Robert Bjärnemo

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Full) at Lund University

In most industrial product development projects, computer-based design analysis, or simply design analysis, is frequently utilized. Several design analysis process models exist in the literature for the planning, execution and follow-up of such design analysis tasks. Most of these process models deal explicitly with design analysis tasks within two...

Computer-based design analysis is nowadays of utmost importance for most engineering design projects. However, this brings some challenges, among them that of the collaboration between engineering designers and design analysts. Since they work with, and are responsible for, different areas, they do not necessarily have full insight into each other'...

The need for dedicated fixtures for flexible manufacturing systems is increasing, as dedicated fixtures are lighter, more compact, and more accurate than flexible fixtures. The main challenges are that parts and processes are becoming more and more complex, which requires designing novel or complex dedicated fixtures, and that, for one given flexib...

In their quest for a more efficient and effective utilization of the resources allocated to engineering design projects, and thus to the overall product development project from which the current design task(s) originate, an increasing number of companies allow engineering designers to perform Computer- Based Design Analysis (CBDA) on their own – C...

Traditionally, design analysts are solely responsible for all computer-based design analysis (CBDA). CBDA refers to quantitative design analyses utilising computational tools in the engineering design and development of technical solutions. There are currently limited insights into and knowledge of tools and methods needed to facilitate the use of...

Computer-based design analysis is nowadays a common activity in most development projects. Used for design evaluation, verification, validation, or as a support for design exploration, it fulfils an important support function for the engineering designer, thus making it essential to have an operationally efficient and effective integration between...

The morphological matrix is an important element of the engineering design methodology and is present in many textbooks. This method originally aimed at generating an exhaustive set of solutions for a given problem, by decomposing it into subproblems, finding solutions to each subproblem, and combining them. One issue associated with the morphologi...

New and innovative production equipment can be developed by introducing lightweight materials in modern day automotive industry production lines. The properties of these new materials are expected to result in improved ergonomics, energy savings, increased flexibility and more robust equipment, which in the end will result in enhanced productivity....

When developing products, engineering designers often face the problem that their candidate for a technical solution, ranging from a concept to a detailed design, needs to be analyzed by a design analyst before it is approved or rejected and the engineering designer can continue his/her activities within the product development process. If engineer...

Generative product design systems used in the context of mass customization are required to generate diverse solutions quickly and reliably without necessitating modification or tuning during use. When such systems are employed to allow for the mass customization of product form, they must be able to handle mass production and engineering constrain...

In recent years, the number of products that can be tailored to consumers’ needs and desires has increased dramatically; there are many opportunities to individualize the colors, materials or options of products. However, current trends indicate that the future consumer will not be satisfied with mere material and color choices, but will desire con...

This paper presents the development as well as the architecture of a computer-aided dedicated fixture design system intended to support the design of lightweight (carbon fiber composite) grippers for a major truck company. Lightweight grippers were required due to the increasing production rates in the automotive industry. The current robotic equip...

Many specific and precise methods that support the mechanical engineering designer's work during the conceptual design phase exist, while only a few general methods address the embodiment design and detail design phases. Our study presents the pattern of the designer's problem-solving activity during the later phases of the design process. This mod...

Most methods that guide the designer through the later phases of the design process are general in na- ture, and it is up to the designer to organize the design work using the tools and techniques available. This process also relies greatly on experience, which is quite a challenge for students, who are mostly novices in the area. In a comparative...

In traditional product development, several iterations are usually necessary to obtain a successful compromise between constraints emanating from engineering, manufacturing, and aesthetics. Moreover, this approach to product development is not well suited for true mass-customization, as the manufacturing company remains in control of all aspects of...

Complex product form generation methods have rarely been used within the field of industrial design. The difficulty in their use is mainly linked to constraints – such as functionality, production and cost – that apply to most products. By coupling a mathematically described morphology to an optimisation system, it may be possible to generate a com...

Models of the engineering design process and of the development process nowadays present similar forms in the engineering design literature and interact in a similar way. These models are often presented as generic, in order to be used in a wide area of applications. This interaction is however not unproblematic, and in this publication we present...

In this paper, we investigate a special case of new product development (NDP), that of radical innovation. When a company desires to go outside a current saturated market, it is necessary to offer a new product which is radically different from the competition. If successful, the offering will create a new market that the company can expect to domi...

Engineering design problems are most frequently characte-rized by constraints that make them hard to solve and time-consuming. When evolutionary algorithms are used to solve these problems, constraints are often handled with the generic weighted sum method or with techniques specific to the problem at hand. Most commonly, all constraints are evalua...

It has been often claimed that the scientific process is quite opposite to the design process, mainly based on the former's analysis of existing phenomena in order to develop a theory, while the design process is an act of synthesis that creates something new in the world. In the light of the developments that led to this conception, and with refer...

This paper aims to support the decision-making tasks regarding the integration of packaging development into product development. Based on the study of the interactions of the product and packaging during the whole product life cycle, a set of packaging-related factors was extracted and mapped to a general product development model, which at a stra...

With globalization, more and more companies are becoming multisited. Efficient and timely collaboration and communication among the development team members become critical for product success. This paper proposes a web-based virtual environment for mobile phone customization, named VMPDS (Virtual Mobile Phone Design Space). The features of this sy...

Virtual reality (VR) has provoked enormous interest in the medical community. In particular, VR offers therapists new approaches for improving rehabilitation effects. However, most of these VR assistant tools are not very portable, extensible or economical. Due to the vast amount of 3D data, they are not suitable for Internet transfer. Furthermore,...

This literature survey aims at representing the cur- rent research on the cognitive aspects of the design activity, with an emphasis on problem-solving proc- esses. The study is based on the selection of about sixty papers and books on the subject. The principal parameters of the study were defined as follows: general topics of the works, objects o...

This paper presents the results of an explorative study on the strategies and tactics applied by the mechanical designer during the later phases of the design process. The method chosen for this study is experiment-based, which is appropriate for an in-depth examination of the designer’s activities. Six experiments have been run based on three dime...

During recent years, mobile phone companies have experienced market-related difficulties that result in increasing competition globally. In an attempt to maintain or increase their market share, enterprises reorganize their resources and employ new technologies to sharpen their competitive edges. Moreover, with the globalization, more and more comp...

In a research project with the main objective of developing the necessary tools for the design of products utilizing shape memory alloy(s), SMA(s), the finite element method, FEM, has been chosen as the main analysis tool. Based on the constitutive equations derived by Tanaka and Liang/Rogers, the principal implementation procedure in the general F...

This paper presents in some detail findings and experiences gained from a new course entitled "Innovation Engineering" (IE). This course is offered in the Technology Management Programme (TM) at Lund University, Lund, Sweden. The incentive for developing the new course was the need for a more integrated and practical approach where technical, custo...

RÉSUMÉ Cette contribution décrit l'aide potentielle que le concept de table interactive apporte à certaines tâches du concep- teur en mécanique. Le travail de recherche présenté n'en est qu'à sa genèse. La problématique est la suivante : une fois la faisabilité d'une idée de produit (le concept) est prouvée, le concepteur développe l'architecture e...

This paper presents support for guiding the strategic activity of integrating packaging development into product development. This support consists in the description of 4 integration strategy models and a guideline based on the packaging specificities to help the planner define his or her own strategy. This strategy definition support can be opera...