Recent literature in Systems Engineering has suggested the use of “value” to drive decision-making activities during preliminary design. Here the choice of a technology for a system/component is often oriented by the outcomes of a value analysis. However, to correctly evaluate design trade-offs, a visual link has to be established between these results and the product requirements/geometry. The paper proposes the use of color-coded 3D CAD models to support the visualization of value analysis results in a Stage-Gate® process. The approach has been developed and exemplified within a case study related to the design of an aero-engine component, and has been demonstrated using SIEMENS NX HD3D Visual Reporting. Eventually, the paper presents the results of verification activities conducted in academia.

During the 3rd CIRP IPS2 conference an approach toward communicating the value contribution of different PSS design alternatives using colour-coded CAD models was presented. Building on this work, the paper presents and discusses the results of the testing activity undertaken to verify the effectiveness of the colour-coding approach. The paper describes the setting and the findings of a series of PSS Design Experiments involving 8 design teams composed by master students in product development. Through the application of protocol analysis to the recorded design sessions, the paper compares the behavior of the design teams when using colour-coded CAD models, instead of QFD-like numerical tables, for value communication in PSS conceptual design.

Many companies have been using lessons learned practices as one oftheir key knowledge management initiatives to capitalize on past experiences.For product development companies, learning from product lifecycle phasesgives a true competitive advantage to improve the next generation of products.However, companies are still struggling in capturing and sharing lessonslearned and applying them in new situations. Based on this consideration, thepaper proposes a video-based approach–using social media technologies–as away to leverage continuous capturing and sharing lessons learned from productlifecycle phases to design practices. The paper presents the findings of a casestudy within the aerospace industry, which investigates the current industrialpractices with regard to experience feedback, and illustrates the implementationof a video-based approach. Further, the conceptual mock-up of video-based lessons learned sharing portal and its social platform that are aimed to support the design practices are illustrated.

The paper proposes a framework for analysing the performances of product-service systems (PSSs) development processes using a balanced scorecard (BSC) as an instrument to guide the implementation and the evaluation of new methods and tools. Emerging from a case study in the aerospace industry, the paper discusses the main challenges in PSS development and proposes a performance measurement framework for PSS development based on multi-criteria indicators. Finally, the benefits of a framework for PSS development performance measurement are discussed.

Social media are becoming an increasingly relevant channel for user involvement. However, their uptake in Living Labs environments, as a means to engage users in innovation processes, is still limited. The aim of this paper is to explore challenges and opportunities related to the usage of social media for user involvement in co-creative processes, The findings presented emerge both from the available literature and case studies, and emphasise four different dimensions influencing user engagement: facilitator, community, platform and innovation process. Based on these dimensions, the authors propose a basic framework, intended as the point of departure for taking the next step toward the construction and verification of theoretical constructs that can help inform and guide future innovation projects.

Emerging from a study in the European aerospace industry, this paper identifies a gap in the way value-related information is communicated to designers of hardware in the preliminary stages of Product Service System (PSS) design. To fit this gap a Lifecycle Value Representation Approach, named LiVReA, that uses color-coded 3D CAD models to enable value information to be translated into visual features, is presented. Such approach aims at enhancing designers’ awareness of the value contribution of an early design concept on the overall PSS offer by complementing requirements-based information with criteria reflecting the fulfillment of customers and system value. The paper details the development of the approach, its underlying rationale, the results of preliminary validation activities and the potential for industrial application in the light of the currently available PSS representation tools.

Current systems engineering (SE) standards do not address 'Value' in much detail. Yet, understanding what drives the generation of stakeholder value in a given business context, is fundamental to promoting a common and clear vision throughout the extended enterprise, of what should be the focus of their early, conceptual work at all levels of development. This paper presents a Value-Driven Design (VDD) methodology designed to strengthen the value and requirements maturation process within an extended enterprise setting. The work presented is the result of a three and a half year European program (CRESCENDO) within the aerospace sector. The VDD methodology is introduced and explained in an industrial aircraft development context and a selection of enabling methods and tools associated to the VDD methodology is presented

The design of complex systems requires detailed analysis to be moved earlier in the design process. Value Driven Design methodologies extend the Requirements Management and Systems Engineering processes to reduce time and costs needed to identify the right solution direction to be pursued in detailed design. Emerging from the findings of an EU FP7 research project, the paper describes an approach for preliminary concept selection, named EVOKE, that uses value as a basis for decision. EVOKE enables quick value analysis to be executed by component manufacturers by taking as input a set of value dimensions and drivers communicated by the system integrators, together with information about the high-level engineering characteristics of the sub-systems under consideration. The approach and its technological enablers are described in detail through the use of a case study related to the design of new intermediate compressor case for turbofan engines.

In light of emerging product development trends, such as Product-Service Systems, manufacturing organizations are obliged to collaborate across functional and organizational borders. Hence, companies are increasingly investigating how to leverage knowledge management practices to enhance their dynamic learning capabilities to achieve continuous process improvements. Manyresearchers assert that lessons learned practices are possible ways for organizational learning, which allows for continuous capturing and sharing of experiential knowledge across boundaries in order to learn both from mistakes and successes. However, many organizations fall short in capturing and sharing lessons from projects and applying them in new situations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a video-based approach and related guidelines for capturing and sharing lessons learned in a dynamic manner across functional and organizational boundaries. Based on laboratory experiments as well as validation activities conducted in collaboration with an aerospace manufacturer, this papercompares the video-based approach with a more traditional text-based approach of documenting lessons learned from projects. The paper describes the results of testing activities conducted with a video-based lessons learned prototype and the authors reflect on its implications for design practice management in the aerospace industry.

In manufacturing, metal parts can be joined using a laser as a welding tool, i.e. laser welding. Despite huge amount of research over the years, the process is neither sufficiently understood nor mathematically predictable. This study aims to holistically analyze the knowledge management issues occurring in laser welding. Emerging from observations and semi-structured interviews from industry and academy, the complexity and the criticalities of the process as well as the current knowledge transfers is explained and analyzed, using a knowledge lifecycle framework as a reference. Besides enhanced awareness of the limiting issues, information and knowledge visualization, e.g. knowledge maps, is identified as a key for progress in the community. The Matrix Flow Chart is suggested as an alternative descaled map of process changes.