Comfort and pressure distribution in a human contour shaped aircraft seat (developed with 3D scans of the human body)

BACKGROUND: The concept of comfort is one way for the growing airline market to differentiate and build customer loyalty. This work follows the idea that increasing the contact area between human and seat can have a positive effect on comfort [5, 6, 7]. OBJECTIVE: To improve comfort, reduce weight and optimise space used, a human contour...

Designing organizations in the CCI

Drastic cuts in government budgets will force cultural organizations to reconsider their position by initiating internal discussions on how to avert the risk of these cuts. In order to avoid gradual withering of their proposition, cultural organizations will increasingly search for new organizational constellations with new business models....

Applying design thinking elsewhere: Organizational context matters

In this contribution design thinking is taken as a transfer of design methods from product development to other domains. It is argued that the success of this transfer depends on the organisational context offered to design thinking in these other domains. We describe the application of design methods in product development and in two new...

The right fidelity: Designedly representations that enhance multidisciplinary product development

In product development, representations of the intended product are needed to enable specialists to learn about what they develop together. A variety of representations is deployed, ranging from textual documents like requirements, up to integrated prototypes. The difference between these representations is the fidelity: the degree to which a...

Understanding the NPD - Production interface: Advanced industrialisation and growth in the composite industry

This paper provides an initial attempt to theoretically describe and understand how the composite product supply chain could reach advanced levels of industrialisation. At the heart of this work rest the interface between NPD (New Product Development) and Production as the central point where composite technology innovation takes place. This...

Towards a different view on ship design: The development of ships observed through a social?technological perspective

The research this paper reports on aims to develop a design and engineering strategy for complex ships in between incremental and radical innovation. The majority of European ship-design industry concentrates on the development of complex, one-off ‘specials’ for the offshore industry, like dredgers, drill ships, pipelaying ships, et cetera. This...

The boundary spanning practice of (user centered) design

Most products are developed by New Product Development (NPD) teams, composed of specialists that need to collaborate closely. One of those specialists is a user-centered designer, focusing on the usability and experience of use of products. In this qualitative empirical study the contribution of designers to NPD teams is explored, filling a gap...

Improved models in the design of complex specials: Success or failure?

The European Maritime cluster remains a very important player in the design, production and operation of Complex Specials, but under pressure of competitors in the Far East both the design and the design approach has to 5e improved to maintain its maricet position. The problem of any new method is that it should comply with boundary conditions...

Innovating innovation: Towards a NPD-management taxonomy

This paper reports on a government funded research project that was aimed at the development of a meta-method to improve NPD-processes in industry by the use of tools and methods available in literature. We choose to develop an industry-relevant taxonomy that could serve as means to categorise the NPD-tools and at the same time could facilitate...

Designing: Insights from weaving theories of cognition and design theories

This paper addresses the issue of ‘What is designing?’ from an unconventional perspective and aims to advance our understanding of what design really is. Designing has been studied from different perspectives but the underlying theoretical basis of studying the act has often been dispersed and not clear. To address these shortcomings, the paper...

Get synchronized: Bridging the gap between design and volume production

The interface between Design and Manufacturing forms a locus of frequent interpersonal conflict. Misunderstandings, unwelcome surprises and planning problems are the rule rather than the exception. Within companies that deliver consumer goods in large quantities to the market this interface is also the transition from exploration (seeking new...