Computer-Aided Ethnography in Engineering Design

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Dixon ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Rossi Setchi
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Sensor Technology ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Customer Analytics ◽  
Voice Of Customer ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Modern upsurges of innovative technologies and sciences such as the internet of things, machine learning, cheap sensor technology and cloud computing have yielded new opportunities in the area of engineering design. This paper examines the state of the art of the fuzzy front end of engineering design in capturing customer and market information through ethnography and associated techniques. The reviewed range of technologies involve multimedia capture of ethnography, data analytics, as well as traditional researcher led approaches. Intelligent ethnography is presented as an expansion to customer analytics in the offline field, to capitalise on these developments. As a result of this study, market and design teams will better understand how to capture the voice of customer, design data and market data to push for ever more relevant products and technologies. Finally, a new application named inferred engineering has been identified as a fuzzy front end evidence based ideation technique.

scholarly journals WHAT IS SUCCESSFUL PROTOTYPING? INSIGHTS FROM NOVICE DESIGNERS’ SELF-EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPING SUCCESS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 3431-3440
Author(s):  
Camilla Arndt Hansen ◽  
Nuno Miguel Martins Pacheco ◽  
Ali Gürcan Özkil ◽  
Markus Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Design Teams ◽  
Fidelity Level ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Human Centered Design ◽  
Development Stages ◽  
Self Evaluation ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Success Criteria ◽  
Novice Designers

AbstractPrototyping is essential for fuzzy front-end product development. The prototyping process answers questions about critical assumptions and supports design decisions, but it is often unstructured and context-dependent. Previously, we showed how to guide novice designers in early development stages with prototyping milestones. Here, we studied the prototyping success perceived by novice design teams. This was done in two steps: (1) teams were asked to assign each prototype to a milestone, a specific purpose, a fidelity level, and a human-centered design lens, and then evaluate the success using a predefined set of criteria. (2) Teams were interviewed about the success of the prototyping process, this time using self-chosen criteria. Results related to (1) show that teams perceived prototyping activities with respect to desirability and problem validation significantly less successful than prototyping activities towards feasibility and solution validation. Results related to (2) show that teams mostly chose success criteria related to how well prototypes supported communication, decision making, learning, and tangibility. This insight may be used to give priorities to further improvement of methods and guidance in these areas.

Risky Business: The Driving Factors of Creative Risk Taking Attitudes in Engineering Design Industry

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Zheng ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Idea Generation ◽  
Driving Factors ◽  
Years Of Experience ◽  
Great Cost ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End

Designing breakthrough products comes at a great cost to the design industry due to the risk and uncertainties associated with creative ideas. However, without creative ideas, there is no potential for innovation. As such, companies need to appropriately embrace the risk associated with creative concepts in the fuzzy front end of the design process in order to build their value. While previous research has linked risk taking attitudes to creative idea generation and selection in engineering design education, there has been limited research focused on engineering design professionals’ creative risk taking attitude and the corresponding driving factors. This is problematic because without this knowledge we do not know what factors inhibit or promote the flow of creative ideas in engineering design industry. In order to address this gap, a preliminary online survey was conducted with 46 design professionals from a global manufacturing company to understand the potential driving factors of creative risk taking, including educational training, job type (R&D, applied engineering, or management), and years of experience. The results suggest that there is a relationship between employee education level and years of experience and an engineering employee’s willingness to take risks on creative ideas in the fuzzy front end of the design process. Interestingly, the results also show that those individuals primarily responsible for the development (R&D) and selection (management) of creative ideas tend to be more financially risk averse than individuals in traditional engineering positions. These results contribute to the prediction of professionals’ design behaviors and have implications for the management of creative ideas in the early conceptual design stages of engineering design industry.

scholarly journals A FUZZY FRONT-END PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK FOR START-UPS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 111-120
Author(s):  
Nuno Miguel Martins Pacheco ◽  
Anand Vazhapilli Sureshbabu ◽  
Masaru Charles Nürnberger ◽  
Laura Isabel Durán Noy ◽  
Markus Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Front End ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Extended Approach ◽  
Role Based ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Clear Idea ◽  
Start Ups

AbstractStart-ups tend to form with a central idea that differentiates them from their competitors in the market. It is crucial for them to efficiently transform the idea into a marketable product. Prototyping helps to iteratively achieve a minimum viable product and plays a crucial role by enabling teams to test their ideas with limited resources early on. However, the prototyping process may have wrong focus leading to a suboptimal allocation of resources. Previously, we proposed role-based prototyping for fuzzy front-end development in small teams. It supports (1) resource allocation, (2) the definition of responsibilities, and (3) structuring the development process with milestones. In recent research this was a promising yet incomplete approach. We extend the previous work by refining the prototyping process by adding a prototyping matrix with two dimensions (purpose and lens), a prototyping cycle (plan, execute, test, reflect, assimilate), and a modified Kanban board (Protoban) for planning, managing, and reflecting cycles. This process, named PETRA was tested with a start-up developing an autonomous trash picking robot. The extended approach supported the team significantly in providing a clear idea of what to do at what time.

scholarly journals Inovação aberta no processo de pesquisa e desenvolvimento: uma análise da cooperação entre empresas automotivas e universidades

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula Vilas Boas Viveiros Lopes ◽  
André Ferrarese ◽  
Marly Monteiro de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Fuzzy Front End ◽  
Front End ◽  
Flex Fuel

Resumo: A crescente demanda por inovação e a necessidade de reduzir o tempo e o custo do desenvolvimento de novos produtos têm mudado o cenário automotivo nacional, o qual foi por muito tempo caracterizado por um modelo fechado de inovação. A tecnologia flex fuel tem sido um desafio para as empresas desse setor e é o fator motivador deste estudo, cujo principal objetivo foi compreender o processo de inovação aberta no contexto de Fuzzy Front End, identificando as principais motivações e os principais gargalos para implementação. Para atingir esse objetivo foi realizado um estudo de caso longitudinal em um consórcio composto por 9 empresas e 2 universidades. A metodologia envolveu pesquisa qualitativa e quantitativa. A principal contribuição teórica desta pesquisa é justamente o pioneirismo no que diz respeito às empresas montadoras automotivas trabalhando de forma colaborativa. Esta pesquisa também tem implicações gerenciais importantes. Ela indica as peculiaridades que devem ser consideradas quando em um ambiente de coopetição, bem como sugere aos gestores de que forma trabalhar as fases iniciais da inovação. A pesquisa retrata bem o papel das universidades nesse contexto.

A study of electronics engineering design teams

2000 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 375-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Jagodzinski ◽  
F.J.M Reid ◽  
P Culverhouse ◽  
R Parsons ◽  
I Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Teams
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