抄録
Product Development is an important topic for many engineering courses and educational programs. It deals with all the necessary steps to bring new or redesigned products to the market. Although product development is practiced in many different ways, there are some common elements that can be taught by universities to prepare students for jobs in industry. In this study, a globally available software was tested in a product development project, as part of an undergraduate course for Mechanical Engineering students. The project entailed development of a liquid container for use in developing countries or disaster areas. The software, CES EduPack, consists of a combination of materials and manufacturing process databases, eco-performance indicators, as well as computer based selection and visualization tools. This platform of comprehensive and comparable data provided by the software, combined with visual charts and Eco Audits, facilitates the communication and collaboration within and between project groups. This is useful e.g., in concurrent engineering or global engineering. In the case study, we confirm that the computer based approach employed could be used to facilitate collaborative learning and identify, in particular, three areas related to the product development process where the software has been a successful resource.
