Framework and methodologies for maximising achievements of product designs by collaborative works

Effective responses to rapidly changing markets require increasingly sophisticated design solutions that are best achieved by the continuous evolution and improvement of the existing optimised design solutions. To accomplish this process, design and manufacturing engineers who individually have specific expert knowledge and access to advanced technologies should work collaboratively to complete the development of new designs. This paper proposes product design optimisation methodologies and procedures that seek to enable effective collaborative product design optimisations. Maximisation of the potential for a particular collaborative project to achieve a successful outcome requires circumstances, where each collaborative member can freely propose his or her own ideas for design improvements. Also required are methodologies and procedures that break through the existing product design solutions, methodologies that are explicitly tailored to motivate all members participating in a collaborative project. To achieve success through such collaborations, a creative, flexible framework is needed, and optimisation scenarios that have an explicit goal of maximising the expected profits that result from the collaboration must be constructed. This paper describes the framework, methodologies and procedures that support such collaborations. The proposed framework and methodologies are applied to a machine product design, and their effectiveness is demonstrated.