scholarly journals THE CREATIVITY MATRIX: AN EXTENSION TO AXIOMATIC DESIGN

Author(s):  
Brad Crowell ◽  
Peter Gregson

Axiomatic Design helps a designer to make good design decisions. However, this addresses only one part of design. Prior to selecting a proposed design, the designer must synthesize options for further consideration. Within engineering design, creativity and expertise have been left to the competency of the designer and called the “art of engineering design”. To achieve a truly creative design process that addresses both analysis and synthesis, methods based on theories from Cognitive Psychology must be included. The resulting Creative Axiomatic Design process addresses both synthesis and analysis, enhancing creativity and expertise to inspire innovation and alternative perspectives on the design problem.

Author(s):  
Naz Yaldız ◽  
Mark Bailey

AbstractAlthough the conceptual design is a fundamental process through which design decisions are made, its focus is on finding the right solution. Is finding the right solution enough for a good design? Defining the problem or applying a solution-focused process may not be enough to create the differences that must be present in today's variable conditions. This can be overcome through seeking meaning instead of seeking a solution. The purpose of this article is to develop an approach that focuses on seeking meaning for products by starting with a design-thinking approach to the conceptual design process in engineering design. Focusing on a search for meaning in engineering design will provide advantages, such as creating unique values and sustainable competition.


Author(s):  
Mats Nordlund ◽  
Taesik Lee ◽  
Sang-Gook Kim

In 1977, Nam P Suh proposed a different approach to design research. Suh’s approach was different in that it introduced the notions of domains and layers in a 2-D design thinking and stipulated a set of axioms that describes what is a good design. Following Suh’s 2-D reasoning structure in a zigzagging manner and applying these axioms through the design process should enable the designer to arrive at a good design. In this paper, we present our own experiences in applying Suh’s theories to software design, product design, organizational design, process design, and more in both academic and industrial settings. We also share our experience from teaching the Axiomatic Design theory to students at universities and engineers in industry, and draw conclusions on how best to teach and use this approach, and what results one can expect. The merits of the design axioms are discussed based on the practical experiences that the authors have had in their application. The process developed around the axioms to derive maximum value (solution neutral environment, design domains, what-how relationship, zig-zag process, decomposition, and design matrices) is also discussed and some updates are proposed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.36) ◽  
pp. 854
Author(s):  
K. Palani Raj ◽  
G. Veeramani

Marketing based decision making process in engineering design is an important study required for industries. How to take efficient decision in design that influence marketing? Most of the engineering design decisions are based on consumer behaviour. Decision making in risk and uncertainty in engineering design is an important phenomenon. Cost and time are the two important factors that results loss because of inefficient decision and it affects marketing. Problems involved in marketing based engineering design and decision making process in solving problems is elaborately studied in this journal. How to choose a design in various alternatives, design process, manufacturing feasibility, material and methodology are the important factors that influences decision making in engineering design for marketing. Different types of theories in decision making process that helps in taking proper decision were studied in this journal. This study is based on data taken from various Research & Development centre in Industries. 


Author(s):  
Shinya Sekimoto ◽  
Makoto Ukai

Abstract This paper deals with creative processes in engineering design. The study is based on the axiomatic design theory (Suh, 1988, 1990). The creative processes involved in engineering design are not yet fully understood. However, it is an exciting theme to study how human designers can generate designs or design concepts that are superior to those currently possible in terms of performance, manufacturability, reliability, cost, etc. This paper first reviews the axiomatic design theory. Then, the creative processes in three different design steps are discussed based on the axiomatic design theory. The creative processes are illustrated using the design of paper handling mechanisms of an ATM (Automatic teller machine).


Author(s):  
Jorge G. Cham ◽  
Maria C. Yang

Sketching is an activity that takes place throughout the engineering design process, and is often linked to design cognition. This preliminary study identifies different skills that contribute to a designer’s sketching ability and explores how those skills might be related to sketch fluency and design outcome. A positive correlation was found between the quantity of sketches produced and sketch skills that emphasize drawing facility, but a negative correlation was found between sketch quantity and a skill related to mechanism visualization. Sketching is sometimes considered a generic skill, but this study suggests that there are differences among the different types of sketching skills in the context of engineering design. No notable relationship was found between sketching ability and design outcome. Results also suggest that students provided with explicit instruction in sketching tended to draw more overall, although there are likely many other factors involved.


Author(s):  
D. Navinchandra

Abstract There is a growing interest in making products environmentally more compatible. While there is a need to make products and processes less toxic, to increase recyclability, and to reduce waste; we have to try to achieve environmental friendliness without compromising product quality. This approach to design has come to be called Green Engineering Design. The aim is to identify, develop, and exploit new technologies that can bolster productivity without costing the environment. The idea is to inject concerns about environmental friendliness into the design process; where, the assessment of environmental friendliness is based on a life-cycle view of the product. This includes the product’s manufacturing process, distribution, use, and final disposal. Our approach to green engineering design has two pans: (1) the development of special green indicators — measures of environmental compatibility, and (2) tools that use the green indicators to help designers assess, compare, and make design decisions.


Author(s):  
W. P. Neumann ◽  
J. Winkel

A case study in Volvo Powertrain is conducted to examine the distribution of responsibility for human factors in the companies’ engineering design process. Design decisions with human factors impact, and hence system performance implications, are identified in the design of both the product and the production system in a chain of decisions, spread across multiple stakeholder groups. Thus the organisational structure of the engineering design process appears to influence the ability to handle human factors appropriately at each stage of design. Responsibility (although perhaps not accountability) appears to be distributed throughout the engineering design process. Thus human factors aspects require careful coordination throughout engineering design.


Author(s):  
Christine A. Toh ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller

Product dissection is a tool widely used in industry and academia as a means to understand components of existing products and identify opportunities for design. Dissection activities have the potential to impact design creativity because dissection is performed in the early phases of design, which is arguably the most influential phase of the design process. However, researchers have only just begun to explore the relationship between dissection and creativity, and thus little research to date has identified how variations in dissection activities impact creativity. Therefore, in this paper we respond to this research gap by presenting the results of a controlled experiment developed to understand how the type and number of products dissected and the structure and medium of the dissection task (electronic versus physical) impacts creativity. Our quantitative findings (from ANOVAs) are paired with qualitative analysis (interview results) to provide rationale for our results and insights into their cognitive underpinnings. The results from this study indicate that the structure of the dissection activity, the medium of dissection, and the number of products dissected impacts the variety of the generated concepts while the analogical distance and number of products impacts design novelty. These findings are used to develop recommendations for the alteration of dissection methods for inspiring creative thought in engineering design.


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