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Authored Academic Journal Papers by Ian J Graham
During the practice of industrial design, digital methods are used to support the generation, dev... more During the practice of industrial design, digital methods are used to support the generation, development and specification of creative three dimensional (3D) form. Despite the increasing capabilities of digital methods, the distinctive nuances of current practice continue to use non-digital methods, particularly during the creative concept generation activities. This paper reports on a research project that combined emerging and established digital design technologies to define an approach for total ‘Digital Industrial Design’ (DID) that employs only digital methods (e.g. no pens/paper) with no post-process finishing (e.g. smoothing/painting of rapid prototype parts). The paper concludes that DID has the greatest potential for change and benefit during concept generation, where haptic feedback modelling and monochrome 3D printing have the capacity to replicate some of the qualities of tactile form-giving associated with workshop-based sketch modelling. To maximise impact, the case study was translated into in a web-based resource (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/lds/did/).
Definitions by Ian J Graham
Extract from paper published in the International Journal of Product Development (2015)
Papers by Ian J Graham
Journal for Manufacturing Science and Production, 2003
This paper describes research into the use of genetic algorithms within a computer aided design t... more This paper describes research into the use of genetic algorithms within a computer aided design tool. In the early work the genetic algorithm allows the evolution of designs against a subjective rating carried out by the designer. Shapes considered by the designer to contain pleasing characteristics are used to generate subsequent generations of different but related shapes. Examples are given where the technique is used to generate ‘animal sculptures’ and a variety of concepts for seating. Current work concerned with the quantification of aesthetic measures and their inclusion within the genetic algorithm is briefly introduced.
Journal of Remanufacturing, 2015
Assessing products prior to remanufacture is an important part of the remanufacturing process, en... more Assessing products prior to remanufacture is an important part of the remanufacturing process, ensuring that unsuitable cores are removed at an early stage to avoid unnecessary processing. In particular, understanding the economic cost of remanufacturing a product can be an important aspect of the assessment, especially for businesses operating in low volumes and on high value products, where the risk associated with unexpected costs or failure to complete remanufacture are much greater. Estimating these costs can however be difficult, as important information required to make a prediction is often uncertain, such as the product design, its condition and also the understanding of the resource requirements for remanufacture. Within this research a method has been developed to estimate the economic cost and risks of conducting a remanufacturing activity to a product when information is uncertain. Summation of the individual activities can then be conducted to determine the economic cost and risks of the entire remanufacturing process. The method utilises a combination of case based reasoning and probability theory to identify similarities between historical data records and the product under assessment, to predict the cost and risks of remanufacture. In particular this method enables cost estimation when important product information is missing including the manufacturer, model or condition. Additionally estimates can be made when exact historical information is not present, which can be useful to business remanufacturing bespoke or rare products. The method is then implemented within a service oriented architecture and functionally demonstrated using an example of an independent wind turbine gearbox remanufacturer.
International Journal of Product Development, 2015
Journal of Remanufacturing, 2015
The paper provides a brief background to remanufacturing and the general use of Performance Measu... more The paper provides a brief background to remanufacturing and the general use of Performance Measurement and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) before introducing selected and newly formulated KPIs designed specifically for remanufacturing. Their relationships with the remanufacturing challenges faced by two contrasting remanufacturing businesses and the wider reman industry are described in detail. Subsets of KPIs forming a 'Balanced Scorecard' for each of the two remanufacturing cases conclude the paper. They arise through close working with Centro Ricerche FIAT (CRF) and SKF, and are triangulated by literature review and wider expert interviews. The two businesses represent contrasting remanufacturing scenarios: well-established high-volume low-margin automotive engine remanufacturing by the OEM (>1000 units per year, < €10 k per unit) verses low-volume high-value wind turbine gearbox reman by an independent start-up (< 100 units per year, > €100 k per unit). The 10 general production engineering KPIs selected for the reman KPI toolbox are as follows: Work In Progress (WIP), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Lead Time (LT), Cycle Time (CT), Hours Per Unit (HPU), Product Margin (PM), Quotation Accuracy (QA), Number of Concessions (NC), Number of managed mBOMs (BOM), and Personnel Saturation (PS). The Eco KPIs selected are: Material Used (MU), Recycled Material Used (RMU), Direct Energy Consumption (ECD), Indirect Energy Consumption (ECI), Water Withdrawal (WW), Green House Gas emissions (GHG), Total Waste (TW) by weight.
The application of digital technologies to relic conservation is a common research topic in the f... more The application of digital technologies to relic conservation is a common research topic in the field of world cultural heritage. Both the inheritance of traditional techniques and the introduction of advanced technologies depend on the users and their awareness and understanding of cultural heritage. Manufacturing processes are the manifestations of culture and art, and there are always new methods appearing in the historical development. Digital technology is now one of these methods, which inherits cultural aspects, improves efficiency and raises quality. Every technology has advantages and limitations. What is important is developing the advantages and avoiding the weaknesses, integrative utilisation, and designing feasible and effective solutions. This paper explains process chains for optimised archiving, restoration, and replication of archaeological artefacts. It shows the exploration of overlapping areas between 3D digital technologies and traditional art, application examples of optimally combined forward and reverse engineering (RE), and developing prospects in the cultural creative industry. The outputs from the research should prove to be valuable to anyone working in the field of digital restoration, particularly when a physical replica is required. This applies in the archaeological domain but also in any field requiring artistic modelling of complex surfaces.
Computer-Aided Design, 2003
Design is a complex engineering activity, in which computers are more and more involved. The desi... more Design is a complex engineering activity, in which computers are more and more involved. The design task can often be seen as an optimization problem in which the parameters or the structure describing the best quality design are sought. Genetic algorithms constitute a class of search algorithms especially suited to solving complex optimization problems. In addition to parameter optimization, genetic algorithms are also suggested for solving problems in creative design, such as combining components in a novel, creative way. Genetic algorithms transpose the notions of evolution in Nature to computers and imitate natural evolution. Basically, they find solution(s) to a problem by maintaining a population of possible solutions according to the 'survival of the fittest' principle. We present here the main features of genetic algorithms and several ways in which they can solve difficult design problems. We briefly introduce the basic notions of genetic algorithms, namely, representation, genetic operators, fitness evaluation, and selection. We discuss several advanced genetic algorithms that have proved to be efficient in solving difficult design problems. We then give an overview of applications of genetic algorithms to different domains of engineering design.
During the practice of industrial design, digital methods are used to support the generation, dev... more During the practice of industrial design, digital methods are used to support the generation, development and specification of creative three dimensional (3D) form. Despite the increasing capabilities of digital methods, the distinctive nuances of current practice continue to use non-digital methods, particularly during the creative concept generation activities. This paper reports on a research project that combined emerging and established digital design technologies to define an approach for total ‘Digital Industrial Design’ (DID) that employs only digital methods (e.g. no pens/paper) with no post-process finishing (e.g. smoothing/painting of rapid prototype parts). The paper concludes that DID has the greatest potential for change and benefit during concept generation, where haptic feedback modelling and monochrome 3D printing have the capacity to replicate some of the qualities of tactile form-giving associated with workshop-based sketch modelling. To maximise impact, the case study was translated into in a web-based resource (http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/lds/did/).
Extract from paper published in the International Journal of Product Development (2015)
Journal for Manufacturing Science and Production, 2003
This paper describes research into the use of genetic algorithms within a computer aided design t... more This paper describes research into the use of genetic algorithms within a computer aided design tool. In the early work the genetic algorithm allows the evolution of designs against a subjective rating carried out by the designer. Shapes considered by the designer to contain pleasing characteristics are used to generate subsequent generations of different but related shapes. Examples are given where the technique is used to generate ‘animal sculptures’ and a variety of concepts for seating. Current work concerned with the quantification of aesthetic measures and their inclusion within the genetic algorithm is briefly introduced.
Journal of Remanufacturing, 2015
Assessing products prior to remanufacture is an important part of the remanufacturing process, en... more Assessing products prior to remanufacture is an important part of the remanufacturing process, ensuring that unsuitable cores are removed at an early stage to avoid unnecessary processing. In particular, understanding the economic cost of remanufacturing a product can be an important aspect of the assessment, especially for businesses operating in low volumes and on high value products, where the risk associated with unexpected costs or failure to complete remanufacture are much greater. Estimating these costs can however be difficult, as important information required to make a prediction is often uncertain, such as the product design, its condition and also the understanding of the resource requirements for remanufacture. Within this research a method has been developed to estimate the economic cost and risks of conducting a remanufacturing activity to a product when information is uncertain. Summation of the individual activities can then be conducted to determine the economic cost and risks of the entire remanufacturing process. The method utilises a combination of case based reasoning and probability theory to identify similarities between historical data records and the product under assessment, to predict the cost and risks of remanufacture. In particular this method enables cost estimation when important product information is missing including the manufacturer, model or condition. Additionally estimates can be made when exact historical information is not present, which can be useful to business remanufacturing bespoke or rare products. The method is then implemented within a service oriented architecture and functionally demonstrated using an example of an independent wind turbine gearbox remanufacturer.
International Journal of Product Development, 2015
Journal of Remanufacturing, 2015
The paper provides a brief background to remanufacturing and the general use of Performance Measu... more The paper provides a brief background to remanufacturing and the general use of Performance Measurement and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) before introducing selected and newly formulated KPIs designed specifically for remanufacturing. Their relationships with the remanufacturing challenges faced by two contrasting remanufacturing businesses and the wider reman industry are described in detail. Subsets of KPIs forming a 'Balanced Scorecard' for each of the two remanufacturing cases conclude the paper. They arise through close working with Centro Ricerche FIAT (CRF) and SKF, and are triangulated by literature review and wider expert interviews. The two businesses represent contrasting remanufacturing scenarios: well-established high-volume low-margin automotive engine remanufacturing by the OEM (>1000 units per year, < €10 k per unit) verses low-volume high-value wind turbine gearbox reman by an independent start-up (< 100 units per year, > €100 k per unit). The 10 general production engineering KPIs selected for the reman KPI toolbox are as follows: Work In Progress (WIP), Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Lead Time (LT), Cycle Time (CT), Hours Per Unit (HPU), Product Margin (PM), Quotation Accuracy (QA), Number of Concessions (NC), Number of managed mBOMs (BOM), and Personnel Saturation (PS). The Eco KPIs selected are: Material Used (MU), Recycled Material Used (RMU), Direct Energy Consumption (ECD), Indirect Energy Consumption (ECI), Water Withdrawal (WW), Green House Gas emissions (GHG), Total Waste (TW) by weight.
The application of digital technologies to relic conservation is a common research topic in the f... more The application of digital technologies to relic conservation is a common research topic in the field of world cultural heritage. Both the inheritance of traditional techniques and the introduction of advanced technologies depend on the users and their awareness and understanding of cultural heritage. Manufacturing processes are the manifestations of culture and art, and there are always new methods appearing in the historical development. Digital technology is now one of these methods, which inherits cultural aspects, improves efficiency and raises quality. Every technology has advantages and limitations. What is important is developing the advantages and avoiding the weaknesses, integrative utilisation, and designing feasible and effective solutions. This paper explains process chains for optimised archiving, restoration, and replication of archaeological artefacts. It shows the exploration of overlapping areas between 3D digital technologies and traditional art, application examples of optimally combined forward and reverse engineering (RE), and developing prospects in the cultural creative industry. The outputs from the research should prove to be valuable to anyone working in the field of digital restoration, particularly when a physical replica is required. This applies in the archaeological domain but also in any field requiring artistic modelling of complex surfaces.
Computer-Aided Design, 2003
Design is a complex engineering activity, in which computers are more and more involved. The desi... more Design is a complex engineering activity, in which computers are more and more involved. The design task can often be seen as an optimization problem in which the parameters or the structure describing the best quality design are sought. Genetic algorithms constitute a class of search algorithms especially suited to solving complex optimization problems. In addition to parameter optimization, genetic algorithms are also suggested for solving problems in creative design, such as combining components in a novel, creative way. Genetic algorithms transpose the notions of evolution in Nature to computers and imitate natural evolution. Basically, they find solution(s) to a problem by maintaining a population of possible solutions according to the 'survival of the fittest' principle. We present here the main features of genetic algorithms and several ways in which they can solve difficult design problems. We briefly introduce the basic notions of genetic algorithms, namely, representation, genetic operators, fitness evaluation, and selection. We discuss several advanced genetic algorithms that have proved to be efficient in solving difficult design problems. We then give an overview of applications of genetic algorithms to different domains of engineering design.