Federico Rotini

• Mechanical Engineer
• Professor at University of Florence

The work described in this paper aims to present a systematic approach for efficiently exploiting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations in early conceptual design phases. More specifically, the proposed procedure strives to use simplified CFD models with a limited amount of computational resources. It is then expected to better support pre...

This study explores the acoustic properties of composite biomaterials using a polylactic acid (PLA) matrix reinforced by plant fibers for sound insulation applications. Acoustic tests evaluated the absorption coefficient, reflection factor, and characteristic impedance, examining various configurations with different thicknesses of the composite bi...

The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in design is clearly growing. One of the tenets of the paper is that stimulation could be among the design processes mostly benefitting from the introduction of AI. Available contributions have been reviewed to understand the current support AI can give in design inspiration and ideation. We also reflected o...

Physical or virtual models of ancient machines often play a key role in museum’s exhibits, as well as in cinematographic works somehow focused in technological heritage. To obtain such models, complex design activities are required, characterized by strict co-operations among different stakeholders (i.e. designers, historians, artisans, museum staf...

The effects of current worldwide problems like climate change and environmental pollution must be taken into account while designing or redesigning goods or services. During this process, it is necessary to apply current techniques like the 3Rs recovery method and the circular economy concept to reduce waste and improve recycling, regeneration, and...

Cycloidal roller gearboxes offer good performance in terms of loading capacity and overloading limits, but a precise manufacturing process is required to avoid overloads on relatively small teeth. In addition, these gearboxes are very sensitive to lubrication, which plays an important role on the contact surfaces of rollers and teeth. However, it i...

The effects of global concerns such as climate change and environmental pollution must be considered also when dealing with the design or revamping of products or services nowadays. Existing practices, such as the 3R recovery approach and the Circular Economy approach, which aim to reduce waste and increase recycling, regeneration, and reusability,...

Several concepts and types of procedures for assessing novelty and related concepts exist in the literature. Among them, the two approaches originally proposed by Shah and colleagues are often considered by scholars. These metrics rely on well-defined novelty types and a specific concept of novelty; however, more than 20 years after the first publi...

Requirements play a key role in the design process by affecting analysis, synthesis and evaluation activities at different levels and in different ways [...]

Purpose This paper aims to present the application of a tailored systematic engineering design procedure to the concept design of a small production plant for compostable packaging made by straw fibres and bioplastic. In particular, the obtained boxes are intended to be used for wine bottles. Design/methodology/approach A systematic procedure has...

Virtual or physical models of ancient machines are often used for museum exhibitions, documentaries and/or cinematographic works. Especially for high-fidelity models, complex activities are required, which actually lead the different stakeholders involved in the process to “design” an artifact (the model). As with any design process, the design of...

The need for innovative products led scholars to develop design methods to improve or at least to support creativity of designers. Among the different alternatives, the Problem Solution Network (PSN) was developed to solve some of the issues that characterize the German systematic approach for conceptual design. The objective of this paper is to re...

The work presented in this paper aims at presenting the last findings about one of the most acknowledged and used novelty metrics in the field of engineering design. The a-posteriori novelty metric of Shah, Vargas-Hernandez and Smith is often considered in design research, but after two decades, there are still some critical issues to be solved. Th...

Working under constrained conditions can boost or kill creativity, depending on the nature of the constraints (organizational, personal or task-related). However, a design process without clearly identified constraints, which set the project objectives, could lead to inefficiencies and unfruitful iterations. Some of the most acknowledged procedures...

Purpose This paper aims to present the design of a particular non-reactive test rig for combustion swirlers and first stage turbine nozzles. The test rig is required for important experimental activities aimed at the optimization of a specific class of gas turbines. Design/methodology/approach A multi-disciplinary team performed the design process...

The concept of novelty in terms of ‘uncommonness’ of ideas is one of the most considered in design studies. Accordingly, the metric developed by Shah, Vargas-Hernandez and Smith in 2003 (SNM) is still one of the most largely used. Nonetheless, it presents non-negligible and still unsolved problems when applied to realistic sets of ideas implementin...

Among the design methods available in literature, the German approach based on Functional Decomposition and Morphology (FDM) is one of the most taught in academia. However, notwithstanding the academic success, some scholars argued that such a method lacks a comprehensive support to the generation of innovative solutions. Due to its inventive poten...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an alternative solution for press-fit technology processes, which could improve the precision of the positioning movements and the stiffness of the structural elements. Design/methodology/approach A concept is presented and the related kinematics is described. Then, preliminary embodiment evaluations...

The System Operator (SO), also known as Nine Boxes or Multiscreen, is classically used for analysing the undesired situation according to different perspectives. However, its logic can be suitably exploited also for other kinds of tasks. In such a context, this paper shows an alternative application of the SO. In particular, the new proposed SO app...

In the field of design, novelty is widely acknowledged as a key parameter for creativity assessments. Accordingly, scholars have proposed several definitions, metrics and procedures to assess novelty for different purposes. Although the availability of many alternatives allows researchers to perform in-depth investigations, it makes the orientation...

Plant nurseries usually control weed growth with N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine treatment. Some studies have suggested potential impacts of this treatment on both the environment and users. A possible ecological alternative is the use of ground wood particles for mulching. However, the production of the required wood particles for use in potted plants...

Although TRIZ is widely acknowledged as a powerful aid to improve efficacy and efficiency of the creative design process, practitioners diffusedly experience difficulties in the selection of the most suitable tool. Such an issue represents a severe limitation in consideration of the large number of tools TRIZ offers. Here, Inventive Principles (IPs...

Purpose This study aims to carry out an investigation of design approaches that should be used for the design of unconventional, innovative transmission system for construction yards to privilege a smooth behaviour efficiency, and the use of innovative production techniques. Results are quite surprising, as with a proper method it is possible to de...

Planning prototyping strategies for conceptual design purposes is a crucial activity, which needs a clear understanding of the potentialities of the different typologies of prototype. Therefore, to prepare future designers, it is very important to provide the required information in design-related academic courses. However, prototypes and prototypi...

The preservation of cultural heritage often involves the design of systems with different purposes, as for example the devices for extraction of data from inaccessible locations and/or demonstrative models. For the latter, when the starting information about the model to be designed is incomplete, the task is not trivial, and different interpretati...

Packaging waste is cause of serious concern. Each year hundreds of millions of tons of packaging are produced, therefore solutions that drastically reduce the environmental impact are urgently needed. While the recycling of metal, wood, paper and cardboard packaging have been subjected to significant improvement, however for some plastics, an effic...

The problem of packaging waste is deeply felt at international level, because each year hundreds of millions of tons of packaging are produced. While significant improvements have been made in the recycling of metal, wood, paper and cardboard packaging, plastic packaging still represents an open issue. The EU implemented regulatory actions to manag...

The novelty metric suggested by Shah and colleagues is one of the most widespread among the suggestions made by scholars, and it is based on the subjective identification of attributes and/or functions underpinning analyzed ideas. If not correctly managed, this subjectivity can lead to non-negligible ambiguity of assessments, which could potentiall...

The high concentration and rapid increase in lung diseases caused by COVID-19 has suddenly led medical staff to face a lack of ventilators in emergency situations. In this context, many enthusiasts and/or designers all over the world have started to think about low cost and open-source solutions for emergency ventilators, with the aim of providing...

The study of surprising product features is crucial for designing products that potentially trigger attention and curiosity. Through a tailored questionnaire, this study gathered reactions from 100 respondents to solutions which were considered to be surprising. The data about surprise emergence and its modalities were processed using a situated FB...

Purpose__ The purpose of this study is to identify an innovative solution for the power transmission gearbox of concrete mixers, according to the specifications provided by the company.__ Design/methodology/approach__ A tailored systematic design approach (inspired to the German systematic framework) has been adopted to comprehensively gather the...

Idea generation is acknowledged to benefit from intentionally administered stimuli or designers’ processes that include the search for external sources of inspiration. Text-based and graphic forms of stimuli are the most leveraged in design literature, but it has not been yet demonstrated which form is most effective for boosting creativity. This i...

The definition of a comprehensive initial set of engineering requirements is crucial to an effective and successful design process. To support engineering designers in this non-trivial task, well-acknowledged requirement checklists are available in literature, but their actual support is arguable. Indeed, engineering design tasks involve multifunct...

The a posteriori novelty metric proposed in 2003 by Shah and colleagues is still one of the most widely used in design research, constituting the reference for many experiments on creativity and effectiveness of ideation. However, recent research highlights that in the presence of ideas implementing different numbers of attributes, some non-negligi...

Novelty assessment procedures based on a-posteriori rationales are often used to extract useful information about creativity and/or idea generation effectiveness. In this context, the metric proposed by Shah and colleagues in 2003 (SNM), is one of the most used in design research. However, scholars highlighted some non-negligible flaws and also pos...

Although the wide diffusion and technological development of Additive Technologies, it is still unclear to what extent the related potentialities are actually exploited. The work described in this paper aims at developing an on-line survey to be administered to industrial practitioners from different types of firm to elicit the information required...

Different variants of a-posteriori novelty metrics can be found in the literature. Indeed, such a kind of assessment procedures is often used to extract useful information about creativity and/or idea generation effectiveness. In particular, the metric proposed by Shah et al. in 2003, is one of the most used and discussed in the literature. However...

This paper aims to provide suggestions for the identification of potential new applications for the existing knowledge. A method is presented for extracting information about a product or technology, processing the international patent database (IPD) and extracting useful hints for potential new applications. The approach uses the Cooperative Paten...

A posteriori novelty metrics are often used in design research, in order to extract important information about creativity. However, different assessment approaches can be found in the literature, each of them with related pros and cons. In particular, weighted uncommonness, overall uncommonness and uncommonness across groups are the three main fam...

Fidelity is one of the most important parameters to consider when dealing with prototypes, which affect the related costs and performances. Current literature contributions often rely on generic definitions of Fidelity based on the concept of closeness. However, the review performed in this paper revealed that Fidelity is a more complex concept, wh...

Modularity is acknowledged to provide benefits across the whole product lifecycle. Accordingly, many literature contributions can be found about modularization methods, metrics and definitions. In particular, recent studies focused on the development of heuristic principles for exploiting modularity early in the design process. However, to design m...

Design methods are claimed to support designers but, although they are largely taught in academia, their industrial uptake is still lacking. Many reasons have been identified about this flaw and some potential suggestions have been proposed and discussed in literature to overcome the problem. However, a further evidence is that although many studen...

Designers usually spend non-negligible efforts in performing comprehensive design space explorations, but important information exchanged in conceptual design sessions is often lost, even about the rationale behind the preferred solutions. As a part of a broader investigation concerning the impact of knowledge coming from previously performed desig...

Designing products implies to deal with a series of issues affecting their entire life cycle, which are often solved by exploiting the benefits offered by modular architectures. Nevertheless, although several studies have been performed on this argument, understanding “when” and “how” to adopt modularity still remains a non-trivial task, especially...

Designing products implies to deal with a series of issues affecting their entire life cycle, which are often solved by exploiting the benefits offered by modular architectures. Nevertheless, although several studies have been performed on this argument, understanding 'when' and 'how' to adopt modularity still remains a non-trivial task, especially...

Many TRIZ critics (but also advocates) challenge its capability to individuate appropriate instruments for specific problems. Although each TRIZ user tends to prefer certain tools over others, Inventive Principles represent the most popular technique according to recent studies. Consequently, a more appropriate guidance to select the most promising...

Purpose This paper aims to argue about the involvement of additive technologies (ATs) in the prototyping issues of designing. More precisely, it reviews the literature contributions focused on the different perspectives of prototyping activities for design purposes, searching for both available knowledge and research needs concerning the correct e...

Many scholars argue that very early design phases are not supported adequately in many respects, although they are at the cornerstone of successful new product development. Difficulties in developing appropriate methods emerge because of the need to account for uncertainties and ambiguities that feature the Fuzzy Front End. This is likely the reaso...

Purpose This paper aims to provide suggestions for the identification of potential new applications for the existing products and/or technologies. Design/methodology/approach A nine-step method has been developed for extracting information about a product or technology, processing the international patent database (IPD) and extracting useful hin...

Novelty assessment is a fundamental activity for creativity evaluation of ideas or concepts. Accordingly, literature acknowledges a variety of suitable metrics, among which some “a-posteriori” versions are often used for assessing idea generated in experimental sessions. We observed that when in presence of tasks requiring multiple functions, the a...

Among the various novelty metrics available in literature, those developed by Shah and Vargas-Hernandez are frequently used for academic purposes. More precisely, their “a-posteriori” version is often used for assessing ideation effectiveness of idea generation methods. We observed that when in presence of sequential idea generation sessions of the...

Systematic conceptual design approaches foresee the realization of abstract representations, according to their specific formalisms and rationales. Therefore, even if not explicitly conceived for this purpose, they implicitly allow to store information about the explored design space. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the re-use of the recalled r...

Most acknowledged systematic conceptual design (SCD) methods are based on Functional Decomposition and Morphology (FDM). However, since some of the observed FDM flaws concern a non-comprehensive support to creativity, some scholars attempted to fill this gap by integrating FDM with the TRIZ body of knowledge. Unfortunately, non-negligible issues ar...

Systematic design methods are widely diffused in academia, representing a standard in many engineering courses. Nevertheless, some flaws related to the conceptual design phase have been ascribed to these methods, especially concerning a non-comprehensive support to innovation. However, literature acknowledges several creativity-enhancing tools that...

Previous studies have demonstrated that creative design activities benefit from stimuli and that textual prompts might extend the exploration of the design space. However, the number of stimuli to conduct a wide exploration is large and the support of an ICT platform results necessary to manage a creative task effectively because of the presumably...

One of most acknowledged approaches for conceptual design is the so-called “Functional Decomposition and Morphology” (FDM), which provides a systematic framework for transforming a set of technical requirements in a product concept. However, as observed by some scholars, this particular procedure acknowledges some flaws, also concerning a non-compr...

TRIZ capability of individuating appropriate instruments for specific problems is often challenged. Although each TRIZ user tends to prefer certain tools over others, Inventive Principles undoubtedly represent the most popular technique. Consequently, a more appropriate guidance to select the most promising ones for a given problem would result in...

Design education is a highly debated topic since decades, yet the focus on multi-disciplinary classes has gained a paramount importance due to the multi-disciplinary nature of today's global challenges. This paper contributes to the discussion through the description of the Design Methods and Processes course at Alta Scuola Politecnica, an original...

Creativity is critical to the success of design outcomes. Several research contributions investigate the effects of different stimuli on the creativity of conceptual solutions. Studies still lacks dedicated to early New Product Development activities focused on the definition of new product ideas in terms of unprecedented benefits and product attri...

As creativity is increasingly important in order to achieve differentiation and competitiveness in industry, designers face the challenge of conceiving and rating large numbers of new product development options. The authors’ recent studies show the effectiveness of ideation procedures guided by stimuli that are submitted to designers in the form o...

According to several literature sources, Product Planning is acknowledged as a primary driver of future commercial success for new designed products, and it is schematically constituted by the identification of business opportunities and the selection of most promising alternatives. Despite the recalled relevance of Product Planning, it emerges tha...

The work described in the paper is motivated by the lack of computer-aided tools to support Product Planning and, more specifically ideation processes of New Product Development (NPD) initiatives. The domain is populated by software applications aimed at managing and organizing Product Planning activities, which thus poorly contribute to the defini...

The paper presents an extensive testing campaign aimed at revealing the factors that mostly influence ideation performance within the Product Planning phase of engineering design. Tailored techniques mirror Brainstorming principles and differ according to the ways analogical thinking is stimulated. By comparing different conditions in ideation sess...

Some scholars have recently criticised functional decomposition and morphology (FDM) approaches despite their wide diffusion in academia. More precisely, several research projects demonstrated that such methods suffer from poor diffusion in industry because of some deficiencies. This paper, which focuses on evidence that is addressed by the literat...

Among the different activities that a designer has to perform during the design process, the clarification of the design objectives is a crucial task. Several factors make the recalled activities very difficult to accomplish. The TRIZ body of knowledge is rich of tools characterized by a great flexibility that makes possible their application to di...

This paper aims at exploring the opportunities coming from the application of the OTSM-TRIZ Network of Problems as a means for mapping the design steps of engineering students coping with design problems. Both the design rationale and the design protocol can be analyzed to support the evaluation of the overall outcomes of students downwards a cours...

Scholars argue about the role played by surprise in making new products creative. Different perspectives evaluate surprise as a nuance of novelty, an independent dimension, or an emotional reaction to new products. The paper proposes a framework of factors supposedly characterizing the emergence of surprise in terms of individuals’ interpretations...

Scholars argue about the role played by surprise in making new products creative. Different perspectives evaluate surprise as a nuance of novelty, an independent dimension, or an emotional reaction to new products. The paper proposes a framework of factors supposedly characterizing the emergence of surprise in terms of individuals’ interpretations...

A relevant challenge of firms developing new products stands in the capability to fulfil the requirements customers expect, which can give rise to design conflicts. Many techniques consider the relevance assigned to requirements by consequently focusing on those characteristics to which customers attribute more importance. The matter is complicated...

Among the studies dedicated to design creativity, a significant attention is given to the investigation of its dimensions, such as novelty and usefulness. The underlying assumption is that an enhanced knowledge of them is helpful to better understand limitations of current design approaches, and improve methods and tools. While there is still a li...

Literature acknowledges modular architectures to give rise to a series of positive effects, and advantages given by considering modularity early in the design process have also been inferred. As a matter of the fact, many attempts have been made to develop modularization methods and tools. However such methods mainly support redesign tasks focused...

Among the studies dedicated to design creativity, a significant attention is given to the investigation of its dimensions, such as novelty and usefulness. The underlying assumption is that an enhanced knowledge of them is helpful to better understand limitations of current design approaches, and improve methods and tools. While there is still a liv...

CAD tools provide an essential aid to designers in New Product Development (NPD) processes by accelerating and easing activities that required consistent time resources decades ago. At the same time, the scientific community claims advantages with respect to the integration of all the phases of the design process. More specifically, research effort...

The field of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has recently observed the birth of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) as a solution for overcoming the limitations of previous initiatives. The numerous failures concerning earlier BPR implementations are mostly ascribed to the introduction of best practices from other industrial experiences without pr...

Scholars argue about the role played by surprise in making new products creative. Different perspectives evaluate surprise as a nuance of novelty, an independent dimension or an emotional reaction to new products. The paper illustrates the outcomes of an empirical investigation about surprising artefacts, resulting in the individuation of factors i...

Scholars argue about the role played by surprise in making new products creative. Different perspectives evaluate surprise as a nuance of novelty, an independent dimension or an emotional reaction to new products. The paper illustrates the outcomes of an empirical investigation about surprising artefacts, resulting in the individuation of factors i...

Many product development initiatives are planned on the basis of the supposed capability to generate customer satisfaction. However, market and technology conditions can undergo several transformations during the execution of product innovation projects and jeopardise the basic assumptions taken at the beginning of the design cycle. Among changing...

This paper presents an original approach for the analysis of design protocols. It presents a coding scheme based on the OTSM-TRIZ Network of Problems, so as to map the protocols by both considering design moves and their mutual relationships with links. Stemming from this coding scheme, the authors propose a novel set of rules for the identificatio...

Literature acknowledges modular architectures to give rise to a series of positive effects, and advantages given by considering modularity early in the design process have also been inferred. However, current modularization methods operate only after, at least, a preliminary conceptual design process. But, although informally, modularity needs may...

Decision making during the initial design stages result particularly crucial because of the relevance of the Fuzzy Front End in light of achieving successful product development projects. The situation is even complicated by great uncertainty and lack of information. According to the above criticalities, the paper proposes a quantitative approach t...

Companies have to develop innovative and valuable products in order to achieve competitive advantage. To this aim, the idea generation task should be effectively supported within the Product Planning phase, whose goal is defining the main product features. According to this objective, the paper proposes a tool, namely Four Dimensions framework, tha...

This paper argues the relationship between modularity and product innovation. The work is based on the assumption that in order to become an innovation, a novel product has to be successfully diffused into the marketplace. Modularity can give rise to a series of parameters related to commercial success; however, there is not a well-defined relation...

The present invention relates to the field of vegetable raw material processing and in particular to processes for the production of shredded material, e.g. shredded wood (with variable dimensions but in the order of a few millimeters ) used for the production of combustible material (such as the so-called " pellet " ( shredded wood pressed and com...

Computers actually support, almost automatically, routine tasks such as those related to the optimization in design. Besides, the scientific community shows a growing interest in developing computer systems to aid non-routine tasks as a key to enhance individuals' creativity and innovation potential. In such a context, several attempts have been ma...

The capability to innovate and thus to renew the commercial offer, is becoming the mission of several companies in order to dramatically increase the customer satisfaction. To this aim, the design activities should be effectively supported, paying specific attention to the earliest phase of design, i.e. product planning, in which the designers have...

The assessment of creativity arouses increasing interest within design community. The literature witnesses efforts to quantitatively measure creativity, although commonly considered intrinsically subjective. Recent experiences show a good degree of convergence between assessments employing more objective metrics and evaluations of creativity made b...

Kano's theory analyses only the 'current situation' concerning the extent of customer satisfaction, which results from fulfilling monitored product/service attributes. Such an issue hinders the exploitation of Kano surveys for long-time design projects. On the other hand, trends regarding the shift of quality attributes reported in literature are n...