Design thinking (DT) can be a valuable tool for nurturing problem-solving abilities in school children. The objective of the paper is two-fold. The first is to evaluate the effectiveness of the DT process as a potential tool for open-ended problem-solving for school children; the second is to test the effectiveness of gamification of the DT process in terms of the extent of comprehension and learning of the process enabled by gamification. The paper presents a framework for IISC, a Design Thinking Process developed by the authors, and compares two gamified models of the DT process against one another using empirical studies that involved school children in the age-range of 14 to 18 (8th to 12th years of their twelve years of school education) playing the games. Feedback from the students and their mentors during the game was used as data for evaluation. The paper also discusses the limitations identified and suggested improvements of the two gamified models, and implications of these for designing more effective games.

Product lifecycle is a complex network with large supply chains from multiple organisations. Lifecycle assessment of products of organisations with globally dispersed manufacturing supply chains and international market involves various spatial and temporal constraints. Even though organisations have data of their global supply chains, data is typically stored textually as spreadsheets, or visually as process flow charts. Visual representation of this large data using flow charts makes it complex and difficult to read and interpret. A decluttered, simplified product lifecycle data representation method is presented in this paper, which is developed for use alongside an LCA tool.

New product development is a strenuous and long process for companies. When the COVID-19 disease turned into a global pandemic, governments announced the need for various medical products that were scarce and at the same time imposed lockdowns and trade restrictions. During this period, rapid new product development of medical products was attempted by many companies worldwide using their existing supply chains. Data of 240 companies from non-medical product-segment background launching new medical products were collected and analyzed. Two case studies of Indian companies responding to shortages of ventilators and PPE are presented. A critical reflection of a new way of new product development and cooperation across firms is discussed.

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