A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective

Abstract

Research has shown that motorcycle riders' persona and posture have a large impact on motorcycle safety, bringing these challenges into the domain of human factors. Besides these aspects, motorcycle designers must consider the emotional values of such artefacts for it to be successful in the market. Indeed, motorcycle designers must take into account multitude of factors when developing such artefacts. These all pose challenges to designers whilst carrying out motorcycle design. A study was carried out with motorcycle designers to investigate their current design practices, and challenges faced during motorcycle design. A critical literature review revealed that there is a research gap in decision consequence models which do not take a holistic view of the underlying phenomena during design decision-making of motorcycle designers. The gap in literature together with the outcome of the study, collectively led to the development of a decision consequence-based phenomena model during motorcycle design. The model is validated with two case studies from the motorcycle industry through the use of a comparative-validation approach. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Agius, S., Farrugia, P. and Francalanza, E. (2021) 'A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena in motorcycle engineering design from a human factor's perspective', Int. Biographical notes: Sean Agius is a university graduate and warranted engineer, holding a degree in Mechanical Engineering, BEng (hons.), from the University of Malta (class 2011). His final project thesis, for which he was awarded the highest grade (first class), consisted in developing a mathematical model to simulate the performance of a floating offshore wind turbine. Following, he continued developing his project and obtained his Master's focusing on aerodynamics computational modelling from the University of Malta, in 2014. During his studies, he has also published several scientific papers and presented his work in local and foreign conferences. Currently, he is a PhD student at the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) at University of Malta, focusing on design engineering, simulation and artificial intelligence coding. A decision consequence-based model to understand the phenomena 73 Philip Farrugia received his BEng (hons.) from the University of Malta (UM) in 2001 with first class honours and PhD in Product Design from the same university. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (DIME) at UM. He has attracted over 1.3 M euros in research funding from various programmes, including Horizon 2020, aimed at developing mostly medical devices, smart therapeutic and rehabilitation products. He coordinated the taught Master's course in integrated product development managed by the DIME for ten years. He has published over 50 peer reviewed research papers in fields related to product development. His current research interests revolve around the development of high-value added products and innovative product service systems for healthcare. Emmanuel Francalanza holds the position of a Lecturer and Head of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at University of Malta. He has an established research track record in the field of digital manufacturing. His research is mainly focused on developing methods and tools to support the implementation of 'Industry 4.0' technologies. This research work involves the design, use and implementation of digital technologies such as simulation, IIoT and artificial intelligence within products and manufacturing systems.