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Even if manufacturers use the most efficient processes, they can't change lead to gold without good product design. Manufacturing managers and design engineers need to work together from the start.

Examines the research of integrated product design. Several design strategies and methodologies have been proposed, yet none of them is particularly suitable for small‐to medium‐sized enterprises. Develops strategies of integrated product design for small‐ to medium‐sized companies through the studies of the Hong Kong toy manufacturing industry. These include strategies for the product design, the assembly system design and computer‐aided tools. Uses a case study to illustrate some of the concepts of the integrated product design. Finally, discusses the application and limitations of the proposed integrated product design methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to implement the modeling of the design process in response to volatile market demands. It mainly focuses on design activities for product development towards the early stage.

This paper describes the system of products from the systems engineering point of view, analyzes the attributes of products and components, studies the environment and its input/output relationship and implements product formal representation, respectively. This paper gives product structure and component connections, describes the process of structure generations and product decomposition by set representation, calculates the number of component connections and density of components; also it presents product module division and coupling degree analysis in accordance with axiomatic theory; coupling degree is calculated by considering the correspondence ratio and the cluster independence.

It describes the product as an engineering system, and analyzes product systems and product structures through using systems theory. Design process modeling is analyzed, and a strategic approach to decomposing product structure and calculating modularity is adopted for product development.

Accessibility and availability mainly focus on product system development.

The paper offers useful advice for the modeling process of product conceptual design.

The new approach to conceptual design is based on set representation and systems analysis as well as axiomatic theory. The paper is aimed at understanding evolution mechanism of complexity product systems.

This paper aims to explore consumer perceptions of product design awards (PDAs) and their impact on consumer product evaluation and attitude formation about the award-winning product, the award-winning organization and the award-granting organization.

Based on the grounded theory approach, an exploratory qualitative study is conducted, using 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with Turkish consumers through discussions on real-world examples.

Results show that consumers develop emotional responses to PDAs (e.g. interest, curiosity and confusion), hypothesize reasons for products receiving awards and cite rewards as confirmation of their existing judgments about products. PDAs are perceived as extrinsic cues signaling quality and price, and their impact is increased when consumers feel that the award is based on functional feature superiority. Consumer responses to PDAs are also influenced by the perceived expertise of the award-granting organization and beliefs about the award-granting process. Finally, PDAs can lead to positive brand-perception outcomes, influencing consumer perceptions of the product company as resourceful, competent and prominent.

This study shows that it is critical for companies to inform consumers about the specific features that resulted in a given product receiving a design award, as well as to provide information about the PDA itself.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore consumer perceptions of and reactions to PDAs, with significant implications for both the marketing managers of PDA-winning products and award-granting organizations.

Reports on research based on the results of a survey of design management in the UK mechanical engineering industry. Considers the issue of which aspects of production were considered in the design of products and when. Demonstrates that at the prototype stage production aspects became the most important. This shows that the manufacturability of the product is not considered until after it has been designed. Concludes that the effective and efficient manufacture of the product is not given sufficient attention by mechanical engineering firms. Also investigates the involvement of production personnel in the design process. Finds that production engineering was more extensively involved in the design process the closer it moved towards manufacture. Points to further research which hopes to address this lack by providing practical tools for the application of concurrent engineering.

Since inputs, manufacturing processes, distribution, use and disposal methods are decided during the design stage, any company venturing out with a green marketing program must start with green design. Presents source reduction and waste management strategies to cut down wastes, and also presents a method to compare green design alternatives which can provide designers with guidance to select superior designs. As a product must meet several criteria, suggests a concurrent rather than sequential product development approach. Concludes with tips for top management to improve green design in their organizations.

Examines the conceptual design of robotic assembly systems in conjunction with the analysis and optimization of the product and process design. Explains how an integral assembly model is utilised to study the relationships between assembly variables which play a role in each stage of the design process. Outlines the characteristics and benefits of the concentric design process and explains the total productivity concept. Concludes that the integral assembly model, which underlies the concentric design process, provides the opportunity to store product, process and system data and can therefore be considered as a reference model for product development and process planning as well as for the design and analysis of assembly systems.

The paper provides an overview of research published in the innovation and operations management (IOM) literature on 15 methods for cost management in new product development, and it provides a comparison to an earlier review of the management accounting (MA) literature (Wouters & Morales, 2014).

This structured literature search covers papers published in 23 journals in IOM in the period 1990–2014.

The search yielded a sample of 208 unique papers with 275 results (one paper could refer to multiple cost management methods). The top 3 methods are modular design, component commonality, and product platforms, with 115 results (42%) together. In the MA literature, these three methods accounted for 29%, but target costing was the most researched cost management method by far (26%). Simulation is the most frequently used research method in the IOM literature, whereas this was averagely used in the MA literature; qualitative studies were the most frequently used research method in the MA literature, whereas this was averagely used in the IOM literature. We found a lot of papers presenting practical approaches or decision models as a further development of a particular cost management method, which is a clear difference from the MA literature.

This review focused on the same cost management methods, and future research could also consider other cost management methods which are likely to be more important in the IOM literature compared to the MA literature. Future research could also investigate innovative cost management practices in more detail through longitudinal case studies.

This review of research on methods for cost management published outside the MA literature provides an overview for MA researchers. It highlights key differences between both literatures in their research of the same cost management methods.

In this paper, we seek to understand how changes in product architecture affect the innovation performance of firms in a complex product ecosystem. The canonical view in the literature is that changes in the technological dependencies between components, which define a product’s architecture, undermine the innovation efforts of incumbent firms because their product development efforts are built around existing architectures. We extend this prevailing view in arguing that component dependencies and changes in them affect firm innovation efforts via two principal mechanisms. First, component dependencies expand or constrain the choice set of firm component innovation efforts. From the perspective of any one component in a complex product (which we label the focal component), an increase in the flow of design information to the focal component from other (non-focal) components simultaneously increases the constraint on focal component firms in their choice of profitable R&D projects while decreasing the constraint on non-focal component firms. Second, asymmetries in component dependencies can confer disproportionate influence on some component firms in setting and dictating the trajectory of progress in the overall system. Increases in such asymmetric influence allow component firms to expand their innovation output. Using historical patenting data in the personal computer ecosystem, we develop fine-grained measures of interdependence between component technologies and changes in them over time. We find strong support for the empirical implications of our theory.