Analysis of Design of Flowers and Honeybees in the Pollination Process

By Pratap Sundar, Chandan Chowdhury, Sagar Kamarthi
4th IEOM (Industrial Engineering and Operations Management) Asia Pacific International Conference | September 2023

Citation

Sundar, Pratap., Chowdhury, Chandan., Kamarthi, Sagar. Analysis of Design of Flowers and Honeybees in the Pollination Process 4th IEOM (Industrial Engineering and Operations Management) Asia Pacific International Conference .

4th IEOM (Industrial Engineering and Operations Management) Asia Pacific International Conference, 2023

Abstract

Pollination is a crucial ecological process for the sustainment of both natural and agricultural systems. Approximately 85% of flowering plants depend on animal pollinators for successful reproduction. Over 75% of global food crops rely on pollinators, making them indispensable for sustaining human populations. The pollination process is accomplished by wind, water, insects, birds, bats, mammals, amphibians, and mollusks. The pollination process in angiosperms is robust because of the efficacious design features of flowers and pollinators. The axiomatic design offers a methodology to judge if a design is good or bad. This paper analyzes the design features of flowers and honeybees related to the pollination process. The functional requirements (FRs) of components of a flower and a honeybee are tabulated and mapped onto nature-chosen design parameters (DPs). The “independence axiom” of the axiomatic design methodology is applied to analyze couplings and to evaluate if the features of a flower and a honeybee form a good design (i.e., uncoupled design) or a bad design (i.e., coupled design). The analysis revealed that the flowers and honeybees are a good design to support pollination. This approach to judging whether nature’s entities are good or bad designs can be valuable for biomimicry studies. This approach can also be useful in teaching design considerations of biology and bio-inspired innovation.

Chandan Chowdhury is a Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems (Practice) at the Indian School of Business (ISB). He is also the Executive Director of the Munjal Institute for Global Manufacturing and the Punj-Lloyd Institute of Infrastructure Management at ISB.

Additionally, Professor Chowdhury serves as a Member of the Board of Governors at IIM Sambalpur and Lamrin Tech Skills University.

Before joining ISB, Professor Chowdhury worked in the corporate sector and was associated with three major multinational companies, where he held positions such as Managing Director and Country Manager. He served Dassault Systèmes for over five years, initially as Managing Director, India Geo, and subsequently as Vice President, Global Affairs.

During his last academic appointment, he was Professor, Dean (Academy), and Chairman of the Board of Research at IIM Mumbai (formerly known as NITIE- National Institute of Industrial Engineering, established as a joint initiative between the United Nations and the Government of India in 1963).

He is passionate about leveraging technology to make the world a better place. He served as an expert panel member at NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India, Government of India), helping to develop the Manufacturing India@2035 roadmap. He is also Chairman of the Technical Committee (Management and Productivity) at the Bureau of Indian Standards.

Professor Chowdhury is currently leading several research projects of national importance, such as ‘A Decade of Infrastructure Development in India: trends and Insights’, ‘Challenges and Opportunities for accelerating MSME’s growth’, ‘Making India a Skill Capital of the World,’ ‘India’s readiness for the 4th and the 5th Industrial revolution,’ and ‘Future of Jobs’.
He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and a PhD from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

He holds an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and a PhD from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Budapest University of Technology and Economics.

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Chandan Chowdhury