INTEGRATING THE HUMAN FACTOR AND ENVIROMENTAL NEEDS IN THE DESIGN OF A NEW PRODUCT

Abstract

Nowadays, to ensure the durability of their activities, companies have to innovate continuously. However, designing and development of multi-physical mechanical systems or products, namely integrating different fields of science and technology, has the purpose to make them “intelligent”, “reliable” and “ecological”. Moreover, to be able to obtain a winning product, the company managers should be innovative. The technology, but also the needs and the desires of the users, can achieve innovation. Changing people’s beliefs is a critical part of the business when a new product appears. In this perspective, our article intends to determinate how to better involve the users in the design process. Communication is a dynamic process, in a permanent transformation. The aim of our work is to show the challenge of managing innovation led by users. The design of a product, a manufacturing process, a production line continuously drives a team to improve. Putting people first, keeping energy and environment issues in mind: innovation takes up multiple challenges. To achieve this, many skills must be activated: innovative processes, quality, mechanical design, management, logistics. To take into account the environmental aspects is a difficult task, but it’s the key to design the best product and to release it on the market at the right time. In order for our work to be placed in a general context of eco-design, it is required that this field of research must be defined. So, before presenting the design, first we must develop the eco-design detail as a response to a necessary integration of the environmental factor. Because of the innovative nature of the project, a first study to indicate the subject of the project has been done. Before starting the design project, it is essential to propose a planning for every stage of the project from the defining of needs to the creation of CAD models. The first stage consists of defining the users’s needs of the product. This could be done by collecting all the necessary information to get a clear vision about the project. The next stage is the functional analysis; its purpose is to define the functions of the future product by analysing its different lifecycle situations. After that, in the creativity phase the design team starts to find solutions and pick the best one. Finally, the solution is described and evaluated using a set of predefined specifications. Based on this evaluation, several modifications are imported to the design. The research in industrial, technological and scientific engeneering represents the purpose of our work.