The user has been very well defined over the last decades. With human-centered design becoming more widely applied within various industries, the user's needs are being taken into account more than ever. What is often overlooked is the user's counterpart: the non-user. Integrating the non-user into modern development projects provides great additional value. This paper is compiling current definitions in order to analyse them within the context of product development and to make a contribution toward a comprehensive definition of the non-user that can be applied to various disciplines.

The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of utilizing low-current stimulation for F-wave generation, thereby avoiding the discomfort of repetitive supramaximal stimulation. We employed the same technique as is used for generating F waves in the conventional way, except for using a stimulating current that was just strong enough to evoke a motor response on the oscilloscope. This usually required a stimulus of about 10-15 mA at 0.2-ms duration. Both median nerves of 30 subjects were evaluated with this technique and with F waves generated by the conventional technique in the same subjects. Amplitudes were larger when using supramaximal current stimulation. However, there was no statistical difference between F-wave latencies, chronodispersion, and persistence (penetrance) elicited with maximal and low-current stimulation. This procedure should represent a significant improvement for patient comfort during electrodiagnostic procedures involving F-wave studies.

Increasing requirements on today’s products, as well as possibilities resulting from globalization and digitization, lead to a growth of increasingly complex products. However, design principles from the field of design engineering call for a product to be designed as simple as possible. It is not yet clear what characteristics and properties a simple product has. The aim of this paper is to clarify the different definitions of simplicity in different disciplines within the product lifecycle and to provide a general description of a simple product from the viewpoint of the different groups.

No abstract

In business theory there are no suitable benefit evaluation procedures for new technologies (e.g. CAD/CAM systems, EDM/PDM systems) in product development. Another problem is the missing process orientation as well as an inadmissible mix of quantifiable and qualitative benefits (if they are not be even neglected). Hence, the results are difficult to comprehend ([Schabacker, 2001], [Bauer, 1995]).

No abstract

Klein- und mittelständische Unternehmen (KMU) sehen immer mehr den Herausforderungen und Chancen einer nachhaltigen Produktentwicklung entgegen, da die Entwicklung und Herstellung von Produkten zwangsläufig mit Umweltaspekten verbunden sind. Eine gute Anwendung von Methoden und Werkzeugen bestimmt so mitunter über Erfolg und Misserfolg eines Produktes als auch dessen Nachhaltigkeit und ist damit zentrales Element bei der Entwicklungsarbeit. Somit bestimmt eine dauerhafte Integration von Werkzeugen eine langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von Unternehmen. Da die geringeren Kapazitäten und Rahmenbedingungen von KMUs jedoch eine Barriere bei der Integration von Methoden und Werkzeugen darstellt, wird ein Ansatz beleuchtet, der mit Zuhilfenahme von Filtern bei der passenden Auswahl von Methoden und Werkzeugen Unterstützung bietet. Es werden Hemmschwellen und Erfolgsfaktoren bei der Anwendung von Methoden und Werkzeugen beleuchtet und ein möglicher Prozess skizziert, um die Integration zu fördern, die Mitarbeiter des Unternehmens zu schulen und langfristig die Anwendung von Methoden und Werkzeugen zur nachhaltigen Produktentwicklung in KMUs zu implementieren.

In [1] different process modeling methods were evaluated and a tri-process modeling tool [2] was developed. After that it is often the case that the recorded product development processes have to be optimized in this tool. Previous studies of the authors have described the stages of process optimization in detail [3]. One of these stages was realized in [4] with the BAPM method. It has shown that there is no suitable method for the realization of the stage of process optimization called Simultaneous Engineering in the research literature. The aim of this paper is to show one approach to realize Simultaneous Engineering by quantifying the degree of parallelization of documents. With the improved triangle it is possible to represent the relation between parallelization, resources and risk. This paper allows a quantified estimation of the change in the risk to be provided during the parallelization of the elements of a process. Companies applying the optimization approaches discussed above will be able to perform more efficiently and create more efficient product development projects.