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Interactive design on the product life cycle costs: a case study

Authors:
Khaled Benfriha at École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers
Khaled Benfriha
Adjoul Oussama at École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers
Adjoul Oussama
Hakim A. Bouzid at École de Technologie Supérieure
Hakim A. Bouzid
Peter Wardle at University of Wolverhampton
Peter Wardle
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Abstract and Figures

The aim of this paper is to make designers aware of the interactions that exist between decisions made during the design phase and their consequences on Life Cycle Costs (LCC) in the context of a predetermined business model. Based on the value analysis, LCC and computational method, the proposed methodology can serve as a practical guide to explain the different design strategies according to the business model requirements. Profitability requires the engineer to identify a balanced product architecture by varying parameters such as component reliability, operational availability, accessibility solutions and maintenance plans. A case study is presented, without calculation details, to compare two design solutions in terms of total cost. An industrial system consisting of three components in series is used. This method allows designers to adapt solutions to the economic model in which they will operate. This time-consuming and costly method is not recommended for all industrial products, but is relevant for technologically complex and long-lived products such as trains, wind turbines or manufacturing equipment.
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This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM) (2024) 18:837–846
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-023-01622-z
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Interactive design on the product life cycle costs: a case study
Khaled Benfriha1·Oussama Adjoul2·Abdel-Hakim Bouzid3·Peter Wardle4
Received: 4 August 2020 / Accepted: 27 October 2023 / Published online: 7 February 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2024
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to make designers aware of the interactions that exist between decisions made during the design phase
and their consequences on Life Cycle Costs (LCC) in the context of a predetermined business model. Based on the value
analysis, LCC and computational method, the proposed methodology can serve as a practical guide to explain the different
design strategies according to the business model requirements. Profitability requires the engineer to identify a balanced
product architecture by varying parameters such as component reliability, operational availability, accessibility solutions and
maintenance plans. A case study is presented, without calculation details, to compare two design solutions in terms of total
cost. An industrial system consisting of three components in series is used. This method allows designers to adapt solutions to
the economic model in which they will operate. This time-consuming and costly method is not recommended for all industrial
products, but is relevant for technologically complex and long-lived products such as trains, wind turbines or manufacturing
equipment.
Keywords Design process ·Case study ·Maintenance cost ·Reliability ·Life cycle cost ·Business models
1 Introduction
This paper presents a new approach to simplify the inter-
action between the design process and companies’ business
models. Indeed, the interactions that exist between the prod-
uct design process and the business model can be difficult
for the designer to consider [1]. Difficulties due to marketing
constraints, technological developments and the evolution of
consumer behaviour and habits. These are some of the many
constraints that can make a product incompatible with the
common market [2].
The idea is to highlight the different approaches that
designers can take to consider the business models in which
the product will be used. For example, depending on whether
the product is sold or rented, the engineering solutions will be
affected by this situation. They will have the same availability
BKhaled Benfriha
khaled.benfriha@ensam.eu
1AMIT, Arts Et Métiers Institute of Technology, HESAM
Université, Paris, France
2EMP, École Militaire Polytechnique, Alger, Algeria
3ETS, École de Technologie Supérieure, Québec, Montréal,
Canada
4WLV, University of Wolverhampton, Telford, Shropshire, UK
but will differ in terms of component reliability, manufactur-
ing process and life cycle and maintenance costs [3].
In addition, if the designer decides to place more emphasis
on the reliability of a product at the design stage, the initial
cost to the consumer will increase due to the additional ver-
ification, quality control and testing that will be required.
This results in a decrease in the cost associated with avail-
ability during operation, as shown in Fig. 1. Conversely, if
the designer chooses to produce a product with the lowest
acquisition cost, he must select components with low relia-
bility, without redundancy and without a health monitoring
system. This lack of reliability is thus compensated for by a
high level of availability, with consequences for the life cycle
and maintenance costs. In fact, maintenance costs increase
due to multiple interventions and corrective actions that cause
a loss during production [4].
In this paper, the reader will find a global methodology that
clarifies the different steps of an industrial project, consider-
ing the concept of the business model. The aim is to adapt
the product to its economic environment, while respecting
the required functions and performance.
However, this approach should be used with caution, as
it is expensive and time-consuming [5]. It is important to
note that it is only applicable to large multi-technological
industrial projects with a long lifetime, such as production
123
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