Rapid One-of-a-kind Product Development (eBook)

Rapid One-of-a-kind Product Development discusses research in the development of new enabling technologies for small and medium companies. Scientific advancements presented include a novel product data modelling scheme to model product design, manufacturability and knowledge under a common data object; customised product development in a distributed environment; and new adaptive scheduling methods for the optimal production of a wide variety of customised products, taking into consideration all of the possible changes from customers and the uncertainties in manufacturing. The book also includes research towards a computer aided customer interface, which allows customer requirements and changes to be processed and integrated with technical designs in real time; adaptive and concurrent CAD methods and algorithms; and product modelling and system integration technologies. The reader will learn how to: • translate customer requirements to technical attributes; • develop new and innovative products to meet customer requirements and expectations; • evaluate and optimise a project design; • design production systems and use them efficiently; and • manage a variety of customised products. Rapid One-of-a-kind Product Development demonstrates how to develop new methods, tools and algorithms to address the problems in a mass customisation environment. It is a valuable source of information for researchers and engineers in the fields of design and manufacturing.

Shane Xie is an Associate Professor (A/P) at the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. He is Editor in Chief for the International Journal of Advanced Mechatronics and Robotics and Editor for the International Journal of Biomechatronics and Robotics. He has contributed over 150 publications to refereed international journals and conference proceedings. A/P Xie has been involved as a project leader or key research member for 30 research projects since 1995. His work has been extensively funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology (FoRST) of New Zealand and the Natural Science Foundation of China. In the last 10 years, he has worked on 3 FoRST-funded projects ('Enabling technology for Rapid Development of High Value added Customised Products', 'Rapid Product Development for World Class Manufacturing Technology' and 'Research and Development of Novel Technology for building up High-tech Virtual Enterprises'), as well as many other projects funded by international organisations and local funding bodies. He has also worked closely with companies such as SIMENS, Kinetic Ltd and Rakon Ltd, and has developed over 30 practical systems for industries. A/P Xie's current research areas include rapid one-of-a-kind product development, mechatronics control system modelling; intelligent control strategies; image guided robotic surgery; intelligent discrete control methodologies; computer assistive technologies; and rehabilitation robotics.

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The book will discuss our research in developing new technologies for supporting small and medium companies. Scientific advancements to be presented include a novel product data modelling scheme to model product design, manufacturability and knowledge under a common data object. This scheme will lead to the development of new knowledge with regard to modelling customised products of different types, represent a product together with its manufacturing constraints, and digitally store and reuse them as knowledge for new product development. The research towards computer aided customer interface will lead to new ways of translating Customer Requirements (CRs) to technical attributes, which allows CRs and changes to be processed and integrated with technical designs in real time. The research towards adaptive and concurrent CAD methods and algorithms will generate new knowledge about how to evaluate a project design in terms of cost, manufacturability and profitability while meeting customer requirements and expectations. A novel adaptive scheduling method will be developed to optimally produce a wide variety of customised products taking into consideration all of the possible changes from customers and uncertainties in manufacturing. The book demonstrates how to develop adaptive production scheduling methods in mass customisation environment, how to understand and best produce a product, how to better manage and produce a variety of customised products, and how to design production lines and use them efficiently for developing highly customised products.