Showing papers by "Chris McMahon published in 2017"

An exploration of the potential for re-distributed manufacturing to contribute to a sustainable, resilient city

Abstract: Re-distributed manufacturing (RDM), broadly described as manufacturing done at a smaller-scale and locally, could be beneficial to business and urban society through creating jobs, reducing the env...

Economic development as design: Insight and guidance through the PSI framework

Abstract: Economic development is aimed at improving the lives of people in the developing world, and needs to be carried out with design at its heart, but this has often not been the case. This paper first reviews dominant approaches to economic development including the use of subsidies or the creation of markets and demand and the testing of initiatives using randomized control trials. It then introduces ‘development engineering’ as a representative engineering design approach to engineering and technology in development before presenting the view that successful development needs to involve continual learning through innovation in context. The PSI (problem social institutional) framework is presented as a basis for guiding such development as a design activity, and its application is illustrated using examples from India of the unsuccessful introduction of new cooking stoves and then both successful and unsuccessful approaches to rural electrification. A 2-level approach to PSI is taken, in which the lower level represents daily operation of communities and the 2nd level represents the development project including addressing misalignments between the different PSI spaces and levels.

Economic development as design: Insight and guidance through the PSI framework

Abstract: Economic development is aimed at improving the lives of people in the developing world, and needs to be carried out with design at its heart, but this has often not been the case. This paper first reviews dominant approaches to economic development including the use of subsidies or the creation of markets and demand and the testing of initiatives using randomized control trials. It then introduces ‘development engineering’ as a representative engineering design approach to engineering and technology in development before presenting the view that successful development needs to involve continual learning through innovation in context. The PSI (problem social institutional) framework is presented as a basis for guiding such development as a design activity, and its application is illustrated using examples from India of the unsuccessful introduction of new cooking stoves and then both successful and unsuccessful approaches to rural electrification. A 2-level approach to PSI is taken, in which the lower level represents daily operation of communities and the 2nd level represents the development project including addressing misalignments between the different PSI spaces and levels.

Using real-time data for increasing the efficiency of the automated fibre placement process

Abstract: The Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) process has grown in popularity with an increasing install base that realistically began within the last decade. This growing popularity stems from the technique’s promise of higher deposition rates (>10kg/hr), enhanced quality, and reduction of intensive manual labour. However, AFP machines are still relatively few in number as compared to other automated routes for fabrication; with only a few airframers and suppliers proactively developing the technique. The purpose of this paper is to report on the non-value adding activities that detrimentally impact on production rate capability. For example, inspection is typically carried out manually and can account for a large percentage of the cycle time. The risk therefore, is that by not adequately addressing non-value adding activities, a costly level of investment could be needed to achieve the production rates required. We provide a longitudinal case study, accounting for the non-value adding tasks that surround the process. Our results show that, by percentage, these activities have been targeted and reduced over a two year period. We are also able to demonstrate, through coefficient of variation, how the AFP process has stabilized over the two years. A 92% learning curve has emerged that better represents cycle time reductions for each successive part, as opposed to the 80% learning curve traditionally adopted.

Understanding group design behaviour in engineering design education

Abstract: Observations in industry show that engineers’ perceptions of design activity tend towards positivistic, rational problem-solving, which is at odds with the nuanced, situated, constructivist nature of observed design behaviour. This paradigmatic mismatch appears to inhibit the ability of engineers to reflect ‘on’ reflecting ‘in’ action, and is apparently formed during engineering design education which, within the UK and commonly elsewhere, is heavily influenced by a positivistic ‘engineering science’ doctrine. In this research natural group design behaviour in engineering design education was explored through detailed observation of undergraduate group-project activity. An analytic framework was formed by three sensitising concepts: design as the resolution of paradoxes, designerly ways of knowing, and design as talk. Key findings conceptualise natural design activity in this setting as a form of constructivist inquiry akin to case study research. Five core activity themes emerged; collecting data, analyzing and interpreting data, identifying themes, theory-building and testing, and telling the story. Students engaged spontaneously in these core activities. Findings were sense-checked from an ontological and epistemological viewpoint, and found to be well-grounded if design is considered from a complexity perspective. Implications are that a radically different pedagogy may be appropriate for engineering design education. Students could significantly benefit from understanding their own design activity as constructivist inquiry, rather than rational problem-solving. Set within a broader education in the ‘philosophy of design’, rooted in a complexity paradigm, students could be better enabled to reflect on their own experiential learning of design. Thus resolving the paradigmatic conflict between perception and practice.

Mass Production Tools and Process Readiness for Uniform Parts—Injection Molding Application

Abstract: A mass production always aims to produce uniform performing products. Production tools such as pressing dies, casting dies and injection moulds, play a significant role by producing uniform parts for achieving final products. Tool complexity increases when multiple cavities are present. These tools pass through several stages of quality maturation, before starting production, where the tool capability for part uniformity can be assessed, corrected and aligned to mass production variables. This research article describes the process of systematic understanding of the impact of variables and of finding opportunities to counter them. Application is assessed over a hypothetical plastic injection mould and found feasible. Proposed process could evaluate the tool capability for producing uniform parts, at its digital design verification and its physical validation Cite this Article Boorla S. Murthy, Tobias Eifler, Thomas J. Howard et al. Mass Production Tools and Process Readiness for Uniform Parts— Injection Molding Application. Journal of Polymer & Composites. 2017; 5(3): 30–40p.

Lessons learnt from experts in design rationale knowledge capture

Abstract: The focus of this paper is on the use of argumentation models and software tools to support knowledge capture in the design of long-life engineering products. The results of semi-structured interviews with a number of experts in the field are presented, exploring their collective experience of knowledge capture and eliciting guidelines for successful implementation of such models and tools. The results of this research may be used as the basis for the design of future tools and techniques for knowledge capture.

The Minimum Mandatory Metadata Sets for the KIM Project and RAIDmap

Abstract: A Minimum Mandatory Metadata Set (M3S) was devised for the KIM (Knowledge and Information Management Through Life) Project to address two challenges. The first was to ensure the project’s documents were sufficiently self-documented to allow them to be preserved in the long term. The second was to trial the M3S and supporting templates and tools as a possible approach that might be used by the aerospace, defence and construction industries. A different M3S was devised along similar principles by a later project called REDm-MED (Research Data Management for Mechanical Engineering Departments). The aim this time was to help specify a tool for documenting research data records and the associations between them, in support of both preservation and discovery. In both cases the emphasis was on collecting a minimal set of metadata at the time of object creation, on the understanding that later processes would be able to expand the set into a full metadata record.