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The Mechanical Design Process

01 Mar 1992-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe the design process and design problems and process of the development of a product and evaluate its performance and the effects of variations. And they present a belief map of 25 materials most commonly used in mechanical design.
Abstract: 1 Why Study the Design Process? 2 Describing Mechanical Design Problems and Process 3 Designers and Design Teams 4 The Design Process 5 Project Definition and Planning 6 Understanding the Problem and the Development of Engineering Specifications 7 Concept Generation 8 Concept Evaluation 9 The Product Design Phase 10 Product Generation 11 Product Evaluation for Performance and the Effects of Variation 12 Product Evaluation for Cost, Manufacture, Assembly, and other Measures 13 Launching and Supporting the Product Appendixes A Properties of 25 Materials Most Commonly Used in Mechanical Design B Normal Probability C The Factor of Safety as a Design Variable D Human Factors in Design E TRIZ F Belief Map Masters
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Book•
14 Sep 2011
TL;DR: The paper is intended to raise awareness of the far-reaching implications of the architecture of the product, to create a vocabulary for discussing and addressing the decisions and issues that are linked to product architecture, and to identify and discuss specific trade-offs associated with the choice of a product architecture.
Abstract: Product architecture is the scheme by which the function of a product is allocated to physical components. This paper further defines product architecture, provides a typology of product architectures, and articulates the potential linkages between the architecture of the product and five areas of managerial importance: (1) product change; (2) product variety; (3) component standardization; (4) product performance; and (5) product development management. The paper is conceptual and foundational, synthesizing fragments from several different disciplines, including software engineering, design theory, operations management and product development management. The paper is intended to raise awareness of the far-reaching implications of the architecture of the product, to create a vocabulary for discussing and addressing the decisions and issues that are linked to product architecture, and to identify and discuss specific trade-offs associated with the choice of a product architecture.

2,603 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper looks inside the "black box" of product development at the fundamentaldecisions that are made by intention or default, adopting the perspective ofproduct development as a deliberate business process involving hundreds of decisions, many of which can be usefully supported by knowledge and tools.
Abstract: This paper is a review of research in product development, which we define as the transformation of a market opportunity into a product available for sale. Our review is broad, encompassing work in the academic fields of marketing, operations management, and engineering design. The value of this breadth is in conveying the shape of the entire research landscape. We focus on product development projects within a single firm. We also devote our attention to the development of physical goods, although much of the work we describe applies to products of all kinds. We look inside the "black box" of product development at the fundamentaldecisions that are made by intention or default. In doing so, we adopt the perspective of product development as a deliberate business process involving hundreds of decisions, many of which can be usefully supported by knowledge and tools. We contrast this approach to prior reviews of the literature, which tend to examine the importance of environmental and contextual variables, such as market growth rate, the competitive environment, or the level of top-management support.

1,725 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: This paper seeks to reconcile and integrate two independent research efforts into a significantly evolved functional basis, and provides a mechanism for evaluating whether future revisions are needed to the functional basis and, if so, how to proceed.
Abstract: In engineering design, all products and artifacts have some intended reason behind their existence: the product or artifact function. Functional modeling provides an abstract, yet direct, method for understanding and representing an overall product or artifact function. Functional modeling also strategically guides design activities such as problem decomposition, physical modeling, product architecting, concept generation, and team organization. A formal function representation is needed to support functional modeling, and a standardized set of function-related terminology leads to repeatable and meaningful results from such a representation. We refer to this representation as a functional basis; in this paper, we seek to reconcile and integrate two independent research efforts into a significantly evolved functional basis. These efforts include research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and two US universities, and their industrial partners. The overall approach for integrating the functional representations and the final results are presented. This approach also provides a mechanism for evaluating whether future revisions are needed to the functional basis and, if so, how to proceed. The integration process is discussed relative to differences, similarities, insights into the representations, and product validation. Based on the results, a more versatile and comprehensive design vocabulary emerges. This vocabulary will greatly enhance and expand the frontiers of research in design repositories, product architecture, design synthesis, and general product modeling.

1,104 citations


Cites background from "The Mechanical Design Process"

  • ...Keywords Functional modeling, Functional languages, Design representation 1 Introduction 1.1 Scope In engineering design, the end goal is the creation of an artifact, product, system, or process that performs a function or functions to fulfill customer need(s)....

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Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe four objective measures of ideation effectiveness, and the theoretical basis of each is discussed and procedures for application of each are outlined and illustrated with case studies.

977 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
TL;DR: The functional basis is compared to previous functional representations and is shown to subsume these attempts as well as offer a more consistent classification scheme.
Abstract: Functional models represent a form independent blueprint of a product. As with any blueprint or schematic, a consistent language or coding system is required to ensure others can read it. This paper introduces such a design language, called a functional basis, where product function is characterized in a verb-object (function-flow) format. The set of functions and flows is intended to comprehensively describe the mechanical design space, Clear definitions are provided for each function and flow. The functional basis is compared to previous functional representations and is shown to subsume these attempts as well as offer a more consistent classification scheme. Applications to the areas of product architecture development, function structure generation, and design information archival and transmittal are discussed.

937 citations