SimGas' Biogas Milk Chiller

IN

DEGREE PROJECT INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEERING, SECOND CYCLE, 30 CREDITS

,

STOCKHOLM SWEDEN 2017

SimGas' Biogas Milk Chiller

Challenges with applying sustainability and

usability when developing for the East-African

market from a small company in Europe

ELLINORE SEYBOLT

CARRIE ZHONG

KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SimGas’ Biogas Milk Chiller

Challenges with applying sustainability and usability when

developing for the East-African market from a small company in

Europe

Ellinore Seybolt

Carrie Zhong

Master of Science Thesis MMK 2017:166 IDE 298 KTH Industrial Engineering and Management

Industrial Design Engineering SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM

Examensarbete MMK 2017:166 IDE 298

SimGas biogas mjölkkylare

Utmaningar med att tillämpa hållbarhet och användarvänlighet inom en produktutvecklingsprocess

mot den östafrikanska marknaden från ett litet europeiskt företag Ellinore Seybolt Carrie Zhong Godkänt Examinator Claes Tisell Handledare Teo Enlund Uppdragsgivare SimGas B.V. Kontaktperson Jeroen Thoolen

Sammanfattning

SimGas B.V. är ett nederländskt företag som i dagsläget är den största leverantören av biogassystem i Östafrika. Sedan 2013 har SimGas utvecklat en biogasdriven mjölkkylare för att förse en lösning på problemet med mjölk som surnar för småskaliga mejeribönder i Östafrika. I detta examensarbete har en fallstudie gjorts för att identifiera utmaningarna av att tillämpa hållbarhet och användarvänlighet inom en produktutvecklingsprocess mot den östafrikanska marknaden. I fallstudien tog Ellinore Seybolt och Carrie Zhong, mastersstudenter inom Teknisk Design på Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, del av produktutvecklingsprocessen för en biogasdriven mjölkkylare riktad mot östafrikanska bönder, som praktikanter hos SimGas B.V. i Haag, Nederländerna.

Projektet utfördes i nära samarbete med utvecklingsgruppen för produkten. Projektet anpassades utefter SimGas agila sätt att arbeta. Det resulterade i att projektet blev uppdelat i sprintar. Att ta del av en utvecklingsprocess riktad mot användare från en annan kontinent och kultur utan att ha direkt kontakt med dem visade sig vara utmanande. Mot slutet av projektet gjordes en fältresa där antaganden som gjorts i början av projektet kunde bekräftas, som att det var frun i hushållet som skulle vara huvudanvändaren. Det visade sig även att vara en utmaning att utveckla produkten ur ett mer miljövänligt perspektiv då budgeten var låg och hittade lovande material inte ännu fanns tillgänglig på marknaden. Att hitta en lösning på hur produkten skulle kunna skrotas på ett ansvarsfullt sätt var också utmanande då det var svårt att få information om vilka möjligheter som fanns i Östafrika. Ännu en utmaning var att som svenska praktikanter integrera i den nederländska företagskulturen.

Projektet resulterade i alternativa designlösningar för den biogasdrivna mjölkkylaren som skulle öka dess användarvänlighet och miljövänlighet. Resultatet av arbetet kan även tänkt att kunna användas av SimGas som underlag för framtida designval kring mjölkkylaren.

Nyckelord: biogas, mejeribönder, Östafrika, användarvänlighet, miljövänlighet, hållbar

Master of Science Thesis MMK 2017:166 IDE 298

SimGas’ Biogas Milk Chiller

Challenges with applying sustainability and usability when developing for the East-African market from a

small company in Europe

Ellinore Seybolt Carrie Zhong Approved Examiner Claes Tisell Supervisor Teo Enlund Commissioner SimGas B.V. Contact person Jeroen Thoolen

Abstract

SimGas B.V. is a Dutch company and is today the largest supplier of biogas systems in East-Africa. Since 2013, SimGas has been developing a biogas-driven milk chiller in order to provide a solution to the milk spoilage problem of small-scale dairy farmers in East-Africa.

In this project, a case study was conducted to identify the challenges of applying sustainability and usability in developing a product for an East-African market. In the case study, Ellinore Seybolt and Carrie Zhong, Master students of Industrial Design Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, joined the process of developing a biogas-driven milk chiller for East-African farmers as interns at the company SimGas B.V. in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The project was performed in close collaboration with the research and development team of the Biogas Milk Chiller. As part of this collaboration, the structure of the project was adapted to fit SimGas’ agile way of working. This resulted in that the project was divided in sprints. Participating in a design process for users overseas from a different culture and with the absence of direct contact with the users proved to be a challenge. Towards the end, Ellinore and Carrie got the opportunity to meet users in a field trip that could validate many assumptions made in the beginning of the project, such as that it was indeed the wife of the household who would be the main user. Furthermore, it proved challenging to design for sustainability with a low target cost price and when promising materials found, they were not yet ready for the market. To propose a sustainable disposal of the remains of the product in East-Africa, also proved to be challenging when the available facilities were unknown. Another challenge was to integrate into the culture of a small Dutch company as Swedish interns.

The project resulted in alternative design solutions for the Biogas Milk Chiller that would improve the usability and sustainability of the product. The conclusions of this project can also be seen as a foundation for design choices of future Biogas Milk Chiller concepts for SimGas B.V.

Keywords: biogas, dairy farmers, East-Africa, usability, user-centered design, sustainability,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We, the thesis authors, would first like to thank all personnel at SimGas B.V. for receiving us as interns in the most welcoming manner. Special thanks to participants of our user test and our sincere thanks to the core team of the Biogas Milk Chiller project; Thomas van der Schoor, Lia Bardoel and Rutger Stapelkamp for providing support, expert feedback and advice in this project. Our earnest thanks also go to all participants and users of the field tests in Karatina, Kenya, and to George Mwangi and Joel Ssenjala Matovu, employees of SimGas Kenya Ltd., for the care and assistance provided during the trip. We would also like to express special gratitude towards Lia Bardoel, for support and making the field trip to Kenya possible.

A sincere thanks to our supervisors; Jeroen Thoolen at SimGas B.V. and Teo Enlund at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, for providing with advice and encouragement throughout the project. Tack!

Ellinore Seybolt & Carrie Zhong Stockholm, August 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ... 1

1.1 Objective of the BMC project... 1

1.2 SimGas B.V. ... 2

1.3 Research Questions ... 3

1.4 Limitations & Delimitations ... 3

2. METHODOLOGY ... 5

2.1 Scrum ... 5

2.2 Research ... 6

2.3 Interviews & Communication Internally ... 6

2.4 Interviews & Communication Externally ... 6

2.5 User Test & Rapid Tests in Workshop ... 6

2.6 Validity & Field Study in Kenya ... 6

3. THE OVERALL PROCESS ... 7

4. SPRINT 0 - STRATEGIC INTAKE AND RESEARCH ... 9

4.1 Process ... 9 4.2 Conclusions ... 9 4.3 Challenges ... 14 4.4 Reflections ... 14 5. SPRINT 1 - USABILITY ... 15 5.1 Process ... 15 5.2 Conclusions ... 18 5.3 Challenges ... 19 5.4 Reflections ... 20 6. SPRINT 2 - SUSTAINABILITY ... 21 6.1 Process ... 21 6.2 Conclusions ... 22 6.3 Challenges ... 22 6.4 Reflections ... 23

7. SPRINT 3 - AESTHETICS & DESIGN SOLUTIONS ... 25

7.1 Process ... 25

7.2 Conclusion ... 29

7.3 Challenges ... 30

7.4 Reflections ... 30

8. SPRINT 4 - MERGE CONCEPTS & EVALUATION ... 31

8.1 Process ... 31

8.2 Conclusions ... 31

8.3 Challenges & Reflections ... 37

9. SPRINT 5 - FIELD TRIP & VALIDATION ... 39

9.1 Process ... 39

9.2 Conclusions ... 44

9.3 Challenges ... 46

9.4 Reflections ... 46

10. DISCUSSION & REFLECTION ... 49

10.1 Tossed Into Project ... 49

10.2 Who is the User? ... 49

10.3 Integrating with SimGas ... 49

10.4 Keeping Focus on Thesis Project as Interns - Difficult ... 51

10.5 User Accessibility ... 51

11. CONCLUSION ... 53

12. RECOMMENDATIONS & FUTURE WORK ... 55

APPENDICES

APPENDIX - 10 GOLDEN RULES IN ECODESIGN

APPENDIX - BORGS RPE SCALE AND PAAS' COGNITIVE LOAD SCALE APPENDIX - DESIGN THINKING

APPENDIX - DIRECTION

APPENDIX - DIRECTIONS FOR SPRINT 2

APPENDIX - EMAILS REGARDING MATERIALS APPENDIX - FIELD TEST WORKSHOP

APPENDIX - FINDINGS FROM MEDIAMARKT APPENDIX - IDEA DESCRIPTION

APPENDIX - IDEO FIELD TRIP INSIGHTS APPENDIX - INSULATION

APPENDIX - INTERVIEW WITH MAURIZIO MOLTALTI APPENDIX - INTERVIEW WITH SANNE CASTRO, CEO APPENDIX - INTERATION 3: EVALUATION SCALES APPENDIX - LARGE PUGH'S MATRIX

APPENDIX - MILK CHAIN APPENDIX - MIND MAPS

APPENDIX - MINI PUGH'S MATRICES APPENDIX - MORPHOLOGICAL MATRIX APPENDIX - PARTNERS

APPENDIX - PERSONAS

APPENDIX - REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION APPENDIX - ROTATIONAL MOLDING RESEARCH

APPENDIX - SPRINT 0: STRATEGIC INTAKE & RESEARCH APPENDIX - SPRINT 1: USABILITY

APPENDIX - SPRINT 2: SUSTAINABILITY

APPENDIX - SPRINT 3: AESTHETICS & DESIGN SOLUTIONS APPENDIX - SPRINT 4: MERGE CONCEPTS & EVALUATION APPENDIX - SPRINT 5: FIELD TEST & VALIDATION

APPENDIX - TRIPLE DIAMOND PROCESS: SKETCHES APPENDIX - USER TEST: IGNITION DIRECTLY AT BURNER APPENDIX - USER TEST PROTOCOL

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1. INTRODUCTION

East-Africa is growing and is becoming more industrialized. With this development, the life standard of people in these countries are improving and a new market opportunity opens up. Europe is increasing their interactions with the rising African countries (Li, 2017) and thereby product development towards this market is not uncommon. However, to introduce new product for an East-African market has proven to be challenging. According to J. S. Matovu (personal communication, June 2017), an employee at SimGas Kenya Ltd., this can be due to the large amount of start-ups within the biogas sector that come with great promises, convincing donors, installing a few units in Africa and then end up not living up to the donor's expectations. The start-ups run out of money and never revisit the installed units leaving the customers with a product standing unused due to lack of knowledge or malfunction.

In this project, a case study was conducted to identify the challenges of applying sustainability and usability in developing a product for an East-African market from a small company in Europe. The thesis authors were participants of the Biogas Milk Chiller (BMC) project in the Dutch company SimGas B.V. as interns from 6 February 2017 to 27 June 2017.

1.1 Objective of the BMC Project

With the improved life standard of the East-African people follows an increasing demand of dairy products (Gerosa & Skoet, 2012). The milk processors in these countries are urging for larger quantities of good quality milk from the local small-scale farmers in order to meet the growing demand (SimGas, n.d.). The problem is illustrated in Figure 1.

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The dairy farmers have good reasons to sell their milk to the processors to a greater extent than what is currently done, gaining privileges such as security of a stable income compared to selling on the informal market. However, due to insufficient cooling methods, the milk expressed in the afternoon is often rejected by the processors coming to collect the milk the next morning. This results in a great loss of milk for the processors and a loss of income for the farmers.

Although the infrastructure is improving, many dairy farmers in East-Africa are still off-grid and therefore have to settle for traditional unreliable cooling methods. There are currently no off-grid solutions for cooling milk at micro-scale, up to 10 cows, on the market (SimGas, n.d.). By providing such a solution the supply-demand gap in East-Africa would decrease and the small-scale off-grid dairy farmers would be able to increase their stable and obtain a predictable income from the processors.

1.2 SimGas B.V.

SimGas is a Dutch innovative, Design and Production Company and the largest supplier of biogas systems in East-Africa. SimGas is a triple bottom line company that consider the environmental, social and economic impacts equally (SimGas, n.d.). Since 2009, SimGas has worked to provide small-scale rural households Africa with scalable biogas digesters, giving clean energy and fertilizer. To enable farmers to make use of their biogas, SimGas is offering biogas stoves that can be driven on the biogas created from the digesters. An illustration can be seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2. A visualization of how SimGas biogas digester works (SimGas, n.d.).

SimGas noticed the milk losses on the small-scale off-grid farms and has since 2013 been developing a biogas driven milk chiller.

One of SimGas main sayings is It should be easier to use than not to use from which follows that their products should be designed from a usability perspective. In the case of the BMC,

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there was still room for improvement. Since SimGas is triple bottom line company it is also of great importance that their products are sustainable as well as being affordable. SimGas is currently putting much effort in making the BMC affordable but they are lacking the sustainability perspective in the design. The scope of this project will therefore be to take part in SimGas redesign of the BMC contributing to the design from a usability and sustainability perspective.

1.3 Research Questions

A research question was formulated for this project:

 What are the challenges with developing a product for the East-African market with usability and sustainability in focus from Europe?

This question will be answered through the case study conducted at SimGas B.V. One part of this case study will be to adapt and work within SimGas’ working method which is closely related to the Scrum method. The project work will therefore take place in close collaboration with SimGas. This case study will result in design proposals within two overarching areas:

i. How can the BMC be improved in the ease of use and learnability perspective? ii. How can the BMC be made more environmentally friendly?

Area i would attend the usability part of the research question and area ii will help reach a conclusion for the sustainability part.

1.3.1 Deliverables

The case study shall result in an improved look-like-real visual prototype of the redesigned biogas milk chiller with good usability properties and well thought through design in a sustainability perspective. The work shall contribute to the finalization of prototypes ready for a final field test in June 2017 and to the final design of the BMC. The challenges and reflections over the product development process will be delivered in this project.

1.4 Limitations & Delimitations

 Time period of 21 weeks for the internship.

 Work within the research and development team, doing interns’ work as well as work for the case study.

 The end product has to keep a low cost price, an amount set by SimGas from studies and calculations made in collaboration with their partner SNV.

 No access to end-users during the developing process.

 Prototyping was limited to the workshop facilities and tools provided by SimGas. Also, some delimitations were set for the project:

 Only East-African population will be considered since SimGas already is established in East-Africa.

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 Cost-price of the final product is leading however no detailed cost calculations will be made for the concepts presented in this project. This in order to maintain focus on the research questions.

 A distinction was made between customer and end-user, the user of the product will not be the same as the one who is paying for the product. In this project the end user will be in focus due to the set scope.

 It is assumed that the product will be placed in the kitchen of the user or a similar environment. An assumption made from insights from earlier field tests.

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2. METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the different methods used during the process of this work. The following methods are used to integrate with the company and to increase the usability and sustainability of their current product, the BMC. Assumptions, estimations and observations were gathered through research and interviews with different sources and experts to obtain a more general comprehension of the topic. Data was also gathered through the product’s backlog and results from earlier field trips.

2.1 Scrum

SimGas is a small company that is currently in a transition period from a start-up to a more organized company. They have adopted their working method to comply with the Scrum methodology, this due to the relatively small size of teams, the need of fast and adaptive design process putting the end-user in focus and having a tight deadline.

Scrum is an agile method that dissolves the boundaries between each step in more traditional

methods. The basic concept that makes Scrum different is that rather than having fixed goals and content, it focuses on an overall vision. Since the environment is constantly changing, there is no plan for the whole process which allows the final product to come about more naturally with the end-user always kept in mind. This method is well suited for projects that require a lot of reworking, projects with a tight deadline and for smaller teams (Jongerius, 2012).

This is how it works; a product owner creates the product specification, a prioritized list. During sprint planning, the team selects the most prioritized requirements from the list and decides how to complete it. The team has a set time for the sprint. To complete their work, they meet in a daily scrum, a short stand-up meeting, to keep the work moving forward. Along the way, the Scrum Master keeps the team focused. At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable. The team conducts a sprint review of the product and a retrospective on the process. Once the sprint is completed, the product specification reviewed and the cycle repeats (Scrum Alliance, 2016).

SimGas’ sprints are performed in three to four weeks. A sprint schedule is on a wall with all the employee’s names on it. Each employee has their own goals within their area throughout the sprint to reach the sprint goal. In the schedule, post-its are placed to present when they plan to be finished with each goal. If problems occur or if they need help from someone else in the team, it will be brought up in the daily stand-up. At the end of the sprint, a meeting will be held and new overarching sprint goal will be decided. During the whole process, it is of great importance that ideas are prototyped as early as possible, tested and validated to create a foundation for quick decision making.

After exploring different options of methods, it was decided that this project would be performed in line with SimGas’ to integrate well in the company and with the team. The Scrum methodology has been used as guidance when planning out this project since SimGas’ working method was relatively new for them and not yet fully defined. For information about the other methodologies explored, see Appendix - Design Thinking.

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2.2 Research

The literature research performed was mainly around the Scrum methodology, rotational molding as a manufacturing method, ergonomics, internal documents and earlier studies. The literature research was greatly complemented with internet research. The research included knowledge about the following; related product parts, biodegradable materials, related materials, manufacturing methods, ergonomics, biogas, waste and production in East-African countries.

2.3 Interviews & Communication Internally

The CEO of SimGas was interviewed in order to gain knowledge and understanding of their goals and how they wanted to reach it. Relevant employees of SimGas were consulted directly when obstacles appeared. Valuable insights were gained through this that many assumptions made were based upon.

2.4 Interviews & Communication Externally

The external interviews were mainly performed during the sustainability sprint regarding reference products and biodegradable materials. TU Delft was visited and the thesis authors came in contact with a student working with mycelium-based materials that lead to a phone interview with the founder of Mycoplast in Italy. Also, companies creating refrigerating products were contacted via e-mail.

2.5 User Test & Rapid Tests in Workshop

In order to decide between different ideas, a user test and rapid tests was performed in the workshop. The user test included five employees of SimGas who were not part of the BMC team to minimize bias. Borg’s RPE scale and Paas’ scale, see Appendix – Borg’s RPE Scale

and Paas’ Cognitive Load Scale, were used in order to gather comparable results. Rapid tests

was possible because access to several of essential parts to the BMC such as biogas and absorption units. A brainsketching session was conducted together with two BMC team members.

2.6 Validity & Field Study in Kenya

The field study was performed in three different locations around the city of Karatina in Kenya. Three prototypes were installed at three potential BMC customers’ farm. A similar workshop that was previously made with the SimGas employees was performed to validate the results. By being the in the field, observations and communication with the end-users could be made to validate the previously made assumptions.

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3. THE OVERALL PROCESS

When the authors of this report came to SimGas as interns they jumped straight into the design process of the BMC. SimGas has since 2013 been developing a biogas-driven milk chiller in connection to that the consortium with BoP Innovation Center, Mueller and SNV was established. Multiple concepts have been created throughout the development of the BMC and in 2015 the first prototypes of the BMC were tested in Tanzania. Since the beginning of 2017 a pilot serie of 14 BMC’s, created from a concept named Goldie, see Figure 3, have been tested in Tanga, Tanzania and in Eldoret, Kenya.

Figure 3. The concept Goldie (Powering Agriculture, 2016)

When the thesis authors joined the BMC project, a first redesign of Goldie was nearing its end and a field trip to Kenya was about to start to get an update on the prototypes. Three consultants from IDEO was going to join in the field trip for support due to the BMC project winning the IDEO Amplify Challenge. See Figure 4 for an overview of the process. The testing of Goldie is marked as FIELD TEST, the field trip as FIELD TRIP & EVALUATION and the thesis project as INTERNSHIP.

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As mentioned earlier in the report SimGas works in sprints. An attempt to plan the thesis project according to the sprint system of SimGas was made. However, it was realized that SimGas did not plan the content of the sprints as far in the future as was needed for the planning of the thesis project. Therefore, a separate sprint planning was conducted.

SPRINT 0 - STRATEGIC INTAKE AND RESEARCH SPRINT 1 - USABILITY

SPRINT 2 - SUSTAINABILITY

SPRINT 3 - AESTHETICS & DESIGN SOLUTIONS SPRINT 4 - MERGE CONCEPTS & EVALUATION SPRINT 5 - FIELD TEST & VALIDATION

The coming part of the report will be presented according to the working method of Scrum. Each sprint contains a condensed explanation of the process, the overall conclusions, the main challenges and a reflection over the whole sprint.

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4. SPRINT 0 - STRATEGIC INTAKE AND RESEARCH

In the beginning of this sprint, research was made on what SimGas as company stands for and how they work towards this. This later worked as guidelines when designing and evaluating concepts. For the more extensive version, see Appendix - Sprint 0: Strategic Intake and

Research.

4.1 Process

In order to fully understand the intentions of the company, an interview was conducted with Sanne Castro, the CEO and co-founder of SimGas, see Appendix - Interview with Sanne Castro,

CEO. Documentation from previous work made in the BMC project with prior findings and

concepts was viewed. The main findings from these will be presented in this chapter as well as the main findings from the IDEO field trip performed during Sprint 0. In the end of this chapter it will be explained how the requirements for this project were made.

4.2 Conclusions

The main conclusions and knowledge gained during this sprint will now be presented. 4.2.1 SimGas as Company

SimGas is headquartered in The Netherlands and has joint ventures and production facilities in East-Africa. R&D and business development is located at SimGas B.V. in The Hague, The Netherlands while the joint ventures that currently exists are SimGas Tanzania Ltd. in Moshi, Tanzania, SimGas Kenya Ltd. in Nairobi, Kenya and SimGas Rwanda Ltd. in Kigali, Rwanda. SimGas is, as mentioned before, a triple bottom line company (The Economist, 2009) in its starting phase. Being a triple bottom line company is a challenging in many ways, one off the larger challenges being to establish a company in an undiscovered market with a low-income target group. To be able to confront these challenges, SimGas has founded multiple partnerships and collaborations from which they have received support in form of both research and donations. Depending on the project, different partners are involved and therefore only those involved with the BMC project will be mentioned here. More information about their partners can be found in Appendix - Partners.

SimGas was founded by the two brothers, Sanne and Mirik Castro, in 2009. SimGas is a company that likes to see themselves as a family company. They want the ambience within the company to be caring and that all members will be there for each other when needed. The company was created with the idea to design and bring to the market a scalable biogas digester that would provide clean energy and fertilizer for millions of people.

Brand & Identity

SimGas is a company that works to make the world a better place with the mission to empower people by offering them graceful, reliable and sustainable tools that help to improve their lives and income positions. SimGas wants to help build up a functioning market with products improving the life of people in the base of the social pyramid.

10 Core Values

SimGas has five core values; Doing good, Trailblazing, Winning, Trust and Fun. SimGas has the ambition to do good, they want to take environmental responsibilities but at the same time maximize income revenue for their customers. Trailblazing has been chosen as a core value due to SimGas’ desire to be first and to prove that it is possible with a sustainable business model. With this they want to encourage other companies to follow in the same trail. The core value Winning stands not for beating other companies but for being successful in their mission, contributing to what is better for the planet and their customers.

It is of great importance for SimGas to gain trust from both customers and partners which is why Trust became one of their core values. To gain trust, SimGas believes that it is important to be transparent towards their partners and customers as well as internally among the employees. Fun was set as an internal value since everyone spends a lot of time working, it is important that it is also fun.

Product Statement

A product statement was used to help define the main purpose of the product which would help in making decisions and prioritizing requirements. This product statement also describes the shared ambition within the company.

It works today, it will work tomorrow, and my new life is easier because I own it.

It is important that the product is trustworthy and reliable, therefore investing in more sustainable solutions would be prioritized. With sustainable meaning both the environmental aspects and the social aspects. The farmers’ income will be increased with the decrease in milk spoilage. Life will be easier and more comfortable because the traditional chilling methods will no longer be used. Cognitive simplicity will also be prioritized to make the BMC easy to understand to further ensure an easier life. Another saying that SimGas has, that also was mentioned earlier, is included in the latter part of the product statement is,

It should be easier to use than not to use.

Technical Aspects

To gain an overall understanding of the function of the product the main functioning parts of the BMC will be explained in short. The working principle of the BMC is explained through an illustration, see Figure 5.

Figure 5. Illustration of the working principle of the BMC. Icon credits: SimGas, IDEO.

The BMC will use the ammonia refrigerating absorption unit (US Patent No. 1910853 A, 1933) that converts the heat from a gas flame into cold. It is a reliable technique. One of its largest benefits is that it does not have any moving parts. The cold generated from the absorption unit is then stored in an ice buffer. To cool the milk the churn will be placed in a chilling

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compartment that is connected to the buffer. The stored ice will then gradually melt while cooling the milk. To allow a good thermal conductivity between the buffer and the churn the chilling compartment will be filled with contact water. In Figure 6, a list of the components can be viewed.

Figure 6. The components that the BMC contains of.

The BMC will be running on the biogas created by the farmers own biogas digester. In order to ignite the biogas, an override button will have to be pressed down to bypass the flame safety device and allow the gas to flow through the burner.

4.2.2 IDEO Field Trip - Insights

As mentioned earlier a two-week field trip was made in February 2017 in order to investigate the results from having the 14 pilot BMC’s at potential. This field trip was performed by two coworkers from SimGas and the IDEO team. Some of the main insights from the field trip related to this project are presented here. To see more extensive version, see Appendix - IDEO

Field Trip Insights.

Replace Traditional Cooling

From the field test, it was understood that a common way of cooling milk in East-Africa is to place the churns in water, see Figure 7, or by simply placing them in the shade. These methods do not provide good cooling and it is uncertain if the afternoon milk will be accepted or not. The BMC could provide a more reliable solution to these traditional methods by having a more efficient cooling method.

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Figure 7. Traditional milk cooling in East-Africa (SimGas, 2017).

Be in Control of Biogas Consumption

It could be concluded from the field trip that biogas was a limited resource that the farmers wanted to be in full control of which includes the biogas consumption of the BMC.

Cool Everything

From the field test, it was apparent that most farmers would like to have an extra compartment for cooling other products; vegetables, water, fruits, soda, meat or remaining food.

The Kitchen is the Place to Be

It was found in that the dairy activities are often run by the wife and that the BMC was standing in the kitchen in the majority of the pilot users’ home since the biogas pipes was installed there providing gas for the stoves.

Who is the Customer?

From the field trip, this showed to be a difficult question to answer. SimGas has tried to sort out what possible customer alternatives they have but it is still an ongoing project.

4.2.3 Target User Group

It should be made clear that the following text is the thesis authors’ interpretation of the situation. The target user group SimGas is aiming for the BMC to reach are the off-grid dairy farmers in East-Africa that have insufficient means for cooling milk. These people will have to have access to biogas and will therefore most likely own a biogas digester. This eliminates the poorer farmers that cannot afford to buy a digester. Therefore, the target group will be the farmers wealthier than the standard, owning biogas digesters. These farmers usually have a day job in the city and often have the capital to hire a worker to take care of the farm activities. The farmer is usually away for the whole day, some are only at the farm during the weekends, leaving the farming activities to the worker and/or the wife. These farmers will likely be businessmen who know the importance of diversifying their products. They likely have crops, poultry, and side hustles in addition to cows (SimGas, 2017).

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The farmer is the head of the house and he will be the one who decides whether or not to buy the BMC. When the BMC is purchased and installed, the wife will manage it and use it most of the time since it is placed in the kitchen. The biogas consumption will most likely be the wife’s responsibility since she is usually the one who cooks. However, the worker would also use the BMC at times. What needs to be accomplished when designing the BMC is that it should be easy to understand and easy to operate, also for the worker. However, the wife’s interests will be the most prioritized. The main user of the BMC would be the wife and the worker would be the secondary user. To gain a better understanding of the targeted users, personas were created, see Figure 8. To see a larger picture of the personas, see Appendix -

Personas.

Figure 8. The created personas of the targeted users. Icon credit: Freepik.

4.2.4 Requirement Specification

SimGas had already created a detailed requirement specification when the authors of this thesis joined the project. However, it was lacking some requirements within the fields of this project. Therefore, a separate requirement specification was created. When entering the sprint for sustainability, the requirements specification was updated with relevant requirements. For this specification, the MoSCoW method (Agile Business 2008) was used to prioritize the requirements. The different requirement specifications can be found in Appendix - Requirement

Specification.

4.2.5 Assumptions

At the end of this sprint the thesis authors formulated what direction it was believed that SimGas was heading, together with a set of assumptions made to be able to proceed in the project. The direction and assumptions explained and motivated can be found in Appendix -

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The product design of the BMC can be performed by only taking the wife and workers interests into consideration and to some extent also the farmer.

This was based on the information that was gathered by speaking with coworkers at SimGas. It was decided that the wife in the household would be the main user and have the most to say about the product since the product most probably would be placed in the kitchen. It was also assumed the worker would be the second user and the farmer the third.

The reason for taking an assumption regarding the user target group was that SimGas was still in the process of deciding what type of business model to use for the BMC which made it uncertain who the customer would be. This made it difficult to proceed with the project since focus lay in usability where it is highly relevant to know who the user is. Near the end of this sprint it was realized that customer and user does not have to be the same. Once this was realized it was chosen to in this project to disregard the business model and thereby customer, to only focus on the user.

4.3 Challenges

The main challenge within this sprint was to gain an understanding of the actual situation in East-Africa from a different continent which implicated that all information was gathered from and second- or third-hand source.

4.4 Reflections

The documentation that was provided by SimGas had been made to present for the rest of the team who already had a lot of knowledge about the product which made it sometimes difficult for someone without any background knowledge to follow.

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5. SPRINT 1 - USABILITY

Usability was the main focus during this sprint. It resulted in a set of suggestions for improvements that could be implemented in the BMC. In order to get to these and conduct a conclusion for this, sprint mind mapping, problem categorizing, brainstorming, rapid tests and a user test were performed and a mock-up created. Moreover, a morphological matrix was conducted to collect and combine the ideas into concepts, using Pugh’s matrix as a tool for evaluation. For the more extensive version, see Appendix - Sprint 1: Usability.

5.1 Process

To find the potential problem regarding physical and cognitive ergonomics, a mind map was made for each of the actions; Daily use, Cleaning, Installing and Ignition. The problems from all mind maps were thereafter categorized into; Ignition, Drainage, User experience, Milk

churn, Lid, Interface and Regulation. For each category, the prioritized problems were

highlighted and brainstorming on each problem was then performed to generate ideas. A description of the ideas can be found in Appendix - Idea Descriptions. Rapid tests were then performed in the workshop to test some of the ideas, see Figure 9.

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A mock-up was created using a spare absorption unit, wood and paper. With the mock-up, several of tests could be made in order to obtain the look and feel of certain ideas such as different sizes of compartments and placement of different parts, see Figure 10.

Figure 10. Collage of tests that were performed on the mock-up.

A lot of focus was laid upon the Ignition category. The reason for this was because the BMC would undergo a radical change if the main idea came through. However, the idea demanded further testing and therefore, a user test was conducted with five participants consisting of SimGas coworkers. To minimize bias, none of the participants were from the BMC development team. The participants performed the test in the SimGas workshop and rated their perceived exertion and perceived cognitive load to obtain data about physical and cognitive ergonomics, see Figure 11. The test was performed on different set-ups so that rated data could be compared for different solutions.

Figure 11. Collage of pictures from the user test.

The results were thereafter assembled in a diagram and the best rated solution could be obtained. The user test also provided with several important insights through observations and from the comments made from the participants. A detailed test report describing the process of each participant with the results and important insights can be found in Appendix - User Test:

Ignition Directly at Burner.

In order to gain a structure of all the ideas generated during the brainstorms and the additional ideas that came up under rapid tests, testing the mock-up and the user test, a morphological matrix was conducted, see Figure 12.

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Figure 12. The morphological matrix, see Appendix - Morphological Matrix for a larger picture.

Several of Pugh’s matrices were used to facilitate evaluation of the ideas relative to the set requirements. A discussion regarding each of them was also conducted and can be found in

Appendix - Mini Pugh’s Matrices. The ideas rated highest in each horizontal row of the

morphological matrix and were then combined into three concepts.

The three concepts were combining the ideas that were believed to work the best together. They were then evaluated in a more complete Pugh’s matrix including all the usability requirements for the BMC, see Appendix - Large Pugh’s Matrix. However, during the process of evaluating the concepts it was realized that the formulation of the requirements had a great impact on the end results and that the results could change drastically with a slight change in weight of a requirement. Therefore, instead of resulting in one concept in this sprint it was decided to present a set of improvements that could be made for improved usability. Computer-Aided

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Design (CAD) models were made, in Rhinoceros 5.0 (2017), to see how different ideas could look like and be combined, see Figure 13.

Figure 13. Collage of the rendered CAD-models.

5.2 Conclusions

In this sprint, many usability problems have been discovered, many more solutions have been found and multiple solutions have been rejected. However, some ideas have proven to have potential and will be kept for further elaboration in the coming sprints and will be presented below.

5.2.1 Move the absorption unit

If the absorption unit is moved to the side it would enable easier manual ignition for the user. This was proven in the user test. However, there are drawbacks such as asymmetric design. A greater concern was that the current absorption unit’s hottest part would be closest to the front resulting in placing the milk compartment further back to avoid impairment with the cooling performance. However, this would also increase the effort of placing a milk churn in the BMC and decrease the safety.

5.2.2 Drainage to front

The BMC is often placed in an incommodious place; therefore an improvement could be to lead the contact water drainage to the front.

5.2.3 Feel the heat

The heat above the exhaust pipe was used as an indicator of whether the BMC was on or off, therefore it was considered a good idea to guide the user to this place and integrating it to the design.

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Integrating a mirror made it easier to see the flame, this knowledge was gained through feedback from the user test. However, if used to ignite the burner it can be made more difficult because of the mirrored view.

5.2.5 Keep footprint small

Keep the size of the BMC small since it would be placed in incommodious places. 5.2.6 The lower the better

Keeping the height that the milk churn needs to be lifted as low as possible in regard to physical ergonomics. However, it should be noted that the absorption unit will be the limiting factor for how low the BMC can be made.

5.2.7 Open lid from front

It was considered to open the lid from the side but it was found to be more intuitive to open the lid from the front and will be the preferred way of opening the lid in future designs.

5.2.8 Protection is a good thing

From a rapid test, it was proven that parts of the absorption unit could burn the user when in contact. A protection would therefore be appropriate and could also act as preventing damage during transport.

5.2.9 Placement of override button

If the absorption unit is placed to the side, it would be preferred to place the override button close, to facilitate both right- and left-handed persons. However, if the absorption unit is placed to the back, the override button should be placed so that balance can be maintained by the user during ignition.

5.3 Challenges

It was difficult developing a product from a user-centered approach without being in direct contact with the users. Therefore, many assumptions had to be made in order to be able to move forward in the process that were based upon the coworkers from SimGas B.V. who had experience from living or being in East-Africa. However, even though we had constant contact with the coworkers, there were still many questions that remained unanswered simply because they are difficult to answer. What is the culture like? What are their customs? What icons do they associate with certain objects? What is perceived as good quality? What positions are perceived as being exhausting? What is easy to understand?

These questions were relevant in order to generate appropriate solutions. Instead, assumptions and imagination were used to answer these questions with the information already shared from the coworkers and the overall feeling of East-Africa that we already had and gained from viewing pictures from earlier field tests.

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5.4 Reflections

In the beginning of this sprint, time was spent on defining the user target group. It was not evident that the buyer and user did not have to be the same person. It was later realized that a decision about who the targeted user would be had to be made by us in order to be able to move forward. This since SimGas was still in the process of testing different business models. If this had been realized earlier, time and work could have been spared. For example, it could have been avoided to create multiple different scenarios and ideas made depending on the different possibilities of target groups. Furthermore, it was difficult to design for usability when the use of some features was yet to be set. An example of this was that the BMC team was still in the process of testing how the biogas was to be regulated during this sprint. A lot of time was spent on undecided subjects when a clear framework had been anticipated. However, it should be mentioned that we were unaccustomed to working in a real ongoing project where the design process was performed alongside developing a business plan and optimizing technical solutions.

Moreover, this sprint was from the start called Ergonomics. After creating the mind maps around the actions, it was realized that the majority of the ergonomic aspects were cognitive. Later on, we realized that the problems and solutions during this sprint was more related to usability and in addition, it was a more relatable term. Therefore, we decided to change the title. Physical ergonomics was not prioritized since the duration was short and the number of execution was low (Steven Moore & Garg, 1995). Nonetheless, one of the improvements tested for physical ergonomics was the user test for manual ignition. However, some resistance to the results was met, because it was considered that East-African farmers were used to more hard work than that. There were split opinions about this. Again, not being in direct contact with the users made it challenging to prove what was a problem and what was not.

Another note is that the Pugh’s matrices created were proven to be tedious and gave results that were difficult to present to the SimGas team. This because it is difficult for someone, who has not participated in the discussion while creating the matrices, to get a good overview and understanding. However, it should be expressed the great value it had for the design process. It greatly helped in gaining more structure among thoughts about the ideas by forcing to clarify, motivate and formulate them providing an overview that made it possible to move forward in the design process.

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6. SPRINT 2 - SUSTAINABILITY

This sprint focused on how the BMC could be made more sustainable. It was concluded that it could be done in three ways; choice of materials, minimize of transportation and considering the product’s end-of-life. The deliverables for this sprint were to provide SimGas with a ground work within sustainability that can function as guidance in future design decisions. For the more extensive version, see Appendix - Sprint 2: Sustainability.

6.1 Process

First, a brainstorming session about how the BMC could be made more sustainable was held. From this, directions for this sprint were defined and can be found in Appendix – Directions

for Sprint 2. These directions functioned as guidelines throughout the whole sprint together

with the 10 Golden Rules (GR) in EcoDesign, see Appendix - 10 Golden Rules in EcoDesign. Together they can be summarized into three main points that were investigated, Choice of

Material, Minimize Transportation and End-of-Life.

It was then chosen to look into what different materials and manufacturing methods could be used for the BMC. First previous concepts from SimGas were studied. After that, a MediaMarkt store was visited to study refrigerators and other products that could be similar to the BMC. The findings can be found in Appendix - Findings from MediaMarkt. To gain more knowledge of what materials that are commonly used in similar products, an internet research was made and multiple companies contacted by mail. However, only a handful replied, see Appendix –

Emails Regarding Materials.

From the results of the research, it was presumed that rotational molding would most likely be used to create the shell of the BMC. Since SimGas already had a detailed dialogue with potential rotational molding manufacturers, it was chosen to, in this case study, focus on the insulation since this had yet to be looked further into.

The first thing that was investigated regarding insulation was if any competitive alternatives to PUR could be found in the program CES EduPack (2016). This proved quickly to be a dead-end and instead an internet research was performed in order to approach the subject from a different angle. During this search, multiple new materials that were said to be environmentally friendly were found, see Appendix - Insulation. Many of them seem to have potential but all of them needed more research and development before reaching an industrial level. It can be mentioned that it was difficult to get a hold of the developers of these materials resulting in many dead-ends once again. It was only after the sprint had ended that developers of the biodegradable mycelium-based materials were encountered by accident while passing by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). From this encounter, contact was established with Maurizio Montalti at Mycoplast. A phone interview was held with him in order to gain a better understanding of the material. A summary of the interview can be found in Appendix -

Interview with Maurizio Montalti. After having concluded from this search that no materials

more sustainable than PUR that was produced in an industrial scale had been found, it was decided to further investigate how bad PUR actually was. Following this approach, it was then investigated if the application of the PUR could be changed in order to improve sustainability. Ideas of improvement was, among others, to find alternatives to spraying it and making it possible to separate from the shell of the BMC.

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Once the choice of material for the BMC had been investigated it was researched how the transportation throughout the life of the product could be kept low. This was done by looking into the possibilities of manufacturing locally in East-Africa and thereby minimizing transportation. It was also investigated what type of end-of-life the BMC potentially could have in East-Africa. The sustainable alternatives of the product’s end-of-life that was to design for modularity to encourage reuse, choose recyclable materials, make the product biodegradable or ensure that the product ends up in a waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration plant. The possibilities of recycling and incineration with energy extraction in East-Africa were looked into as well as looking into the possibilities of landfills.

6.2 Conclusions

To conclude this sprint, the material and manufacturing method of the shell will be rotational molded plastic due to the freedom of shape it provides, it’s suitability for small series and that manufacturing can be performed in East-Africa. The material used in the rotational molding was left to SimGas to investigate and instead sustainable alternatives to the insulation PUR were searched for. However, this proved to be difficult and many dead-ends were come across and the problem had to be approached from many different angles. A reason for these difficulties is that the area of sustainable insulation materials that are compatible with conventional materials is relatively new, making it difficult to gather hard facts. Therefore, this should be looked into again in the future when more research about these materials has been done.

A proposal to SimGas is that they could take full responsibility over their product from cradle to grave, or cradle, which would be the best way to ensure appropriate handling of the remains. However, this can prove to be challenging in East-Africa since a good infrastructure, that would significantly simplify a proper disposal of waste or other end-of-life systems, seems difficult to obtain in East-Africa. A suggestion of disposal is to incinerate the product with a filter to contain hazardous substances. During the rapid screening, no WTE incineration plants were found in Kenya. However, it was found that in Ethiopia a WTE incineration plant is under construction and is planned to be finished this year (Mutei, 2015; Ethiopian News Agency, 2016; Messenger, 2017).

6.3 Challenges

When looking to how to make a product more sustainable it is highly relevant to consider where it will be manufactured, used and disposed. This since there might exist sustainable ways of manufacturing and disposing a certain material but it might be the case that the needed facilities are placed far from the location of use. This would then require long transportations which questions the suitability of choosing that option. It might be more sustainable in an all-embracing perspective to choose a local less sustainable option in order to avoid transportation. A challenge with producing and disposing locally in East-Africa is to find appropriate facilities and even more challenging to find one that delivers sufficient quality. One example of this is how SimGas has been looking for local rotational molding manufactures in East-Africa but it has been discussed to place the manufacturing of the BMC in Asia instead with the anticipation of better quality.

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Another challenge with investigating possible manufacturing and disposal facilities in East-Africa was that it was unclear if the facilities did not exist when not found on the web, or if their websites were simply not in English. Another possibility is that they exist, however they are not on the web at all.

Logistics in East-Africa is also a challenge. A saying commonly heard within SimGas was

Always be prepared that things do not go as expected in East-Africa, which explains the

difficulties with organizing logistics. This is problematic if a company wants to take responsibility for their products, to either collect material for recycling or to create a modularity or reuse system that require good logistics. Also, these are systems that require large resources which is difficult for a small company to provide.

6.4 Reflections

The overall feeling throughout this sprint was that whichever path taken resulted in a dead-end. CES EduPack was far less useful than anticipated, since there did not exist any competitive materials within the library of the program. It was difficult to get a hold of knowledgeable people since they seldom have time for students. New promising materials were discovered but it was also realized that it would take many years for it to reach the market. The wish of speaking about possible materials with the potential rotational molding manufactures of SimGas was not granted. New approaches from other angles were constantly searched for, but it cannot be denied that all these dead-ends were discouraging.

However, encouraging events were also encountered when, for example, it was by chance discovered that research on mycelium-based materials was being made at TU Delft. However, this happened when this sprint already had been ended but it was chosen to investigate this further alongside with the next sprint.

Another limitation that made this sprint difficult was cost price. This because the current insulating material had the lowest cost price and an appropriate thermal conductivity constant according to CES Edupack. Also since the East-African environment is humid, it was argued that biodegradable material might reduce the product’s life enormously.

Sustainable materials for rotational molding could have been researched more. However, ways of doing so were discovered after the sprint had been ended and were therefore not performed. Things that could have been done; go to a rotational molding exhibition, contact professors at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, perform a more thorough literature research at KTHB (https://www.kth.se/kthb).

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7. SPRINT 3 - AESTHETICS & DESIGN SOLUTIONS

From Sprint 1 one of the more interesting ideas that had emerged was to place the absorption unit on the side instead of the back. However, it was believed to be difficult to create and appealing design for this solution. Therefore, this sprint was created in order to explore different aesthetics ideas for this solution. It was also concluded from Sprint 2 that rotational molding would be used for the shell and therefore, the different design possibilities with this manufacturing technique was also explored in this sprint. For the more extensive version, see

Appendix - Sprint 3: Aesthetics & Design Solutions.

7.1 Process

The BMC’s expression was first defined in a set of words that were used as guidelines throughout this sprint. Thereafter, the design opportunities and limitations for rotational molding was researched to acquire inspiration for the upcoming ideation and conceptualization phase. For those phases, the Triple Diamond Process, inspired from the Double Diamond

Process (Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Education, 2013), was used. Three iterations of

diverging and converging ended in two concepts for further elaboration.

In order to have guidelines to follow regarding the aesthetics of the BMC, a set of words of expressions were defined. Information gained from an earlier aesthetics meeting with the BMC team regarding what SimGas wanted to express combined with the perceived wish of the target group resulted in five words; Robust, Friendly, Aggressive, Serious and Smart, see reference pictures in Figure 14. Robust and Serious meaning a reliable and durable product. Friendly and

Smart meant approachable with smart solutions. Aggressive to keep the user away from

dangerous and hot places on the product.

Figure 14. Collage of the reference pictures some of the words for the products expression (NDTV, 2015; Oliveri & Northrop, 2015; Caldas, 2013)

The design opportunities and limitations of rotational molding was studied, for detailed insights, see Appendix - Rotational Molding Research, and pictures for inspiration were found through internet search, Figure 15.

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Figure 15. Inspiration for an opportunity for surfaces with rotational molding (Hackethal, 2013).

Valuable insights were that surface structures could be used to avoid warpages, the possibility of mixing materials in the mold, several of functions can be integrated in one mold, what different mold could be produced and how they affected the freedom of shape and price. Thereafter the Triple Diamond Process was started, Figure 16.

Figure 16. An illustration of the conducted Triple Diamond Process.

In Iteration 1 a brainsketching session was conducted together with two coworkers from the BMC team. In total, there were seven topics that were brainsketched; Shape of the main body,

Rotational molded surfaces, Grips, Legs, Hinges Solutions, Buffer Solutions and Drainage. A

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Figure 17. Collage over the sketches that went through the first screening.

Variations of the ideas were then conducted through more sketches that were made in a more comparable way during the Iteration 2. Clay models were also made in order to test different surfaces and ideas where the use of clay was more appropriate, see Figure 18.

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Concepts were then generated by combining ideas from different categories. Seven concepts were generated, see Figure 19. To see all sketches and concepts created for Iteration 1, Iteration

2 and Iteration 3, see Appendix – Triple Diamond Process: Sketches.

Figure 19. The seven concepts generated during Iteration 2.

The next step was to compare them in relation to the words of expression. However, since none of the seven concepts were convincing enough, they were separated once again for Iteration 3. Scales were created containing the desired words of expression and their antonyms. The words were prioritized and an additional scale was created as final decision-making scale,

Cheap/Expensive. This scale represented the cost price of different design solutions relative to

each other. Since cost price was leading it was important to include it. The separated parts from the concepts were then placed out in the scales with a post-it for explanation, see Figure 20. To see the scales in larger pictures, see Appendix – Iteration 3: Evaluation Scales.

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A selection was made for each part using the scales in the prioritized order with the goal to end in two concepts. For example, selecting two lids using the scale of Friendly/Aggressive that was prioritized first. After that the lids of the third prioritized scale was studied and so on until two lids could be determined. Figure 21 shows the selected parts that would be included in the

Concept 1 and Concept 2.

Figure 21. The two concepts that this evaluation method ended in.

In Concept 2 there are two main bodies, this because it was difficult to determine the difference between them in all scales. Therefore, it was decided to make a combination of the two.

7.2 Conclusion

As in the previous sprints, cost price was leading. This meant that the tools for rotational molding most likely would be fabricated in steel, as it was a third of the price for the alternative according to T. van de Schoor (personal communication, May 2017), a coworker within the BMC team. Because of this the design would take distance from the most complex surfaces. Another note was to add functions in the mold if possible, such as a hinge solution. This was believed to decrease the cost price.

Another conclusion made was that in order to make the design look friendly yet serious, rounding with large radius would be cut off at the edges which also is a beneficial design choice for rotational molding.

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7.3 Challenges

As in Sprint 1, the main challenge was not having direct contact with the users or their environment. There was no easy way to confirm the set of words used for the products expression. Furthermore, during the evaluation of ideas in relation to the words, the user’s perspective could only be imagined. Color was also a difficulty, since no real perception of the preferred colors was obtained. Some data about this was shared from SimGas from their earlier field tests when using Goldie as an example, nonetheless, it was a challenge. Therefore, many of the design suggestions and colors are based upon our own perception and preferences. Additionally, cost price was leading however, it was of importance that its appearance did not resemble a low budget product. It was challenging to determine what would be perceived as a low budget product since the customs and standards in East-Africa is different from Europe. Furthermore, we considered that an absorption unit protection shell was absolutely necessary for safety reasons. But it was unknown if the East-Africans would share this opinion, especially if it meant an additional cost.

7.4 Reflections

Earlier during the project in a different sprint, a third intern at SimGas had his aesthetics sprint and called in for a meeting with the BMC team that we participated in. An overall comprehension of the direction of SimGas was then obtained. With this, combined with the desires of the main user, the words of expression could be defined. However, the chosen words are questionable since the meeting took place several of weeks before the decision and prior to this we had not met the main user and could only assume what she would like.

The brainsketching session proved to take longer than expected and therefore, time did not allow for discussion of the outcome with the two BMC team members that participated. This resulted in that their ideas were unspoken for and as understandable as their sketches, thereby less motivated to be chosen since we could argue for our own sketched ideas. A less bias selection would have been preferred.

Furthermore, the concept ideation and conceptualization phase could have been planned better. Since the words of expression were acting as guidelines, they should have been in every step of the process. Instead of brainsketching and making variations almost randomly, the words should have been used to sketch, for example, a main body that expressed the word Friendly. If this had been done from the start it is believed that a first set of concepts would be sufficient to evaluate in relation to the words saving time by leaving out the unplanned Iteration 3. As cost price was leading, it would have been preferred to talk to the manufacturers directly to acquire more information about how different design features added to the cost. Since this was not possible information was instead gathered through talking to coworkers and estimated assumptions of costs were made.

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8. SPRINT 4 - MERGE CONCEPTS & EVALUATION

In this sprint, two full concept suggestions were created, combining the better ideas that had come up during the project. By creating these two virtual prototypes, all ideas had to be more thoroughly thought through and the points of conflict for different ideas resolved. These two concepts have then been compared with the concept Buffy that has been developed in parallel to this project by the BMC team. For the more extensive version, see Appendix - Sprint 4:

Merge Concepts & Evaluation.

8.1 Process

In this sprint, the two concepts that had emerged from Sprint 3 was developed in Rhinoceros 5.0 (2017) into two CAD models. In short, Cellie is the concept were as many as possible of the best ideas from Sprint 1 and Sprint 3 have been combined. Cellie Simple is the reduced version of Cellie in order to make it more affordable. Alongside this process the BMC team was developing the Buffy concept. Most of the work was done individually but many problems were discussed together and solutions to mutual problems were shared among the concepts. A rendered picture of the concepts can be seen in Figure 22.

Figure 22. Overview of Cellie and Cellie Simple. Buffy cannot be shown due to confidentiality.

8.2 Conclusions

In this sprint, previous ideas have been transformed into feasible solutions. The following text is a condensed version of a more extensive explanation of the design solutions. The reader should be aware of that this report lacks explanations and pictures of Buffy’s design solutions due to confidentiality.

8.2.1 Shape & form

The design of the body was adapted to the chosen manufacturing method, resulting in bulging surfaces with reinforcing structures and many chamfered or rounded edges to create a strong shell and prevent warpage, see Figure 23. The design being an outcome from the insights made in rotational molding research in Sprint 3.