The progress of science and technology has considerably increased the quality of life - especially the material standard of living - (e.g. disappearance of famines, increase in life expectancy) On the other hand, climate change, reduction of biodiversity, decrease of natural resources, and increase of environmental risks are some of the consequences of this human activities. Addressing these new challenges will require holistic comprehension and actionable approaches. The mitigation of these consequences requires effective responses in terms of transition. In this context, engineering and design students need time but also adapted curricula focused on sustainability and eco design concepts to support evolution of their skills, their knowledge and their culture. This article discusses the integration of a strong sustainability knowledge within the ideation process through a pedagogical experience, in order to develop new knowledge-based approaches, methodologies and tools

Product design is one of the key features of intellectual and creative abilities of humans. Activities of product design have attracted not only experts, but also those without any design training. Many people - working in metalworking microenterprises in the informal sector of developing countries - engage in the activities of designing and manufacturing products. However, since extant design research is mainly undertaken in developed countries, there is scarce knowledge about design activities in informal metalworking microenterprises in developing countries. This paper aims to address this issue by uncovering some aspects of design processes in such microenterprises. In particular, we explored: various product attributes that these microenterprises consider in designing products, the process steps they follow in requirements identification and solution generation, and resources (e.g., design methods, training, etc.) available to them. To explore these aspects, we conducted semi-structured interviews in 24 informal metalworking microenterprises in Tanzania. The findings have important implications for supporting their design activities.

The design of Product-Service Systems (PSS) is challenging due to the inherent complexities and the associated uncertainties. This challenge aggravates when the PSS being considered has a longer lifespan, is expected to encounter a dynamic context, and integrates many novel technologies. From systems engineering literature, one of the measures for mitigating the risks associated with the uncertainties is incorporating means in the system to change internally as a response to change externally. Such systems are referred to as value-robust systems, and their development largely relies on Tradespace exploration and synthesis. Tradespace exploration and synthesis can be challenging and a time-consuming task due to dimensionality. In this light, this paper aims to present an approach that enables the population of the Tradespace and then, supports the synthesis of such a Tradespace using a clustering algorithm for support changeability quantification in PSS. The proposed method is also implemented on a demonstrative case from the construction machinery industry.

The large availability of powerful mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, enables the location-independent use of augmented reality (AR) technology for various application areas with considerable added value. For example, AR experiences can be used to support students in laboratory courses during experiment preparation and execution to ensure a safe process and significantly improve the learning success. In addition, digital learning success controls can be realized with the extension of a database connection. In this paper, an AR-experience for the experiment of standing transverse and longitudinal waves is developed for the laboratory course of experimental physics. Finally, the effectiveness is tested with an evaluation by the students.

Systems Engineering (SE) is becoming increasingly relevant in industrial application since more stakeholders are involved in engineering activities. To implement SE, companies have to adapt existing engineering processes and methods. This adaption requires knowledge about new methods as well as their integration into the engineering activities. In order to ensure goal-oriented identification of methods for different SE activities in this contribution an action field profile and the Systems Engineering Method Matrix are proposed. The development of both tools is driven by the assumption that most SE activities and methods can be described based on the artefacts the deliver. In order to get feedback about the proposed tools, semi-structured interviews with two industry partners were conducted, focussing on the tool's usability. These interviews underline the basic usability of the tools and their support to identify SE activities to be supported by (new) methods. Moreover, requirements for further development and adaption are derived from the interviews.

Revolutionary changes of a VUCA-world are effecting more and more industries. Focusing the automotive industry, this is caused by several new trends in technology or market. This situation is requiring high flexibility and is questioning for sustainability as well as resilience in system development projects. This publication represents results out of a survey, part of a wider research. The objective is the development of a process orientated method for risk and technical change management. The survey is conducted by participants of transdisciplinary system development in automotive industry. Topics questioned are VUCA, complexity, (re-)action, quality and module interfaces of Generic Systems Engineering. The results demonstrate the participants’ experience and demands for sustainable and resilient system development projects. In conclusion, this report provides information on the considering elements to develop a process orientated method for risk and technical change management in automotive industry.

Packaging protects products, keeps their value and reduces waste. This is especially crucial in domains with perishable goods such as food, medicine or cosmetics. But conventional packaging solutions yield negative environmental impacts. In the EU, the largest share of plastics is used for packaging, causing a corresponding footprint. The application of sustainable strategies to packaging should help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and promote the development of sustainable consumption. In this paper, a review is conducted on research that brings together circular economy, packaging design and cosmetics industry, by systematic literature review and content analysis. In addition to the current standards of conventional packaging, packaging alternatives are presented, which are categorised according to the R-strategies Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

To develop sustainable products, product developers must be able to incorporate sustainability into individual decision processes during product development. In doing so, they are faced with the conflicting demands of time and cost pressure and the growing complexity caused by the many requirements and (sustainability) criteria.

The Sustainable Design Evaluation, which is presented in this publication, is a method to enable product developers to estimate the impact of their product-related decisions along the three dimensions of sustainability across all phases of the product life cycle. The core of the Sustainable Design Evaluation is a two-stage assessment technique enabling a relative and comparable quantification of ecological, economic, and social criteria. Furthermore, an aggregation scheme for those criteria is introduced. Based on the two-stage assessment technique and the system of aggregation, the results of the Sustainable Design Evaluation can be displayed clearly and interpreted easily by product developers to assess the impacts of their product-related decisions.

Thus, in contrast to existing methods, the SDE combines ease of use and interpretation with a sufficiently holistic sustainability assessment.

Systems design, being a socio-technical discipline, is highly affected by available technologies, the global economy, the state of the environment, and social issues. Hence, in recent years, the ultimate objective of design started to shift from best-performance systems to ones providing value to customers, enterprises, and society. This paper presents a holistic concept of system value, equipping the stakeholders participating in the design process with a broad view of this measure. The contribution of this paper includes a proposal for general system value taxonomy, which can be used as a foundation for a comprehensive, case-specific, system value model (SVM). As an all-round perspective of value is possible only when all stakeholders are represented, we suggest deploying the PSI framework for mapping the relevant stakeholders. The system value analysis of Tesla's Model Y electrical vehicle is demonstrated, as a test case for SVM application. We conclude that a detailed analysis of SVM, performed by a carefully chosen group of diverse stakeholders, highlights less conventionally discussed aspects of the system during design decision processes, hence is expected to improve the system's overall value.

Adaptive façades (AF) present a promising approach to reduce environmental impacts in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction sector. However, the automatization of the façade produces new challenges as the complexity of the system increases. To support the early phase of interdisciplinary development, solution collections such as databases are helpful. Previous research identified that existing solution collections of AF do not meet the requirements that such a method demands. In the effort to develop an optimized database, this paper investigates how the state of the art can be structured in terms of content in order to present it in the database. Here, a set of design parameters is developed based on identified requirements and on the main characteristics of AF that were previously elaborated. This set offers a comprehensive perspective on the previously realized functions and mechanisms of AF and can also contribute to finding creative solutions in the form of new concepts by combining the design parameters in new ways. Finally, 40 case studies of previously implemented adaptive façades are used to evaluate the set of design parameters.

Drive units of eBikes are used in every type of bicycle and for different riding scenarios and riders. Due to the different riders and bike types, an enormous variety of influencing parameters and load spectra must be considered during the design process. Therefore, in this paper, a systematic approach for the optimization of the drive unit is presented, which adopts and combines several approaches from design theory. The focus is on efficient modeling and simulation of the relevant parameters and load spectra to minimize uncertainties in the design process.

Based on a system analysis, dimension-reduced parameter spaces are formed for the simulation of the system, meta-models are integrated into the simulation model and the results of the simulation are transferred into a data-based surrogate model to cover the parameter space in an efficient way with a minimum number of time consuming FE simulations. Furthermore, a coordinate-based evaluation method is presented for the FE model in order to form the input for the surrogate model, reduces the amount of data, and to allows a geometry- and mesh-independent evaluation to compare different models.

Although it's human centered focus, design thinking has proven to be effective also in technology-driven projects, both in education and business. Yet, scant research has investigated whether and how design thinking might be leveraged to find new opportunities based on emerging technologies and design new innovation concepts accordingly. To address this gap, we employed an Action Innovation Management Research framework and co-designed a program called Tech to Market with Oper.Space, the design factory for Open Innovation of the University of Bologna. We ran 5 iterations of the program from October 2018 to December 2022, in which we conducted 52 interviews, observed 10 presentations, and held 10 meetings with the main stakeholders involved. Our results show how to apply design thinking to find and design a suitable application for a given technology, contributing to the ongoing conversation about the implementation of design thinking in technology-driven projects.

The current ways of coping with uncertainty such as changes during product design or use have been through methods such as easy restructuring (e.g., modularity with buffer in interface definition), by overdesign and so on. The present investments on maintaining products in the economy for “as long as possible” is challenging these strategies from a cost and environmental perspective. Moreover, these strategies often lead to highly overdesigned products. An alternative strategy is to introduce features in a design, called “resilient objects”, which are able to absorb such uncertainties without wasteful overdesign of other parts. By applying a ‘text-mining’ approach on patents, this paper has identified 5,552 candidates for such resilient objects that can be recombined and inserted in regions of the product that are likely to be most affected by current and future uncertainties. The application of resilient objects is demonstrated on a case study (a cooling system for battery electric vehicles). The case study highlights the ability of these objects to 1) significantly increase protection against uncertainties without the need for restructuring, 2 ) reduce the risk for overdesign and 3) dampen effects of change propagation.

Half of the total greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of biodiversity loss come from resource extraction and processing. (EC 2020). To counter this, we must switch to sustainable, long-lasting products and slow down the use of resources. It is clear that these systems will not be fixed by incremental changes but by a series of disruptions. This article uses the Aristotelian causalities as a vehicle to break down the concept of “why” industrial design and discuss the underlying value propositions of distributed manufacturing. This critical perspective allows designers and engineers to bridge the knowledge-siloes and rewire the way a product is designed, sourced, built and consumed in relation to the four Aristotelian causalities. The paper discusses the limitations and potentialities for each causality in relation to a distributed manufacturing paradigm and argues for a new sustainable design concept: The Local Limited Edition. A site-specific product design, realised by brands to enrich brand value on local markets, improve market fit and increase attachment, ultimately improving the products' longevity and value of the products.

Generative AI algorithms that are able to generate creative output are progressing at tremendous speed. This paper presents a research agenda for Generative AI-based support for designers. We present examples of existing applications and thus illustrate the possible application space of Generative AI reflecting the current state of this technology. Furthermore, we provide a theoretical foundation for AI-supported design, based on a typology of design knowledge and the concept of evolutionary creativity. Both concepts are discussed in relation to the changing roles of AI and the human designer. The outlined research agenda presents 10 research opportunities for possible AI-support to augment the designer of the future. The results presented in this paper provide researchers with an introduction to and overview of Generative AI, as well as the theoretical understanding of potential implications for the future of the design discipline.

Mindset has been identified as an essential aspect of design and innovation, impacting both behaviours and performance. However, the concept of design mindset is elusive. Often design mindset is used indistinguishably from design behaviour, diminishing the complexity of the mechanisms and cognitive processes underlying design behaviour. As the initial step in researching these mechanisms, we operationalise the concept of design mindset and present the design mindset inventory (D-Mindset0) to measure it. The initial inventory centered around 16 agreement-to-value statements related to design practice. To analyse the inventory, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis based on 473 master students from different engineering disciplines participating in a course on innovation in engineering. The analysis revealed a four-factor structure with 11 final items. The four factors align with the concepts of ‘conversation with the situation,’ ‘iteration,’ ‘co-evolution of problem-solution,’ and ‘imagination.’

Societies are faced to ecological crises and widening disparities. This has to be integrated in the management of complex projects as they are increasingly complex and impactful. Value Analysis can serve assessing the value of a project i.e. knowing how the project will be perceived by the Stakeholders. It is a collaborative approach that helps make decisions in the early stages of a complex project.

This paper aims at demonstrating that a new “Sustainable Value Analysis” (SVA) provides a decision-making support toward sustainability. SVA uses a new definition of Value and a set of indicators based on the Doughnut.

Methods for the introduction of sustainability in the upstream design phases have limitations, which are highlighted in the literature review. Yet, the potentials of value approaches can be shown. Based on this analysis, an illustrative case is proposed to demonstrate how to integrate the ecological and social dimensions in a classical Value Engineering approach to determine SVA. The article concludes that the SVA allows identifying and characterizing the sustainable dimensions of Value, through a collective approach based on Stakeholders.

Scenario planning is often used in design practice to foster futures thinking, reduce uncertainties and improve decision-making. Scenarios are especially relevant for innovation activities in manufacturing companies, such as technology development, a particularly uncertain process where many trade-offs occur. This study is, to the authors knowledge, the first to empirically measure the effect of scenarios in decision-making quality, in the context of technology development. In a quasi-experiment, engineers from a manufacturing company and university students were independently asked to analyse a trade-off situation between environmental and financial aspects of a technology concept, with and without scenarios. The quality of decision-making quality for control and experiment groups was measured through a standardized questionnaire. The results show that scenarios had a positive impact in 6 of the 7 quality decision-making practices (QMDP), although the effect size is small. The results suggest that both expert and novice designers may benefit from using scenario planning when performing early-stage design activities by having awareness of the decision context, a more structured decision process, and clearer decision criteria.

Studies revealed that, while collaborating, humans tend to synchronise on multiple levels (e.g., neurocognitive or physiological). Inter-brain synchrony has been linked to improved problem-solving, decision-making, and creativity. Nevertheless, studies on synchrony in design teams started to emerge only recently. This study contributes to this stream of research by utilising a computational model of a design team to explore the relationships between team cohesion, synchrony, and team performance. The experiments revealed a positive link between team cohesion level and the emergence of (cognitive) synchrony. Furthermore, cohesive teams were found to be more efficient, converging quicker and producing solutions at a higher rate. In addition, the diversity of the solutions generated by highly cohesive teams tends to increase over time. Teams in medium- and low-cohesive settings initially generate highly diverse solutions, but such diversity decreases as the simulation progresses. Finally, highly-cohesive teams were found to be prone to premature convergence.

The more dynamic the markets become, i.e., the more surprises the markets have in store for companies, the more important it becomes for companies to react quickly to these changes in order to have market-driven and individual solutions. This is especially important for tier 1 suppliers, as competition is fierce and the customers, the OEMs, also have to adapt to the changing market and thus customer needs.

In order to be best prepared for this, it is necessary to align one's own company in a flexible and responsive manner. In particular, the context-specific development and application of a framework as well as a model for the improvement of internal collaboration in companies is necessary.

In this paper, exactly such a framework has been developed in several pilot projects within the framework of an agile transformation at a tier 1 supplier over a period of two years by means of participative action research.

As a result, the conception and development of an individually scaled agile framework for a tier 1 supplier in the automotive industry, the AHEAD framework, is presented here. The Hotdog model is the central basis for the collaboration model, which is scalable to all company levels.