Applying Axiomatic Design And Knowledge Based Engineering To Plastic Drum Design

Abstract

Over the past three decades the concept of design and development had evolved and changed a lot with the raising level of science and technology and also with the impact of globalization. Many organizations, small and large have a traditional design and development concept, where a product is designed from its conceptual stage and working on a long term plans for the product. The impact of globalization on business has forced most industries to become more innovative and implement newer strategies to retain market leadership and growth with the desired profitability. The retention of corporate engineering knowledge and rules is also critical because of the aging workforce. Engineering and design move hand in hand, they are both synonymous and synchronous. Engineering design is one of the most intellectual challenges in the fast changing world. The concept of Knowledge Based Engineering and Axiomatic design is used as the means of being competitive in the industry by meeting all the functional requirements of what a customer needs in a product. Axiomatic design is used to show that the design is done using fundamental sets of principles which would make an efficient design and use of Knowledge Based engineering is a concept that would allow the retention of corporate knowledge as initiate-level engineers and designers enter the workforce. In this paper, authors discuss about the two concepts which involves designing a plastic drum that is used to store lubricants.

This paper examines a product that is currently in development at Greif, Inc., Mount Sterling, Kentucky. The traditional design process was not applied to this design for several reasons. The traditional design process is time consuming and resource intensive. It accounts for 75% - 80% of a product’s life cycle4. The time that is wasted can be used for value adding phases of a product’s life cycle. The traditional design process should be replaced for a more efficient process. This paper will exam two such design processes. The first process is knowledge based engineering (KBE). KBE has applications in design (CAD), analysis (FEA), simulation (CAS), optimization, manufacturing, and support (CAPP). These applications allow for hands off designing and design automation. The second process is axiomatic design. Axiomatic design relates a new design to the Independence Axiom (Axiom 1) and also to the Information Axiom (Axiom 2). The process begins by stating any customer requirements (this happens in the customer domain). The customer’s needs are then translated into the functional domain. The functional domain is where various functional requirements (FRs) are defined. Design parameters (DPs) are conceived in the physical domain. All the domains are then related to the process domain. The process domain is where process variables (PVs) are conceived based on