Modeling Uncertainty Reduction in Concurrent Engineering Design Teams

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca A. Barrientos ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer ◽  
David G. Ullman
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Concurrent Engineering ◽  
Team Member ◽  
The State ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Group Awareness ◽  
Design Evolution ◽  
Process Uncertainty ◽  
Modeling Methodology

The design process can be viewed as a series of actions for reducing uncertainty in product or system design specifications. At the beginning of the design process, uncertainty is high because the design space has yet to be explored and decisions have not been made. This uncertainty contributes to design risk, risk due to the engineer’s lack of knowledge and/or information. In design teams, design risk takes on the added dimension of lack of group awareness about the state of knowledge of each team member. To better understand and capture uncertainty inherent in early design, we have developed a methodology to model design evolution in concurrent design teams. The representation is a directed graph that represents the state of a design over time. In this paper we describe our modeling methodology and present a case study of two different design teams. We present the results of modeling a part of the design process. Then we show how the model can be analyzed to understand how information and knowledge transfer was used to make decisions and reduce uncertainty and design risk.

Planning and Scheduling Based on an Explicit Representation of the State of the Design

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre´s Felipe Melo ◽  
P. John Clarkson
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Explicit Representation ◽  
Industrial Case Study ◽  
Planning And Scheduling ◽  
State Action ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Selection Of

This paper describes a computational model that provides planning information useful for scheduling the design process. The model aims to reduce uncertainty in the design process and with it the risk of rework. The view is taken that planning is concerned with choosing between alternative actions and action sequences, but not with resource allocation. The planning model is based on an explicit representation of the state of the design process, the definition of the design capabilities as a pool of tasks, and on the generation and selection of plans by evaluating their reliability. Classical decision theory is used for evaluating the plans: a state-action net is built and analyzed as a Markov decision process. The model produces plans based on qualified task dependencies. These plans can be used as a basis for manual and automated scheduling. In an example industrial case study, a reduction of over 30% in the expected rework was predicted.

The Fit Between Spatial Configuration and Idealized Flows: Mapping Flows in Surgical Facilities as Part of Case Study Visits

2020 ◽  
pp. 193758672092835
Author(s):  
Herminia Machry ◽  
Anjali Joseph ◽  
Deborah Wingler
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Spatial Configuration ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Flow Mapping ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Mapping Tool ◽  
Mapping Approach ◽  
The Impact

Purpose: This study proposes a flow mapping approach for surgical facilities that can be implemented by design teams as a component of case study tours. Background: The provision of healthcare services involves simultaneous and closely coupled flows of people, objects, and information, and the efficiency of these flows is influenced by the spatial configuration of the buildings where these services are housed. Many architecture firms conduct case study tours to inform their design process. However, these tours often lack a structured way of documenting different flows and interpreting observations. A structured approach is needed during the design process to understand the impact of spatial configuration on healthcare flows. Method: Site tours were conducted at four surgery centers to develop and test an evidence-based flow mapping approach. Idealized flows within surgical facilities were first identified from the literature, followed by the development of a data collection tool aimed at documenting these flows in each case study through a pre-assessment questionnaire, a physical assessment, and interviews with staff. Results: The flow mapping tool kit was effective in allowing the design team to systematically understand the physical configuration of surgical flows across case studies. The tool also allowed the team to identify spatial configuration characteristics acting as barriers and facilitators to idealized flows. Conclusions: The flow mapping approach was able to provide structure for conducting these short tours more effectively via observations and staff inquiry, enabling design teams to draw more meaningful conclusions from case study tours and conduct comparisons between healthcare facilities visited.

Applying Equity Design to Address Oakland’s Homelessness Human Rights Crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia KRAMER ◽  
Julia KONG ◽  
Brooke STATON ◽  
Pierce GORDON
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Thinking Process ◽  
Collaborative Efforts ◽  
Typical Design

In this case study, we present a project of Reflex Design Collective, an experimental social equity design consultancy based in Oakland, California. Since founding Reflex Design Collective four years ago, we have reimagined the role of “designers” to transform relationships structured by oppression. To illustrate this reimagination, we present a case study of our work as ecosystem-shifters. In 2017, we facilitated a co-design innovation summit where unhoused Oakland residents led collaborative efforts to alleviate the burdens of homelessness, with city staff and housed residents serving as allies instead of experts. Our approach to design facilitation differs from a typical design thinking process by pairing our clients with those on the front-lines of social inequity in a collaborative design process. Specifically, we elevate the importance of democratized design teams, contextualized design challenges, and ongoing reflection in a design process. We highlight successes of our design facilitation approach in the Oakland homelessness summit, including outcomes and areas for improvement. We then draw higher-level key learnings from our work that are translatable to designers and managers at large. We believe our approach to equity design will provide managers and designers an alternative mindset aimed to amplify the voices of marginalized groups and stakeholders.

Mixed quantitative/qualitative method for evaluating compromise solutions to conflicts in collaborative design

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Bahler ◽  
Catherine Dupont ◽  
James Bowen
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Concurrent Engineering ◽  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Bounded Domains ◽  
Design Teams ◽  
Compromise Solution ◽  
Compromise Solutions

AbstractConflicts are likely to arise among participants in a collaborative design process as the inevitable outgrowth of the differing perspectives and viewpoints involved. The opportunities for conflict are magnified if many perspectives are brought to bear on a common artifact early in the design process, as in concurrent engineering or integrated engineering. Design advice tools can assist in the process of resolving these conflicts by making critiques and suggestions conveniently available to design participants, and by offering a fair means of evaluating and comparing suggested alternatives for compromise solution. In previous work we introduced a protocol based on notions of economic utility by which design advice systems can recognize conflict and mediate negotiation fairly. This protocol allowed design teams to express the desire to maximize or minimize the values of design parameters over totally ordered bounded domains of values, such as real numeric intervals. In this paper we extend this approach by allowing expressed preferences of design teams to be qualitative as well as quantitative, by allowing teams to express interest in parameters before they actually come into existence, and by relaxing many other of the earlier restrictions on the ways teams may express their preferences.

Developing design literacy through brand-based artefacts

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catarina LELIS
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Basic Design ◽  
Willingness To Participate ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Interaction Structure ◽  
Functional Prototype ◽  
High Willingness

The brand is a powerful representational and identification-led asset that can be used to engage staff in creative, sustainable and developmental activities. Being a brand the result of, foremost, a design exercise, it is fair to suppose that it can be a relevant resource for the advancement of design literacy within organisational contexts. The main objective of this paper was to test and validate an interaction structure for an informed co-design process on visual brand artefacts. To carry on the empirical study, a university was chosen as case study as these contexts are generally rich in employee diversity. A non-functional prototype was designed, and walkthroughs were performed in five focus groups held with staff. The latter evidenced a need/wish to engage with basic design principles and high willingness to participate in the creation of brand design artefacts, mostly with the purposeof increasing its consistent use and innovate in its representation possibilities, whilst augmenting the brand’s socially responsible values.

Causing a Stir

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilo POTOCNJAK-OXMAN
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Design Team ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Early Stages

Stir was a crowd-voted grants platform aimed at supporting creative youth in the early stages of an entrepreneurial journey. Developed through an in-depth, collaborative design process, between 2015 and 2018 it received close to two hundred projects and distributed over fifty grants to emerging creatives and became one of the most impactful programs aimed at increasing entrepreneurial activity in Canberra, Australia. The following case study will provide an overview of the methodology and process used by the design team in conceiving and developing this platform, highlighting how the community’s interests and competencies were embedded in the project itself. The case provides insights for people leading collaborative design processes, with specific emphasis on some of the characteristics on programs targeting creative youth

Varied Responses to Human-Induced Seismicity in the City of Azle, Texas

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sarmistha R. Majumdar
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Induced Seismicity ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Prior History ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
The Status

Fracking has helped to usher in an era of energy abundance in the United States. This advanced drilling procedure has helped the nation to attain the status of the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but some of its negative externalities, such as human-induced seismicity, can no longer be ignored. The occurrence of earthquakes in communities located at proximity to disposal wells with no prior history of seismicity has shocked residents and have caused damages to properties. It has evoked individuals’ resentment against the practice of injection of fracking’s wastewater under pressure into underground disposal wells. Though the oil and gas companies have denied the existence of a link between such a practice and earthquakes and the local and state governments have delayed their responses to the unforeseen seismic events, the issue has gained in prominence among researchers, affected community residents, and the media. This case study has offered a glimpse into the varied responses of stakeholders to human-induced seismicity in a small city in the state of Texas. It is evident from this case study that although individuals’ complaints and protests from a small community may not be successful in bringing about statewide changes in regulatory policies on disposal of fracking’s wastewater, they can add to the public pressure on the state government to do something to address the problem in a state that supports fracking.

Islamic and Jewish Religious Feminists Tackle Islamic and Jewish Oral Law: Maintenance and Rebellion of Wives

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-63
Author(s):  
Ruth Roded
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Political System ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Parallel Case ◽  
First Time

Beginning in the early 1970s, Jewish and Muslim feminists, tackled “oral law”—Mishna and Talmud, in Judaism, and the parallel Hadith and Fiqh in Islam, and several analogous methodologies were devised. A parallel case study of maintenance and rebellion of wives —mezonoteha, moredet al ba?ala; nafaqa al-mar?a and nush?z—in classical Jewish and Islamic oral law demonstrates similarities in content and discourse. Differences between the two, however, were found in the application of oral law to daily life, as reflected in “responsa”—piskei halacha and fatwas. In modern times, as the state became more involved in regulating maintenance and disobedience, and Jewish law was backed for the first time in history by a state, state policy and implementation were influenced by the political system and socioeconomic circumstances of the country. Despite their similar origin in oral law, maintenance and rebellion have divergent relevance to modern Jews and Muslims.

The application of E-commerce among small medium enterprises : a case study in Kelantan

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Norudin Mansor ◽  
Che Ismail Long ◽  
Ahmad Ismail Mohd. Annuar
Keyword(s):  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
The State ◽  
Business Community ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Business Decision ◽  
Small Medium Enterprises ◽  
Medium Enterprises

The research project was conducted to investigate the understanding of E-commerce Application among the SMEs in the state of Kelantan. Focusing on the population of registered members of Dewan Perniagaan Melayu Malaysia, Kelantan, a total of302 respondents were selected to participate in our study. Moving in line with the general assumption of world business community it is agreed that e-commerce application is highly relevant for the survival and meeting the challenges of borderless economy. At the same time, the process of acquiring knowledge and understanding the environment, coping with changes, and speeding up the business decision, able to further enhance the competitive advantage of the SMEs. Using the established model, our investigation focused on 5 identifiable variables to demonstrate its usefulness towards motivating SMEs to adopt e-commerce. Our analysis indicated that all the selected variables were significant towards enhancing the application of e-commerce and thus maintaining competitive advantage in the industry.

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