Improving Engineering Design Designing for Competitive Advantage (1991) / Chapter Skim
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4 A National Engineering Design Research Agenda
4 A National Engineering Design Research Agenda
Pages 50-66
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From page 50... ...
Over time, a well-conceived, sustained program of engineering design research will gradually reduce U.S. companies' reliance on ad hoc design methods and improve their ability to produce higher quality, lower cost products and reduce lead time to market for new or modified products.
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From page 51... ...
This complexity makes difficult, but does not prevent, the formulation of useful theoretical foundations, at least for important aspects of the design process. In connection with this complexity, the field of engineering design can be viewed as consisting of three independent categories of variables and abstractions: (1)
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From page 52... ...
A further subdivision can be made on the basis of whether the product to be designed is a single component or an assembly of components and/or subassemblies.62 Once a complete taxonomy of design problems is developed, and means for identifying and formulating each type are known, the search for engineering design methodologies becomes one of finding and explaining generic processes, strategies, and knowledge applicable to each type. Such problem-type-onented fundamental development has begun and is in fact quite extensively developed for the parametric design of components.63 Work on parametric design of assemblies is progressing, since various optimization approaches are potentially applicable.
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A Developing Scientific Foundations for Design Models and Methods Research topics in this category deal with the fundamental scientific foundations on which the subsequent development of new design practices and tools will be based.
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[descriptions change during the design process from highly abstract to highly detailed. To support new best-practice product realization processes, especially at early stages and in concurrent design environments, new computer representation methods are required.
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Nevertheless, if the world's best design knowledge can be acquired, organized, generalized, codified, and made available to designers in a convenient fashion, design practices will not only be improved, but also made more efficient. "Reinventing the wheel" can become a phenomenon of the past except, no doubt, where direct competition prevents information sharing.
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From page 56... ...
Work to date has generally taken the form of developing models of design processes at venous stages and/or for different domains (e.g., linkages, power plants, building structures, and so forth) .72 The stages usually studied are those mentioned earlier: conceptual design (sometimes referred to as preliminary or embodiment design)
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B Creating and Improving Design Support Tools The introduction of new tools that improve designer productivity or performance is the most direct cause of changes in design practice.
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to develop new methods of analysis, simulation, and computational prototyping that serve early stages of design and the new concurrent design practices, and (2) to make both existing and new tools readily useful to all designers.
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From page 59... ...
One may serve to test the applicability of a new material or process; another may test tolerance issues; some will have multiple purposes. Physical prototyping methods and tools are needed that serve the specific needs of the design process and that enable rapid realization of the desired physical model.
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From page 60... ...
Development of more accurate, tested quality and cost models, especially at the preliminary or conceptual design stages, is essential to support effective concurrent design. Studies are needed that identify early the product features that drive downstream quality and cost and relate these features to ultimate quality and cost, allowing models to be developed that support tradeoff decisions throughout the design process.
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From page 61... ...
Very little has been done, for example, on the flow of information within a design organization or between a manufacturing firm and its suppliers, yet these and other organization and communication studies are relevant to other areas of design research and to the development of better computer-based supporting tools. The goals of research in this area are several: to create and evaluate useful models of how information is and should be exchanged and used in a product realization process; to understand how multidisciplinary teams work in order to improve their performance; to create and evaluate models of product realization processes; and to learn how various supporting tools influence the performance of teams and of a product realization organi7~tion.
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From page 62... ...
Benefits of Implementing the Engineering Design Research Agenda The benefits to design practice and education that can flow from implementation of this research agenda include: · a new generation of computer-aided design tools that support preliminary as well as detailed (parametric) design and that provide designers with information needed for manufacturability and life cycle issues; · prescriptions to improve organization and communication in the product development process; · useful quality-cost models that can support design and management decision making at the preliminary design stage; · improved interfaces to engineering analysis and simulation tools; · better information relating tolerances to cost and performance; · more complete and implementable methodologies for design problem solving; new prescriptions for generating and evaluating configuration and conceptual design alternatives; · greater availability and accessibility of the knowledge needed by designers to perform all types of design; · development of design procedures that lead toward integration of all stages of design, from concept through disposal, involving the entire business enterprise, and directly addressing concerns regarding cost, quality, and length of the design cycle.
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From page 63... ...
DISSEMINATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS TO INDUSTRY Engineering design research can yield major advances in engineering design methods, but the research must be related to the problems of industry and must be readily adaptable to the industrial design environment. Though university research efforts in engineering design are frequently long range and their results potentially applicable across a wide spectrum of industries, problems with dissemination of research results have left most engineering designers and engineering design managers believing that current design research has little relevance, so they are unwilling to seek and utilize new research results.
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From page 64... ...
These graduates can either enter industry, bringing with them new and advanced engineering design knowledge, or accept faculty positions, through which they can pass their knowledge to a new generation of practicing engineers.89 A third route Is through design-oriented faculty members who work or consult in industry and engineering designers from industry who spend time in universities. Although these personal modes of information transfer are important and contribute to awareness of new ideas in industry, effective exploitation of engineering design research demands that research results be put into forms useful to industrial firms.
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From page 65... ...
10. Establish university-led engineering design research projects that provide industrial and government people with research experience directed at creating new design practices and tools.
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From page 66... ...
Incrementally funded proprietary projects would be facilitated, and NCED employees would be encouraged to consult for some portion of each month. The primary objectives of the NCED would be to develop and accumulate knowledge of world-class engineering design practice and processes and transfer that knowledge to sponsoring organizations through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms.
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