Potentials for Realising a Consistent Transition Between Function Modelling with the IFM Framework and Early System Simulation

in Proceedings of 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (2013)

Conceptual design is considered one of the most demanding design tasks requiring a joint effort of the involved designers, particularly in interdisciplinary design. Sound decision-making across ... [more ▼]

Conceptual design is considered one of the most demanding design tasks requiring a joint effort of the involved designers, particularly in interdisciplinary design. Sound decision-making across disciplines on alternative solution concepts may be considerably facilitated through early system simulation. A consistent transition of the available information in function modelling to early system simulation may thus support designers in this task. The IFM framework intends to support cross-disciplinary collaboration of involved designers by providing an integrated function modelling approach. In the paper it is analysed in how far a consistent transition from the IFM framework to established modelling techniques for simulation may be realised. The paper compares the information required for early system simulation in an interdisciplinary design context to the specific information conveyed in the different views of the IFM framework. The analysis identifies specific potentials and barriers for a consistent transition between them. Finally, the implications of the derived insights are discussed. [less ▲]

An Analysis of Functional Modelling Approaches Across Disicplines

in AI EDAM: Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design Analysis and Manufacturing (2013), 27(3),

Authors across disciplines propose functional modeling as part of systematic design approaches, in order to support and guide designers during conceptual design. The presented research aims at ... [more ▼]

Authors across disciplines propose functional modeling as part of systematic design approaches, in order to support and guide designers during conceptual design. The presented research aims at contributing to a better understanding of the diverse functional modeling approaches proposed across disciplines. The article presents a literature review of 41 modeling approaches from a variety of disciplines. The analysis focuses on what is addressed by functional modeling at which point in the proposed conceptual design process (i.e., in which sequence). The gained insights lead to the identification of specific needs and opportunities, which could support the development of an integrated functional modeling approach. The findings suggest that there is no such shared sequence for functional modeling across disciplines. However, a shared functional modeling perspective has been identified across all reviewed disciplines, which could serve as a common basis for the development of an integrated functional modeling approach. [less ▲]

AN ANALYSIS OF DESIGN PROCESS MODELS ACROSS DISCIPLINES

in Proceedings of the 12th International Design Conference - DESIGN 2012 (2012)

This paper presents a comparison of design methodologies and process models from nine disciplines. The evolutionary development of the approaches, which can be traced back to similar roots, lead to ... [more ▼]

This paper presents a comparison of design methodologies and process models from nine disciplines. The evolutionary development of the approaches, which can be traced back to similar roots, lead to process models which are now adapted to specific design disciplines but still have many similarities. Most of the established approaches have not been adapted to many of the challenges of current design practice and represent isolated views on the design process. This comparison is intended to provide a basis for consolidation and reformation of design methodology. [less ▲]

Enhancing Project Robustness: A Risk Management Perspective

Doctoral thesis (2011)

Product development projects are challenging management tasks. The complexity and dynamics of requirements and goals, the novelty of design tasks, and polytely (striving for multiple goals) can all affect ... [more ▼]

Product development projects are challenging management tasks. The complexity and dynamics of requirements and goals, the novelty of design tasks, and polytely (striving for multiple goals) can all affect the course of a project. Frequent consequences of these boundary conditions are unwanted events which inhibit a successful project. This work shall provide a better understanding of project robustness, its barriers and enablers. To achieve this goal, the work was conducted following a research approach based on the Design Research Methodology proposed by Blessing and Chakrabarti. The work is based on a comprehensive literature study which resulted in a model describing the causality of project failures. The underlying assumption of the project failure causality model, that companies which treat risks preventively and proactively are more likely to successfully finish their product development projects than other companies, is examined by an analysis of data from 141 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Design methodologies, project management, risk management and maturity models such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) are proposed in order to support product development. The study validates the importance of the use of these systematic approaches to support product development projects, but none of the considered approaches on its own will secure project success. This suggests that the expected benefit (a robust project) can only be achieved using different approaches conjointly. While design methodologies and project management offer a rich support for development activities, risk management supports the project specific selection of appropriate risk treatment measures. A result of this work is a support for the pre-selection of risk treatment strategies based on the project failure causality model and its link to the proposed categorisation of risk treatment strategies. In this dissertation it is shown that the proposed categorisation of risk treatment strategies, the categorisation of the risk impact evolvement, and the question based support were easily understood by industrial experts. Their feedback validates the applicability and acceptance of the question based support as helpful for risk treatment strategy pre-selection, but also lead to a revision of the proposed support. The result is a matrix based support, intended to contribute to an enhancement of project robustness by supporting the process of risk treatment strategy selection which is currently only insufficiently supported. The matrix based support considers, in addition to traditional risk characteristics (likelihood of occurrence and severity of impact) the time-dependent evolvement of risk impacts. [less ▲]

Comparisons of design methodologies and process models across disciplines: A literature review

in Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Engineering Design (2011)

Challenges resulting from an environment characterised by complexity, competition on global markets, dynamics and ever-changing user wants and needs are increasing and affect all design processes ... [more ▼]

Challenges resulting from an environment characterised by complexity, competition on global markets, dynamics and ever-changing user wants and needs are increasing and affect all design processes, irrespective of whether the product or system designed is a machine, a building, software, service, etc.. These challenges require collaboration between disciplines, but current design processes of large systems, such as aircraft, essentially show separate development strands for each discipline. Research into methods is ongoing, but the original design methodologies have not been adapted accordingly. Based on a literature study this paper consolidates findings from different comparisons of design methodologies and process models across disciplines. A consensus can be found that at least on an abstract level design process models have a generic core of common stages. On a detailed level the picture is different. The extent to which design approaches appear similar depends on the perspective of the analyses. The literature study provides an overview of shortcomings of existing design methodologies which may serve as starting points for further research and development of design methodologies. [less ▲]

Scenarios for coupling design thinking with systematic engineering design in NPD

in Proceedings of 1st Cambridge Academic Design Management Conference (2011)

This study addresses the external consultant-client interface and suggests different scenarios for coupling the design activities of both parties. More specifically, it investigates scenarios for coupling ... [more ▼]

This study addresses the external consultant-client interface and suggests different scenarios for coupling the design activities of both parties. More specifically, it investigates scenarios for coupling the user-centred perspective of design thinking with systematic engineering design processes via the consultant-client relationship. Having interviewed eight innovation consultants and lecturers working with design thinking, a scheme for differentiation of coupling-scenarios is proposed. The scheme considers different types of process-couplings (partial and complete substitution of the client’s design activities) and modes of interaction (the client’s active or passive involvement in solution generation). Implications for design practice are discussed. Our findings furthermore suggest four dominant issues that affect successful (external) consultant-client relationships: both parties are aware of design process models used when preparing and implementing design projects, negotiate the solution space when writing the design brief, manage expectations especially with respect to envisaged outcomes, and allow for unplanned and potentially unknown solutions. [less ▲]

Cognitive estimation in the ideation phase of engineering design

Poster (2010)

Estimation in its diverse forms is assumed to be relevant for problem solving in engineering design due to the inherent deficiencies in information availability and reliability. Nevertheless aside from ... [more ▼]

Estimation in its diverse forms is assumed to be relevant for problem solving in engineering design due to the inherent deficiencies in information availability and reliability. Nevertheless aside from some exception estimation as a method is hardly mentioned in standard literature on systematic approaches to engineering design like Pahl and Beitz. As well it is rarely deliberate addressed in engineering education. Engineering designers are expected to gain estimation competence by experience. Good performance in estimation and the development of estimation competence by hat is left to chance. Estimation as a problem solving strategy covers a wide range of activities on a continuous spectrum between the extremes of random guesses and highly mathematical statistics based approaches. Our research addresses estimation activities which are solely based on cognitive performance, without using specific mathematical procedures or technological support. Our current study is an explorative, qualitative protocol analysis of two idea creation meetings addressing different problems in the early phases of a technology-driven innovation project recorded by the DTRS7 organisation. The addressed research questions are: Where, how, why and what for is estimation used in engineering design? This analysis should give further insight in the not widely delineated topic of estimation in engineering design. [less ▲]

Measure and Failure Cost Analysis: Selecting Risk Treatment Strategies

in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design (2009)

Project Risk Management is used to prevent projects to fail. Despite its proven use, barriers still exist that hinder implementation and use by inexperienced persons. One barrier is the additional effort ... [more ▼]

Project Risk Management is used to prevent projects to fail. Despite its proven use, barriers still exist that hinder implementation and use by inexperienced persons. One barrier is the additional effort required by the process of Project Risk Management itself. An additional barrier is the lack of systematic support of important steps like the selection of an appropriate risk treatment strategy. The decision which strategy to select is a challenging task due to the uncertain character of the addressed issue. The trade-off of the perceived additional efforts caused by a method must be addressed by an enhancement of the cost-benefit ratio of the applied methods and implemented risk treatment measures. Decision making using the proposed Measure and Failure Cost Analysis (MFCA) method enables the Risk Manager to compare the arising costs of different risk treatment strategies caused by an occurring risk and risk treatment measures. It is based on a de-escalation principle which analyzes the course of the impact of an event. The method compares the reaction rate of different strategies and proposes the favorite one. [less ▲]

A Method for Identifying Improvement Potentials within Product Development Processes

in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design (2009)

When a company tries to improve its product development process one of the first challenges is to become clear about two things: what “improvement” means and where within the overall process it is most ... [more ▼]

When a company tries to improve its product development process one of the first challenges is to become clear about two things: what “improvement” means and where within the overall process it is most necessary. The method proposed in this paper aims at identifying activities within a development process which have a high potential for improvement. It is based on the concept of process efficiency, i.e. the ratio of effort spent vs. value added. While the effort of a development activity can be determined quite easily, the value it adds is more difficult to quantify. Therefore an algorithm is described which uses a Design Structure Matrix (DSM) to calculate the value of each development activity based on the knowledge gained through it and the degree to which other activities depend on it. The method has been successfully applied to a real-life product development process and has received initial positive feedback from industry. [less ▲]

A FRAMEWORK TO UNDERSTAND PROJECT ROBUSTNESS

Poster (2008)