Proceedings of ICAD2006 4 th International Conference on Axiomatic Design Firenze – June 13-16, 2006 ICAD-2006-36 Copyright © 2006 by ICAD2006 Page: 1/7 ABSTRACT This paper describes the development and validation of a new product version made by a Calabrian company, leader in the sector of mechanisms for windows and shutters. Up to now, the designers of this company have operated on the basis of their know-how, employing the trail-and-error method. However, they were conscious that decisions made during the conceptual design phase profoundly affect the quality of the industrial product and the productivity of the company, leading to costly mistakes. Then, they decided to consult the authors to have a “scientific” validation about a new product version, with the aim to limit the investment risks for the firm. For this purpose two design approaches were applied: a functional design and the axiomatic design. Both methodologies were employed to help designers to structure and understand design problems, thereby facilitating the synthesis and analysis of design requirements, solutions, and processes. In particular, representing the new product in a design space where its functional structure can be analyzed in term of functional blocks connected by functional links, it was possible to verify if all functional requirements were satisfied correctly. Later, the morphology of the new product was verified, checking its functional surfaces, in order to establish if the product was able to perform the functionality for which it was conceived. At that point, it was necessary to verify if the modified version of the product was really better than the old one. This check was performed applying the axiomatic design, providing this theory a rational basis to evaluate the alternative proposed solutions. The paper has the aim to verify the advantages of the combined use of both design theories in order to have a better control of the whole conceptual design process. Keywords: Axiomatic Design, Functional Analysis, Product Development, Redesign Process. 1 INTRODUCTION Cooperation between University and Firms is one of the most important factors that can support the economical development, stimulating innovation and competitiveness of industrial products. So University must not restrict its own activity in high education for people (managers and technicians) that work in Firms, but must cooperate with Firms in searching systematically the most suitable way for solving technical problems. In the ambit of a collaboration between the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Calabria and a Calabrian Firm, leader in the sector of mechanisms for windows and shutters, the present case of study has been developed, consisting in the redesign of a device that allows a discrete number of orientation to the shutter slats. The study has started with the analysis of the currently used device, as-is, employing the functional analysis. In fact an accurate interpretation of any problem in functional terms, gives to the designer the right elements to thing on the possible solution [Cross, 2001]. The functional approach has been clarified by several authors, starting from Pahl and Beitz [Pahl and Beitz, 1996] till to Ulrich and Eppinger [Ulrich and Eppinger, 2003], from Otto and Wood [Otto and Wood, 2001] to Stone [Van Wie et al., 2004]. Also the authors of the present paper have proposed a functional model [Bruno et al., 2003], that place the classic functional net in a 3D space, in which the solution comes to an embodiment. The principal intent of this model is to drive towards the embodiment of a solution by means of an abstract/linguistic functional level, till to arrive to a rough geometric form that each single component (or a part of it) must have so it can perform the task for which it has been conceived. The present paper deals with the application of the functional approach operating in a fashion callable “Reverse Functional Analysis”, for analyzing the functionality of the current device, identifying on each component the function or the functions it performs, and arriving to draw a functional net of the whole device. Then, following a BOTTOM/UP sequence, the functional net is traced back till to an early level of abstraction, completed with all the interactions among the functional blocks and with the outside. This “old version” of the device was VALIDATION OF PRODUCT REDESIGN BY INTEGRATING FUNCTIONAL REASONING AND AXIOMATIC DESIGN Sergio Rizzuti rizzuti@unical.it Dept. of Mechanical Engineering University of Calabria Via P. Bucci, 44/c 87030 Rende (CS) Italy Francescantonio Giampà giampa@unical.it Dept. of Mechanical Engineering University of Calabria Via P. Bucci, 44/c 87030 Rende (CS) Italy Luigi De Napoli ldenapoli@unical.it Dept. of Mechanical Engineering University of Calabria Via P. Bucci, 44/c 87030 Rende (CS) Italy