Product design and engineering — past, present, future trends in teaching, research and practices: academic and industry points of view

• Published in: Current opinion in chemical engineering Vol. 27; pp. 10 - 21
• Main Authors: Uhlemann, Jens, Costa, Raquel, Charpentier, Jean-Claude
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Engineering Sciences
• ISSN: 2211-3398; 2211-3398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coche.2019.10.003

•Product design and engineering (PDE) is comprehensively reviewed.•PDE defines products based on customer needs and new technologies.•PDE incorporates a product pyramid, a multi-scale approach and design integration.•PDE contributes to new product development (NPD) workflows in process industries.•PDE helps chemical engineering to transition to the ‘knowledge economy’. Product Design & Engineering (PDE) aims to define new and/or improved products based on customer needs and/or new technologies. A comprehensive discussion of PDE as a building block for chemical engineering education, research and practice seems still lacking, preventing a broader impact on academic and industry realities more and more concerned with the ‘knowledge economy’. The purpose of the present current opinion paper was to contribute to the mitigation of this gap by presenting the results the EFCE Section Group PDE survey based on PDE academia and industry expert and practitioner feedback as well as on a literature review. The paper discusses PDE status and challenges as well as maps academic and industry requirements, unmet needs and perspectives for the product manufacturing in the framework of Industry 4.0.