Product Development by Means of Industrial-Design Structure (IDeS) Method. Studies for Future Mobility Solutions

Abstract

The aim of this research is to enlighten the methodology model of Industrial Design Structure (IDeS), and validate it through the design of different mobility solutions focused on the state of the art technology, as well as offering updated product and service characteristics according to the present offerings. IDeS integrates both internal and external feedback and exemplifies the application of known methods like QFD, and Design for Six Sigma to systematically bring the information across the entire organization, resulting in important time and resources gain in the overall product development process. The IDeS methodology is sequentially composed of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Benchmarking (BM), Top-Flop analysis (TFA), Stylistic Design Engineering (SDE). Then planning the whole product development, including the prototyping and testing phases, budgeting, aiming to reach production-related decisions. The present work illustrates how the IDeS method manages to integrate the abovementioned design methods to achieve a convincing result. As a result, different sustainable mobility solution proposals are exposed, both for personal and mass transportation, that combine speed, comfort and eco-sustainability with the purpose of replacing the current means of transport and moving towards future technologies for vehicles, and after the assessment to the observed problematic on urban and extra-urban transport systems, as well for new vehicle development requirements.