Designers: The Key to Successful Product Development PDF
Preview Designers: The Key to Successful Product Development
Designers The Key to Successful Product Development Springer London Berlin Heidelberg New York Barcelona Budapest Hong Kong Milan Paris Santa Clara Singapore Tokyo Eckart Frankenberger, Petra Badke-Schaub and Herbert Birkhofer (Eds) Designers The Key to Successful Product Development With 90 Figures Springer Dr.-Ing. Eckart Frankenberger Professor Herbert Birkhofer Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Fachgebiet Maschinenelemente und Konstruktionslehre, Magdalenstrasse 4, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany Dr. Petra Badke-Schaub Universitat Bamberg, Psychologie II, Markusplatz 3, D-9604S Bamberg, Germany ISBN-I 3: 978-1-4471-1270-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4471-1268-6 DOT: 10.1007/978-1-4471-1268-6 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Designers : the key to successful product development Birkhofer 1. Engineering design 2. Engineering design -Research I. Frankenberger, Eckart II. Badke-Schaub, Petra III. Birkhofer, Herbert 620'.0042 ISBN-13: 978-1-4471-1270-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Designers, the key to successful product development 1 Eckart Frankenberger, Petra Badke-Schaub, Herbert Birkhofer, eds. p. cm. Proceedings of a conference held in Darmstadt, Germany, December 1997. Includes bibliographical references (p. l. ISBN-13: 978-1-4471-1270-9 1. Design, Industrial--Congresses. 2. New Products--Congresses. 3. Engineering design--Research--Congresses. I. Frankenberger, Eckart, 1966- II. Badke-Schaub, Petra, 1960- . III. Birkhofer, Herbert, 1945- TS171.AID477 1998 98-7548 658.5'752--dc21 CIP Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of repro graphic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 1998 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1998 The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Typesetting: Camera-ready by editors Printed and bound at the Athenreum Press Ltd., Gateshead, Tyne & Wear 69/3830-543210 Printed on acid-free paper v Contents Preface ix Designers - The Key to Successful Product Development Keynote XIII Historical Background and Selected Results of Interdisciplinary Research between the Universities of Bamberg, Darmstadt and Munich G. Pahl Section I: Design Research Methods Thought and Design - Research Strategies, Single-case Approach and 3 Methods of Validation D. Dorner Theoretical Approach in Design Methodology 12 V Hubka & E. Eder Describing Design as a Reflective Practice: Observations on Schon's 29 Theory of Practice N.F.M Roozenburg & K Dorst An Overview of Descriptive Studies in Relation to a General Design 42 Research Methodology L.TM Blessing, A. Chakrabarti & KM Wallace The Further Development of Design Methodologies 57 J. W Schregenberger Resume of Section I 68 vi Contents Section II: Individual Influences 69 Expert Designers 71 N. Cross & A. Clayburn Cross How Do Designers from Practice Design? 85 1. Gunther & K. Ehrlenspiel Having a Nose for Good Solutions - The Development of Individual 98 Strategies for the Design Process R. von der Weth Resume of Section II 109 Section III: Team Influences III Storytelling and Metaphor in the Engineering Design Process 113 P. Lloyd A Framework for Instrumenting Design Teams 124 L. Leifer & A. Mabogunje Forensic Analysis of the Engineering Design Process 137 C. Hales Integration of Group, Individual and External Influences in the Design 149 Process E. Frankenberger & P. Badke-Schaub Resume of Section III 165 Contents vii Section IV: Organisational Influences 167 The Development Department and Engineering Change Management 169 U. Lindemann, R. Kleedorjer & M Gerst Innovating the Product Development Organisation 183 MM Andreasen & L. Hein Planetary Organisation Offers Advantages in Project Work 196 S. Ottosson Resume of Section IV 202 Section V: Task and Process Variables 203 Design Thinking - Possible Ways to Successful Solutions in Product 205 Development W. Hacker, P. Sachse & F. Schroda Event Scales and Social Dimensions in Design Practice 217 D.F. Radcliffe Information Processing and Storage during the Design Process: 233 The Use of a Flexible Information System HHCM Christiaans & J van Andel Information Management in the Design Process - Problems, Approaches 249 and Solutions H Meerkamm Resume of Section V 265 viii Contents Section VI: Evaluation of Design Work and its 267 Result A Model of Product Development Performance 269 A.H.B. Duffy & F.1. O'Donnell Valuation of Design Concepts 284 T Wiegers, E. van Breemen, W. Knoop & 1. Vergeest Successful Industrial Product Development 301 G. Fricke Resume of Section VI 3 13 Conclusion and Outlook 315 ix Preface Designers - The Key to Successful Product Development At first glance, the goal of engineering design seems to be very easy: engineering design aims to create and develop competitive technical products, and design research should ensure that this goal is reached. However, remembering the wide variety of technical products and the multiple aspects that need to be considered in their development, we realise the complexity of engineering design and consequently of design research. Questions arise such as: 'what is a 'good' product?', and 'how do we create 'good' products?'. By posing these questions, we have broadened the subject, and different approaches suggest themselves: We can start to analyse technical products in an effort to understand their composition on a general level. Knowing the logic behind the make-up of technical systems, we should then be able to optimise the methods of making them. This traditional product oriented view by engineers provides valuable rules and guidelines for the assembly of components. Over decades, engineers have collected masses of information in thousands of standards to avoid technical failures. Nevertheless, failures originating from poor engineering design become apparent almost daily in the trivial, dangerous or even fatal incidents of everyday life. So other factors must be involved. Obviously, the development of technical products is more than just following technical rules. In the light of the vast array of activities involved in engineering, designers considered another approach to engineering design research: the process oriented view, which approaches the development of technical products as a complex technical and social process with influences from several different fields. First of all, each designer has individual prerequisites such as experience of the problem or priorities reinforced by the individual's education, abilities, capacities and aptitudes. Preface But engineering designers are not only working in isolation: the cooperation essential in modern design teams causes additional influences according to the prerequisites of the group, such as the character of the group or the ways of conflict solving within the group. Moreover, the design work takes place under certain organisational conditions, such as the operational aspects or the financial situation of the company. Last but not least, design work is determined by the characteristics of the task, which can vary greatly. All these influences on the process together lead to the result of the design work. This overall view highlights the designer as an individual, a group member, a manager and an organiser of a network of influencing factors that he experiences in a subjective way: The designer is thus revealed as the key to successful product development! The engineering perspective on product development is consequently influenced by both psychological and organisational aspects. This point of view can be observed internationally in several research groups. As an example, the keynote contribution of this book introduces the motivation and stages of the design research developed by the collaboration of engineers and psychologists from the universities of Darmstadt, Bamberg and Munich in Germany. The structure of this book During recent years much scientific knowledge has been accumulated on factors influencing the design process, including the individual, the team and the organisational context. The aim of this book is to provide a survey of the state of this scientifically based knowledge and the trends of engineering design research concerning the influences that lead to successful product development. This book is based on the proceedings of the symposium 'Designers - The Key to Successful Product Development', held in December 1997 in Darmstadt, Germany. During this meeting exponents from important research groups in Engineering Design came together to present and discuss their work. Discussing research on engineering design processes and bringing together the work on influencing factors from different studies demands first of all a methodical presentation of the problem: Thus, the book starts with a section on design research methods. Moreover, the contributions focus on different aspects of design work. Therefore, the subsequent sections are directed to the main fields of influence on the engineering design process and the result: the task itself, the individual priorities of each designer, the prerequisites of the designers as a group, and the organisational conditions under which the designers work. Figure I illustrates the interconnections between the main fields of influence on the design process, to show both the basic model and the structure of this book.
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