I det här projektet har problembilden med informationsflöden kartlagts för två företag inom småhusindustrin, Trivselhus och Eksjöhus. Tillsammans med PLM-utvecklarna YaPlm har en pilot av ett PLM-system utvecklats för att kunna hantera den problembild som kartlagts.

Problembilden är att det finns mer eller mindre specialiserade men isolerade system som används i processen. Det ger upphov till många källor av produktinformation och manuell överföring. Problembilden medför konsekvenser som; tidskrävande, resurskrävande, och kvalitetsproblematisk administration. Projektet har tagit fram en generell pilot av ett PLM-system som fungerar mot ett centralt sådant problematiskt system, kallat Revit®. Med funktionerna i piloten kan projektet konstatera att ett PLM-system kan användas och hur det kan användas, givet de förutsättningar som råder för småhusindustrin, för att behandla en del av de utmaningarna som finns med systemintegration. PLM-system har potential att öka effektiviteten av informationsflödena hos företag i småhusindustrin.

Industrialized house building companies producing single-family housing must efficiently respond to customer needs and contingent requirements during product specification. These are the incentives for the adoption of high-level mass customization, addressed in this research, by exploring the information modeling of product platform use. Knowledge contributions are made through a proposed information modeling method and its application in a case study. The proposed method is a synthesis between the design platform and product-oriented information delivery manual. The scope of the information delivery manual is expanded from building systems to product platforms. Moreover, the design process is considered during both product predefinition and product specification. The theoretical construct of design modules is used to describe flexible volumetric elements and thereby apply the proposed information modeling method in a case study. The research demonstrates how design modules can be modeled using design assets throughout the design process of single-family industrialized house building.

Manufacturing organizations often pursue the ability to efficiently and effectively provide custom products for its competitive advantage. Research has shown product configuration to be an effective way of achieving this goal through a modularization, product platform, and product family development approach. A core assumption behind this approach is that the module variants and their constraints are explicitly pre-defined as product knowledge. This is not always the case, however. Many companies require extensive engineering to develop each module variant but cannot afford to do so proactively to meet potential customer requirements within a predictable future. Instead, they attempt to implicitly define the module variants in terms of the process in which they can be realized. In this way, manufacturing companies develop module variants on demand efficiently and effectively when customer requirements are better defined, as justified by the increased probability of profiting from the outcome.

Design automation (DA), in its broadest definition, refers to computerized engineering support that efficiently and effectively utilizes pre-planned reusable assets to progress a design process. The literature has reported several successful implementations of DA, but especially widespread higher levels of automation are yet to be seen. One DA approach involves the explicit representation of engineering process and product knowledge in the engineers preferred formats, such as computer scripts, parametric geometry models, and template spreadsheets. These design assets are developed using various computer tools, maintained within the different disciplines involved, such as design, simulation, or manufacturing, and are dependent on each other through the product model. To implement, utilize, and manage DA systems in or across multiple disciplines, it is important to understand how the disciplinary design assets depend on each other throughout the product model and how these relations should be constructed to support users without negatively affecting other aspects, such as modeling flexibility, system transparency, and software tool independence.

To support the successful implementation and management of DA systems, this work focuses on understanding how digital product model constituents are, can, and, to some extent, should be extended to concretize relations toward and between design assets from different tools and disciplines. This research consists of interviews with Swedish industrial companies, technical reviews, literature reviews, and prototype developments, resulting in an increased understanding and the consequent development of a framework that highlights aspects regarding the choice and development of extension techniques.

One challenge with design automation is system transparency with adjustable granularity because of the many different forms of representation from multiple disciplines. Previous research has focused on visualization through the generation of graphs, packaging into electronic books, and model highlighting. The research presented in this paper focuses instead on a visual programming approach, commonly applied in the building industry, where design assets and external references are wrapped into visual components and managed on a canvas with information input/output relations displayed. This entails additional documentation efforts, but the visualization is arguably more useful as groups and levels of granularity are adjusted by the engineers themselves as a part of the development work. To explore visual programming and its potential benefits as a way of enabling transparency with adjustable granularity of DA systems within mechanical manufacturing industry, an existing textual design automation system was transformed into a visual one using Grasshopper® (a visual programming environment) and discussed with respect to DA system transparency, feature-based CAD, and DA system development.

One interesting method to take advantage of the particular capabilities of Additive Manufacturing is to utilize a combination of lattice-structures and topology optimization. This paper presents the results and experiences from attempting to incorporate these in an existing multidisciplinary design automation system within the aerospace industry. A combined state of art and practice is outlined with discussions regarding challenges in current commercial CAD tools, multidisciplinary design automation, and with respect to aerospace requirements.

Design automation can be used to support efficient information handling and knowledge processing in computer-based product modelling, as well as make possible new design exploration and optimisation capabilities. To be able to utilise and manage design automation systems over time, it is important to understand how the disciplinary methods and models are dependent on each other through the product model constituents and then how these relations should be built to support maintenance, leveraging and future reuse. Awareness of the concrete representation of relations could support the system's traceability and transparency, and depending on the chosen technique, comprehension and extendability can be affected. This paper presents a conceptual framework for how a set of product model constituents are, can and to some extent, should be extended to define relations in multidisciplinary design automation systems.

Currently, the additive manufacturing process SLM (selective laser melting) is of high interest in the aerospace industry for the manufacture of jet engine components. This is driven by several factors such as reducing weight and minimizing the variation in the manufacturing process. In the paper, the state of practice in designing SLM parts is examined showing that there is plenty of opportunity to adapt designs to the process. However, this is often too time consuming in the early stages. By examining the state of art in SLM part design, the paper and identifies the variant specific cost drives that are proposed to be used to rank the manufacturability of different design alternatives for turbine frame aerospace components.

Product platform development is a well-established approach for reusing product knowledge in the form of geometry and its configuration rules and constraints. Explicitly defining all platform components is not always possible however. This is why a product platform approach where the processes of realising platform components also are supported is needed, instead of exclusively relying on their results. The work presented here works toward this, with a focus on automated tool development enabled by extending design assets from different tools.

In the aerospace industry, Additive Manufacturing (AM) is quickly gaining ground. When optimizing the design of an AM component, all life-cycle aspects need to be considered. It is by no means limited to the classic weight / stiffness optimization of the topology alone. The AM component design must comply with an array of requirements on for example assembly, maintenance and inspection. In addition, there are the manufacturability requirements and constraints of the printing procedure itself, including component orientation and support structures. In this paper, a proposal on how to integrate the AM design of components with the design of the complete engine structure is presented. To find how the current design process is conducted, an interview study involving design and manufacturing experts has been made at an aerospace company, forming a base for the proposal. The result is that a primary design procedure for the AM component must be made as a separate step involving a limited set of design considerations prior to making a multidisciplinary evaluation of the proposed engine structure.