1 PhD Scholarship in the Field of Robust Design and Production Process Capability Assessment in Denmark | Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

The Department of Mechanical Engineering (DTU Mekanik) of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has an open PhD position in the field of Robust Design and Production Process Capability Assessment. The project is part of a large research programme in Robust Design sponsored by Novo Nordisk which contains 4 PhD projects, a Senior Researcher and a Professor.

When it comes to production, variance exists and variance costs! Robust design is a design activity that makes the function/performance of products, components, structures and mechanisms insensitive to variance. Variance can come from several sources, from manufacture/assembly tolerances, material properties, loading conditions, temperature/ambient changes and time related changes such as creep and wear. We see huge problems in industry due to a lack of design robustness, causing many damaging effects such as product failures and recalls, increased and unpredictable repair/servicing, and varying product quality and life. In addition, within the companies there are large consequences for a lack of robustness, such as long ramp-up times, missed launch dates, expensive and late design changes and a general lack of predictability around the reliability and performance of the products. The above effects make robust design one of the most essential and sort-after skills from Danish industry at the moment, giving large potential impact for the research and extremely good job prospects post PhD.

The PhD will be one of several PhD projects in a larger research programme of the newly formed robust design group, investigating into robust design and reliability. This particular PhD focuses on quantifying production process capabilities to allow designers to Design to Process Capabilities (DtPC) rather than simply specifying tolerance targets for production to try to achieve.

The project is also supported by Dansk Teknologisk Institut who work in metrology, 3D scanning and part verification. Through this partnership we hope to build a process capabilities data base by extracting data from part verification jobs. By linking how much the manufacture part varies from the specified CAD model, to the features and the production processes an accurate, realistic and scalable Process Capabilities Database is possible. Through this method it may be possible to bring Manufacturing towards the world of Big Data allowing for much more accurate variance predications. It may also enable companies to benchmark process capabilities against one another and to find the limits of what is currently achievable.

At Novo Nordisk, the sponsoring case company the PhD candidate will be positioned between design and production and will be a welcomed and valued member of the team, working with state of the art automated production facilities.

DTU Mechanical Engineering covers the fundamental engineering disciplines within Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering, Energetics, Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Control and Engineering Design, Hydrodynamics, Structural Engineering and Materials. It has a scientific staff of about 100 persons, 100 PhD students and a technical/administrative support staff of 80 persons.

DTU is a technical university providing internationally leading research, education, innovation and public service. Our staff of 5,000 advance science and technology to create innovative solutions that meet the demands of society; and our 9,000 students are educated to address the technological challenges of the future. DTU is an independent academic university collaborating globally with business, industry, government, and public agencies.

Application: Apply here.

Application Deadline: 23 January 2014.