Table Of ContentDesigners
The Key to Successful Product Development
Springer
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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
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© Springer-Verlag London Limited 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1998
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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.
