference on Engineering Design 2003

Authors: Magnus Löfstrand

Belinda López-Mesa

Graham Thompson Authors contributions to paper B:

B. López-Mesa and M. Löfstrand equally shared the work and G. Thompson commented on the later drafts.

The object of study: the strategic positioning of Hägglunds Drives AB Result

The usefulness of the 4P+N model was indicated as a tool around which to structure the investigations. It has proven to be a helpful tool in identifying and organising changes to a product development process. The 4P+N model has also contributed in helping to identify the diverging opinions different project members had of the future strategy, creating a need for consensus. It is important to define and agree upon a common goal; to do so, all team members need to understand the points of view of others. It is advisable to work towards instilling a sense of agreement by structured methods. A top-down approach with a bottom-up implementation has been identified as necessary for a sustainable change. The interviews showed that focus by management on the strategic contribution of project prioritisation was shown as becoming increasingly important.

As identified in Paper B (albeit not expressed in those exact terms), the importance of a shared understanding has also been identified by Valkenburg [89].The identification of similar results between the author and Valkenburg may somewhat indicate that design is really becoming a collaborative activity, at least in the design research field of performing design, as discussed in section 4.6. The author certainly belongs in that field and all accounts indicate that Valkenburg does as well.

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5.3 Summary of paper contributions

As the importance of nearly all points that arose in the development of Paper A will increase with the design of functional products, it is apparent that there is ample work yet to be done in the area of process integration for functional product development: business negotiation communication, human resource management, and cooperative engineering design in the market-design relation to name some of the most important.

Paper B indicates the usefulness of the 4P+N model, the need for consensus building or the top-down approach with a bottom-up implementation for sustainable change. These issues are of importance for development of functional products as well.

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6 Discussion and conclusions

This project started out with questions about what is a functional product. Given the researcher’s background and earlier training, the knowledge domains were eventually defined as described in Chapter 3. Concepts of importance, industry context, and case study context were identified. A discussion on the result is included below.

6.1 Process integration in company networks

The service of availability (mainly the inactive part of the service provided by the functional product), Activity (active part of service) and outcome (design of solution, in engineering design usually described in technical, hardware related terms) generate the functional product for the customer.

It may be concluded that functional product development requires competences from many different professional fields (Engineering design, management, marketing, law, etc) that will need to collaborate and communicate (increasingly often over large distances) to develop the functional product. Collaboration and communication requirements increase as professionals who have previously not communicated may have to do so, e.g. design engineers and lawyers. A schematic image of this situation is given in Figure 14. Since customer value instead of need for new machinery is the reason for a customer to buy a functional product the customer will pay for that value rather than the hardware, creating new business opportunities for companies with good control over their hardware, communication and business negotiation development processes. Different levels of functional products exist creating the possibility of creating new product offers in a network of suppliers, customers, sub-contractors, end-users and customers. To be able to create these new product offers engineers and other product designers will need to break out of some of the current rules of thumb and best practices traditions. Then, creativity and innovation will lead the way towards the new product offers. One needs to consider whether or not current traditional company structures in the manufacturing industry are best suited for development of functional products, new companies may have to be formed where other structures may be developed.

Hardware design as a basis for functional product development

LICENTIATE T H E S I S

Hardware Design

as a basis for Functional

Product Development

Hardware Design

as a basis for Functional

Product Development

Magnus Löfstrand

Division of Computer Aided Design

Luleå University of Technology

Preface

Abstract

Keywords

Thesis

Contents

1

Introduction and background

2

Research approach

3

Knowledge domains

4

Hardware design as a basis for functional

product development

5

Discussion of the appended papers

6

Discussion and conclusions