VALIDATION OF PRODUCT REDESIGN BY INTEGRATING FUNCTIONAL REASONING AND AXIOMATIC DESIGN

This paper describes the development and validation of a new product version made by a Calabrian company, leader in the sector of mechanisms for windows and shutters. Up to now, the designers of this company have operated on the basis of their know-how, employing the trail-and-error method. However, they were conscious that decisions made during the conceptual design phase profoundly affect the quality of the industrial product and the productivity of the company, leading to costly mistakes. Then, they decided to consult the authors to have a “scientific” validation about a new product version, with the aim to limit the investment risks for the firm. For this purpose two design approaches were applied: a functional design and the axiomatic design. Both methodologies were employed to help designers to structure and understand design problems, thereby facilitating the synthesis and analysis of design requirements, solutions, and processes. In particular, representing the new product in a design space where its functional structure can be analyzed in term of functional blocks connected by functional links, it was possible to verify if all functional requirements were satisfied correctly. Later, the morphology of the new product was verified, checking its functional surfaces, in order to establish if the product was able to perform the functionality for which it was conceived. At that point, it was necessary to verify if the modified version of the product was really better than the old one. This check was performed applying the axiomatic design, providing this theory a rational basis to evaluate the alternative proposed solutions. The paper has the aim to verify the advantages of the combined use of both design theories in order to have a better control of the whole conceptual design process.