Systems Engineering Final Presentation: Innovating the road construction business
- Post by: Alessandro Bertoni
- 29th May 2015
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What is the next step in the road construction business? How do we create competitive advantage by redesigning the machines todays in use? These, and similar questions, have been addressed by the students of the Systems Engineering course that have presented their final project results in the morning of May 26th.
Six groups of students have worked in parallel on the redesign of different models of asphalt rollers and have presented and discussed their innovative designs to a mixed audience of students, teachers and industrial representative from Atlas Copco. The Dynapac small and medium asphalt rollers by Atlas Copco have been the subjects of the redesign activity. The work has been facilitated by the use of the systems engineering methods at tools that the students have learned during the course.
The students have presented the new designs putting a particular emphasis on the value that they would generate for the customer, on the satisfaction of the needs from different stakeholders and on the impact of such innovations on the engineering characteristics of the current product. The presentations have also shown the analysis of the cost and the risk aspects to be taken into consideration when developing such innovations.
The introduction of hybrid engines, the use of special sensors for real time monitoring of the road quality, and a redesign of the mechanical systems granting motion and vibration, are just examples of the many ideas presented during the event.
The presentations were very successful in capturing the attention of the academic and industrial audience opening a spectrum of opportunities for further development, showing that the next innovation might be just around the corner…