Engineering is concerned with the creation of systems, devices, and processes useful to, and sought by, society. The process by which these goals are achieved is engineering design.
The process can be characterized as a sequence of events as suggested in Fig. 1. The process may be said to commence upon the recognition of, or the expression of, the need to satisfy some human want or desire, the “goal,” which might range from the detection and destruction of incoming ballistic missiles to a minor kitchen appliance or fastener.
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Concept formulation
The first obligation of the engineer is to develop more detailed quantitative information which defines the task to be accomplished in order to satisfy the goal, labeled on Fig. 1 as task specification. At this juncture the scope of the problem is defined, and the need for pertinent information is established. Generation of ideas for possible solutions to the problem is the creative stage, called the concept formulation. When great strides in engineering are made, this represents ingenious, innovative, inventive activity; but even in more pedestrian situations where rational and orderly approaches are possible, the conceptual stage is always present. The concept does not represent a solution, but only an idea for a solution. It can only be described in broad, qualitative, frequently graphical terms. Concepts for possible solutions to engineering challenges arise initially as mental images which are recorded first as sketches or notes and then successively tested, refined, organized, and ultimately documented by using standardized formats.
Concepts are accompanied and followed by, sometimes preceded by, acts of evaluation, judgment, and decision. It is in fact this testing of ideas against physical, economic, and functional reality that epitomizes engineering's bridge between the art of innovation and science. The process of analysis is sometimes intuitive and qualitative, but it is often mathematical, quantitative, careful, and precise.
Production considerations can have a profound influence on the design process, especially when high-volume manufacture is anticipated. Evolutionary products manufactured in large numbers, such as the automobile, are tailored to conform with existing production equipment and techniques such as assembly procedures, interchangeability, scheduling, and quality control. New techniques such as those associated with space exploration, where volume production is not a central concern, factor into the engineering design process in a very different fashion.
Similarly, the design process must anticipate and integrate provisions for distribution, maintenance, and ultimate replacement of products. Well-conceived and executed engineering design will encompass the entire product cycle from definition and conception through realization and demise and will give due consideration to all aspects.
Hierarchy of design
An adequate description of the engineering design process must have both general validity and applicability to a wide variety of engineering situations: tasks simple or complex, small- or large-scale, short-range or far-reaching. That is to say, there is a hierarchy of engineering design situations.
Systems engineering occupies one end of the spectrum. The typical goal is very broad, general, and ambitious, and the concepts are concerned with the interrelationships of a variety of subsystems or components which, taken together, make up the system to accomplish the desired goal. See Systems engineering
Time–worker-power resource dynamics
Another dimension of the dynamics of the engineering design process is the elapse of time and expenditure of worker-hours in the evolution of an engineering design project. Figure 2 plots time as the abscissa and resources (worker-power or dollars) as the ordinate. The various stages of the engineering design process are set out in time sequence from left to right.
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Goal refinement, task specification, and first-order concept and analyses iterations are conducted by one to a few engineers in the early stages to establish the feasibility of the idea and to block out possible approaches. This is usually called the advanced design stage.
As the design concept becomes more specific and substantive, more and more engineers, technicians, and draftsmen become involved in the project. In projects of significant size, the problem of coordinating and integrating the efforts of the many participants of different talents and skills becomes itself a major consideration. See PERT
Use of the computer in design
The use of the computer, both analog and digital, in the engineering design process has increased. Where economically justified, the overall engineering design process for a product is mechanized via computer programming. See Computer, Computer-aided design and manufacturing, Computer storage technology, Multiaccess computer
The speed, memory, and accuracy of the computer to iteratively calculate, store, sort, collate, and tabulate have greatly enhanced its use in design and encouraged the study, on their own merits, of the processes and subprocesses exercised in the design process. These include optimization or sensitivity analysis, reliability analysis, and simulation as well as design theory. See Digital computer
Optimization analyses, given a model of the design and using linear and nonlinear programming, determines the best values of the parameters consistent with stated criteria and futher studies the effects of variations in the values of the parameters.
Reliability is a special case of optimization where the emphasis is to choose or evaluate a system so as to maximize its probability of successful operation, for example, the reliability of electronics. See Circuit (electronics)
Simulation, as of dynamic systems, is mathematical modeling to study the response of a design to various inputs and disturbances. The analog computer has been widely used for simulation through its physical modeling of the mathematic analytical relationships of the proposed design. See Analog computer, Simulation
Decision theory deals with the general question of how to choose between a great number of alternatives according to established criteria. It proposes models of the decision process as well as defining techniques, that is, programs or algorithms, of calculation by which to make choices.
Graphical input/output
In many fields of design—notably architecture; design of airplanes, automobiles, and ships; and almost all mechanical design—the designer works largely in visual terms. A way has been found to set up the computer to interpret drawings. Moreover, the computer has become an active partner in the act of drawing, so that it can provide a certain superskill in preparing the drawing once the human operator has made intentions clear. See Computer graphics
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