Assessment of how Engineering Design Can Be Managed - Assignment Example

Name Tutor Course Date Assessment of how Engineering Design can be Managed. Design refers to the appearance of an object and particularly in reference to its outward appearance and functions. A good design offers good visual impact, appeals to visual perceptions as well as the design being able to meet its functional requirements. Design is a process that involves several stages of conception, invention, visualization, calculation, and details specification stage. Design also involves drawings that are used in the manufacturing of a given product. Mostly, drawings are the final stage of any design process. Any design problem starts with a rise in need of a product either in the market, trends or a basic need in life of a group of individuals. The designer makes out the sketches and models of the proposed product before carrying out the design calculations which are determined and monitored by the product’s detail specifications. The calculations goes hand in hand with the specifications to ensure that the end product meets the intended functions or requirements. General design process allows for re-works of one of the design stages just I case a certain concept is considered inappropriate. This way, the process is smooth flowing and appropriate changes can be made as deems fit. Generally, the design process involves; 1. Recognition of a need. The designer identifies an existing possible market for a given product. The need may also be considered as when the designer wants to re-modify one of an existing design so as to meet some function. 2. Problem definition. The specifications or changes to a product including its characteristics are determined. 3. Synthesis. The process combines both the conceptual, and the detailed design stages. The designer develops the concept of the design by combining up of major, developed and well thought ideas. 4. Analysis. In this stage, the designer also determines the specific dimensions, for example, the size and the shape of the product. 5. Optimization. The design process is reworked with the set of conflicting criteria to enable the designer select the set providing the best compromise of the design specifications or functions. 6. Evaluation. The design is tested to identify whether or not it meets its original requirements. Evaluation is mostly carried out by development of a prototype to the design. The above processes are considered the main and the core to any design activity and resembles the total design model. The methodology of total design model has been adapted I most of the organizations since it offers a good frame that allows any design process to be explored or undertaken. A good designer will require advanced scientific know how, one who is creative, and of logical thoughts, conceptual and innovative. Total design model involves systematic approach to a design whereby, it covers the whole process from identification of the need to the point of selling of the product. The model hence considers that the product or process will meet its market requirement upon selling. Design specification stages constitutes one of the very important and key stages of any development. Proper specifications limits the defining attributes to a design. Management of a design involves controlling the work involved in the design processes. Management should encourage creativity to the design team and at most instances, has timescales and costs which defines how long the design activities should last or cost in terms of monetary value. The management of any design or project may at most times determine the success of its endeavors, therefore, the design manager should be very keen on the overall design process to a product. The evaluation matrix in this case, may serve a very critical role in determining the set of parameters, ideas or concepts with the most probable outcome. The most appropriate criteria is weighted more ruling out the least suitable ones. The cost of the product will then be determined by the manager by considering the costs that were involved in the design including the overhead costs. The overall price of the final product would dictate how it sells relative to the competing products or substitutes. Classification of the organization design According to Lemass, competence in engineering design is diminishing from the dissatisfaction resulting from the inability of the education systems to equip the graduates with the right and sufficient qualities that designers should have at the end of their profession as engineers. Also according to Lemass classes of engineering design, I would classify my organization’s design activities as adaptive. Unlike routine design where basic skills are the only thing required to accomplish the design work, adaptive design allows for development of advanced technical and non-technical concepts to determine the constraints and criteria that best suits the design. Adaptive design allows for innovation based on the existing natural phenomena, and as well as the design obeying the known scientific objectives and constraints. A designer with a good knowhow would be very creative and productive under adaptive design unlike being so fast in getting the solution to a design problem when considering routine design. Adaptive design accommodates several case scenarios unlike routine design a several technical factors come into play while routine design will demand for a change in one or so variables and thus suited to a graduate. Unprecedented design may be time consuming as well as having a high probability of uncertainty because the design approach lies on something that possess no previous occurrence. The design may thus be very tedious, costly and consuming more time than would be necessary. An engineering organization selling its design products will use units of measurement that are applied to the place of market of their products. If a market uses the unit of measurement of weight as pounds, then the engineering organization should use the same as the units of its product and so does it happen to an organization whose market units are kilograms. In other words, any organization would use units that well corresponds to the buyers in it market. The correspondence allows for appropriate understanding and communication between the parties involved in that design product. Organization design flowchart Chart 1; Organization chart incorporating design Chart 2; design flowchart Improving organization design process To reduce cycle time or the concept to final design design or manufacture time, team work would be an approach to consider. A team of specialized engineers, and researchers would be a way to facilitating and identifying solutions to the design problem in a fast way. With team work of specialists, product design cost is decreased as the level of uncertainty is reduced, quality of the product improved and delays or wait time in the design stages minimized. Decision making is also significantly improved (Hales, 1993). Use of software that are specialized in design, analysis and evaluation of a product can greatly reduce design time as compared to computations being done by a calculator. A good example of software include computer aided design, computer aided manufacturing and computer aided Engineering. Errors are dominant when calculations are done manually which increases the uncertainty while very rarely does an error occur if carried out by a design software. The capacities and abilities of such software is much greater as compared to human beings. The software would reduce the routine mistakes that engineers do during the design process. Design software can also be connected to the machines used in the manufacture of the product and in so doing the design process is fastened with an accompanied reduced human labor and cost. Prototyping is an approach that can be applicable in an organization in reducing cycle time or the concept to final design and manufacturing time. Prototyping involves making a model that represents the product to be designed. A model helps in generation of concepts ad constraints that are likely to hinder the design. Human nature demands that something visualizable is better understood or easily analyzed as compared to something in theory form. With a prototype tests can be carried out before manufacturing of the product and other than reducing production of uncertain product also contributes in a reduction in the cycle time (Hales, 1993). Streamlining the approval procedure on the overall design process would help reduce cycle time. There should be a reduction on the number of reviews at critical points and ensuring short approval cycles. The management or the manager should provide clear instructions and directions to the development team on matters pertaining to the specifications of the product, cost to be incurred, and schedules to the design process as well as the development strategies to be adopted. With scheduling every tasks is timed and on the other hand the cycle time reduced. Identifying and eliminating tasks that have repeated occurrences or that demand multiple iterations. Repeated tasks acts as a waste of constructive time that could have been so beneficial to the design process. Repetition of tasks indicates that the right action could have been achieved at the first time if caution was in place. Streamlining these tasks and doing away with complex and unnecessary paper work, as well as eliminating redundant data entry operations would greatly reduce concept to final design time of a product. How organizations carry out dimensional analysis Most organizations nowadays are employing specific computer software packages and the classical analysis technique in carrying out dimensional analysis. The computer software packages have contributed to a greater extent in reducing or minimizing the cost and time spent in qualitative analysis computations. Computer packages are however, disadvantageous as graduates proficient in the use of computer lack the seeing and feeling of the structural behaviour. Software are becoming increasingly applicable as the design process becomes more and more sophisticated (Hales, 1993). Costing of a product by an organization is a tedious activity as it involves determination of all costs incurred in the design, development and manufacture, all fixed and variable costs come into play. The organization has to also determine all overhead costs as well as the profit the product should earn the organization. The time consumed in the overall development process will determine the profit the organization earns from the product design. Work cited Hales, Crispin. Managing Engineering Design. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman Scientific & Technical, 1993. Print. Engineering. London: Office for Advertisements and Publication, 1866. Print. Gilb, Tom, and Lindsey Brodie. Competitive Engineering: A Handbook for Systems Engineering, Requirements Engineering, and Software Engineering Using Planguage. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2005. Internet resource. Read More

The design is tested to identify whether or not it meets its original requirements. Evaluation is mostly carried out by the development of a prototype to the design.

The above processes are considered the main and the core of any design activity and resemble the total design model. The methodology of the total design model has been adapted in most organizations since it offers a good frame that allows any design process to be explored or undertaken. A good designer will require advanced scientific know-how, one who is creative, and of logical thoughts, conceptual and innovative. The total design model involves a systematic approach to a design whereby, it covers the whole process from identification of the need to the point of selling of the product. The model hence considers that the product or process will meet its market requirement upon selling.

Design specification stages constitute one of the very important and key stages of any development. Proper specifications limit the defining attributes of a design. Management of a design involves controlling the work involved in the design processes. Management should encourage creativity to the design team and in most instances, has timescales and costs which define how long the design activities should last or cost in terms of monetary value.

The management of any design or project may at most times determine the success of its endeavors, therefore, the design manager should be very keen on the overall design process of a product. The evaluation matrix, in this case, may serve a very critical role in determining the set of parameters, ideas, or concepts with the most probable outcome. The most appropriate criteria are weighted more ruling out the least suitable ones.

The cost of the product will then be determined by the manager by considering the costs that were involved in the design including the overhead costs. The overall price of the final product would dictate how it sells relative to the competing products or substitutes.

Classification of the organization design

According to Lemass, competence in engineering design is diminishing from the dissatisfaction resulting from the inability of the education systems to equip the graduates with the right and sufficient qualities that designers should have at the end of their profession as engineers.

Also according to Lemass classes of engineering design, I would classify my organization’s design activities as adaptive. Unlike routine design where basic skills are the only thing required to accomplish the design work, the adaptive design allows for the development of advanced technical and non-technical concepts to determine the constraints and criteria that best suits the design. Adaptive design allows for innovation based on the existing natural phenomena, and as well as the design obeying the known scientific objectives and constraints.

A designer with good know-how would be very creative and productive under adaptive design unlike being so fast in getting the solution to a design problem when considering routine design. Adaptive design accommodates several case scenarios, unlike routine design several technical factors come into play while the routine design will demand a change in one or so variables and thus suited to a graduate.

The unprecedented design may be time-consuming as well as having a high probability of uncertainty because the design approach lies on something that possesses no previous occurrence. The design may thus be very tedious, costly, and consuming more time than would be necessary. An engineering organization selling its design products will use units of measurement that are applied to the place of the market of their products. If a market uses the unit of measurement of weight as pounds, then the engineering organization should use the same as the units of its product and so does it happen to an organization whose market units are kilograms. In other words, any organization would use units that well corresponds to the buyers in its market.

Read More