81895 - Industrial Design 3

Learning outcomes

This module takes the stimuli offered by the teaching of Methods of Calculation and Structural Verification of Industrial Products and places them within a design process related to a component or product of adequate complexity to explore its peculiarities. At the end of the course the student knows:

• develop the stages of problem exploration, competitors study, materials sourcing, study of form and functionality;
• evaluate stress resistance by considering the system of design constraints in a systemic and interacting way.

Course contents

Background

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is an invasive process that pervades both the relationship between the traditional manufacturing production system and digitization, and the relationships between everything that until now has been closed in upstream relationships (B2B) versus everything related to market and consumer behavior and people's lives (B2C).

In this complex, urgent, and emerging phenomenon, the Emilia-Romagna manufacturing district is at the forefront being the 2nd largest manufacturing district in Europe. In it, the realities that operate in the packaging automation sector represent a spearhead of innovation but also of product and process complexity, having a high external recourse to supplies and an articulated B2B production chain full of implications that Industry 4.0 involves.

In addition, the lived experience following the Covid-19 pandemic highlights how crisis situations represent a decisive constraint for any production system and consumption model by irreversibly conditioning the way products, services, processes and interactions are designed.

 

Course Topic

Goods packaging is a phenomenon that was born in the third industrial revolution with purposes that were articulated but also very different from the ones it has gradually assumed over time.

From being a marginal component that is thought of at the end of the production cycle and when the good is fully produced and ready to be distributed, packaging has become so important that for some product families (especially in consumer goods) it constitutes the essence of the product itself by integrating functions and playing fundamental performance and communication roles.

One value that should never be overlooked in association with packaging is environmental. Its production requires the use of resources (raw materials and energy) that must always be chosen and optimized to minimize its environmental impact, including an assessment of its end of life.

We can traditionally decompose this sector into actors: the one who produces the product, the one who produces the packaging and also makes the machines to package the product, the one who distributes it (even more than one actor at the various levels of contact), the one who buys/uses the good produced, and finally the one who manages its end-of-life.

In the course we will enter this supply chain and try to understand how the enabling technologies of the fourth industrial revolution can affect it and produce new value for the consumer and solve problems in the upstream supply chain.

We will operate mainly, but not exclusively, in the field of consumer goods that belong to the following commodity categories: FOOD, BEVERAGE, MEDICINAL, EDITORY, PERSONAL HYGIENE, and COSMETICS.

 

Project Brief

Understand what benefits Industry 4.0 enabling technologies can bring when applied to the packaging of consumer goods. Identify the benefits to the consumer, identify the enabling technology and the relevant supplier, design the form and function of packaging capable of integrating this technology, seek to understand and address the problems that such a solution can bring in packaging and the implementation of the relevant machine, and understand how to protect the idea and benefit from it with respect to possible industrial exploitation.

 

Partner Company

COESIA Group – Company G.D, Bologna

 

Course Structure

The course integrates the expertise of several faculty members who will specifically address the aspects they are experts on and on which they will deliver the frontal teaching, however, assistance with the design process will see faculty members involved either all together or individually in the design assistance phases, each with cross-curricular advice and evaluation.

 

Expected Output

The results will be reviewed as the planned outputs progress, which are:

STEP 1: Meta-design research

It consists of researching case studies of packaging or devices that are interesting for the purposes of the given topic and on user research aimed at highlighting problems and opportunities for use that are unresolved or inadequately resolved today. Each group at the end of this phase should focus on a specific and clear problem/opportunity. The output consists of a slideshow in which the outcomes of the work done are documented for the purpose of sharing with faculty and course colleagues.

PHASE 2: enabling technologies and concepts

Beginning with the problem/opportunity identified in phase 1, each group of students will further research the technologies and providers of these technologies and try to conceptualize design responses that make best use of these solutions and that have not already been patented or protected by others. The output consists of a slideshow in which the outcomes of the work done are documented for the purpose of sharing with faculty and course colleagues

Final Result

Each group should have refined the outcomes of phases 1 and 2 with respect to the considerations that occurred in the teachers' reviews and have addressed the technical manufacturability of the designed product by addressing process and manufacturing issues, as well as those related to the protection of the concept and its industrial exploitability. The final outcome will be both a slideshow and a 1:1 or larger scale prototype representative of the project.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Lecturers will provide, in their lectures, timely references to texts, sites, journals and documents that can be found to further explore the issues presented.

Teaching methods

The course consists of

• face-to-face lectures lasting about 1 to 2 hours each;
• activities to assist during the progress of the research;
• moments of collective review in front of the teaching team, in which students will present the progress of their work;
• visits to business and production realities.

Attendance is mandatory.

Assessment methods

Students' progress will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

_Understanding the existing market.

_Structuring of the Design Driven research and analysis of opportunities.

_Originality in terms of protection

_Innovative response to the project brief

_Adequacy of proposed manufacturing processes.

_Coherence with the G.D/Coesia world.

_Coherence in terms of environmental impact.

_Communication of the design and prototype

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Polloni

See the website of Erik Ciravegna