‘What-if’ design: a synthesis method in the design process

D. Lutters, T.H.J. Vaneker, F.J.A.M.van Houten (1)

Laboratory of Design, Production and Management, Faculty of Engineering Technology
University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands

Abstract
In integrating functions, information and control in the design and engineering cycle, the information content
acts as a facilitator, whereas the processes involved actually effectuate the results of the development cycle. As
combining processes in an effective and efficient manner becomes increasingly feasible, a more dynamic
coherence between the processes involved is implied, calling for different control principles, whilst maintaining
-and possibly increasing- flexibility.
This increases the competency in understanding and utilising consequences of design decisions. Based on
this, a ‘what-if design support system can help in performing routine tasks and aiding designers and engineers
in understanding more complex challenges.

Keywords
Information management, design support system, ‘what-it‘ design

1 INTRODUCTION enforcement of the design and engineering processes;

In many companies, teams of product developers are including both the innovative work and the routine tasks.
concurrently involved in the design and engineering of one, Especially these intuitive tasks show a considerable
but many a time, more than one product, or product family. similarity in the way in which they are addressed and solved.
During these design and engineering phases of product Consequently, the structure of such tasks can be
development, the members of the design teams take pre-formatted with a fair amount of certainty. This is
numerous decisions. These decisions are concerned with attempted in so-called what-if design, where decisions are
extremely diverging topics, implying that either the design -in a more or less autonomous manner- supported by
team or co-operating specialists are not only able to survey questions of the type ‘What happens if (see fig 1.).
...I

all aspects involved in the project, but also that they are able It goes without saying that it is a sheer impossibility to
to weigh the consequences of all those decisions at any address such what-if questions from a procedural point of
given moment. In everyday practice, this may seem a clear view, as the number of processes that will be involved will
infeasibility; nevertheless, design teams are able to cope -even in the simplest cases- already floor every attempt to
with it because of their knowledge, experience and intuition maintain overview over the entire development process.
-something that can not be grasped by any computer. This, This implies that in addressing what-if questions, focus
however, does not imply that computers can not support must shift from the processes involved to the actual product
design teams in their efforts to arrive at better solutions for under consideration; or, more accurately: the information
the problems they encounter. content that describes the development and the status of
However, if a sheer process-oriented approach to product the product. Moreover, the denotation of this information
development is applied, the dependencies between the content has to be available and practicable as well.
tasks and functions related to all the members of the
development team understandably become entangled to
such an extent that extremely rigid process management
methods have to be employed. This not only distracts the
members of the design team from their actual activities, but
it also causes an enormous overhead in communication
and assimilation. In addition -the most important drawback
by far- it hampers the activities that designers and
engineers are best at: employing their creativity to solve
unaccustomed problems. This is all the more true in
recognising that the demands during product development
unremittingly increase, and product developers therefore
face more challenging tasks. In this respect, the limited
intelligibility of the design process is of significant
importance. Adequate execution of the development
processes, purely based on design experience, therefore
becomes an almost impossible job.
As can be concluded from the above, the real contribution of
members of the development team and their tools (e.g. [I]) Figure 1: Overly simplified example
is related to the adequate, conjoint and effective of a what-if question.
1.I What-if Design 3 AN APPLIED APPROACH FOR WHAT-IF DESIGN
It is very difticult to give a precise definition of what-if design. In order to understand the working methods related to
The closest comparison is what goes on in the mind of a what-if design, it is important to not only sketch the big
designer (or engineer). During a development cycle, a picture, but especially to interpret the consequences of
designer well-nigh continuously deliberates over the what-if design on all levels of abstraction, starting with
various possible solutions that lie ahead. Every time he has studies in a limited domain. For such a domain, existing
to assess the consequences of the different options; both correlations can be established and rules can be deduced,
for the product under development as well as for the that later on can contribute to the composition and
processes that are required to achieve the chosen solution verification of the generic methodology.
path. Many of these decisions are concerned with a
considerable amount of tasks, with the ever present danger In one domain -here e.g. the mechanical domain- a design
aspect hierarchy can be developed. This hierarchy is based
of overlooking important details.
on an analysis of the design process, resulting in a
What-if design aims at supporting the designer in tasks that hierarchy of the different aspects of products and the
are considered more or less routine tasks in a certain field of relations between these aspects. Based on the hierarchy,
expertise, by taking care of the larger part of the basic the aspects are divided into two groups, being driving and
explorations, surveying the information content involved driven aspects (see figure 2). The driving aspects
and scrutinising the details. What-if design also tries to (influencing all other aspects) contain the information that,
transgress the boundaries of the different disciplines in together with aspect specific context information, is used to
order to veritably achieve synthesis. Based on this goal, it define the driven aspects (influenced by only the driving
additionally focuses on a more elaborate ambition: the aspects). Awhat-if question results in a change in one of the
support of teams by actually raising solutions; either driving aspects. The applied change will then propagate
automatically or interactively. Supported by a what-if trough the design, affecting one or more driving andlor
system, team members can focus on what they do best: find driven aspects. After the attenuation of this propagation, the
creative solutions for the more challenging problems. product architecture has changed into a new, valid state,
based on which the what-if question can be answered.
In order to be able to hold an overview over the entire
research area, two approaches are contrived at the same Many types of relations can be identified between the
time: one analysing required principles from an applied driving and driven aspects. The relations between the set of
point of view, and one examining a generic methodology driving aspects and the set of driven aspects are
that enables the overall functionality. Section 2 addresses one-directional and downstream. The information needed
the prerequisites for the application of what-if design; to define the driven aspects consists of information that can
sections 3 and 4 deal with the applied and generic approach be deduced from the driving aspects and additional, not
respectively. Section 5 deals with the manageability of product specific, information. The relations between the
what-if design in more detail. four driving aspects are of a more complex nature. For
example, changing the geometry (diameter of a hole) will
2 PREREQUISITES FOR WHAT-IF DESIGN induce the choice for a different tool (drill). And if the
If what-if design techniques would be developed from a combination of the new diameter with the depth of the hole
process oriented point of view, it would be extremely hard -if rules out drilling, other processes will have to be selected to
not impossible- to find any sequence of processes that produce the part. The mutual dependencies between these
leads to the desired goal. The only way to achieve this is to driving aspects can be simplified by assuming that the
describe - o n beforehand- all possible combinations of relations between function and process plan and between
processes and their results; implying that all processes, and geometry and material are well-nigh invariably effectuated
all effects they have on every possible departure point have via the intermediary aspects. If these relations (the dotted
to be pre-established. Setting aside the fact that this is a lines in figure 2) are disregarded, also the risk of circular
sheer impossibility, it would lead to an enormous loss of reasoning is prevented.
flexibility and transparency, moreover, it would create an
overwhelming overhead of rules, process descriptions and
prescriptions for the employment of these processes. This
situation is comparable to finding yourself in a maze, where
all intersections look the same; but what is worse,
experience will not help you, because this particular maze
changes each time you enter it.
The situation becomes different if attempts are founded on
an information based approach. In this case, the current
status of the development project is already (and invariably)
definite and known [2][3]. Moreover, using an ontology as a
denotator of the information content [2], also the meaning of
the information content is known and employable to govern
the course of processes.
In focussing on the information content, it is much easier to
hold an overview over the current status of the product
design and, more important, to govern and hold sway over
changes and evolutions in the design process [2]. This
imposes two important prerequisites on the environments in
which what-if design is to be used: the information content
must be disposable in a structured manner, and a workflow
management approach must be available that can be Figure 2: Product aspect hierarchy
grounded on the information content. for what-if design.
3.1 Operating procedure distinct representations of the information content -be it
Based on an architecture for applied what-if design [4], the with different intentions. The current status of the
actual mechanisms for what-if questions can be described. information content S can be regarded as a valid
First, the set of required information is obtained from representation of the current situation in the product
information management functionality. When a designer development cycle. As the status S+A is purposely imposed
considers a modification to an existing product, he has a on the system by a member of the design team to test a
certain goal (improvement) in mind. In order to reach this possible improvement, S+A can be equated to a desired
set goal, one of the four driving aspects will change. A new situation. Although this desire can be temporary (depending
PRIS (PRoduct Information Structure) will emerge that on the fact if the proposed change is really an
compares the new product configuration with the original improvement), it can be considered as a goal to focus on.
one [4]. Not all changes made by the designer will instantly
Here an important advantage of the integrated working
result in an ideal new PRIS, as restrains will occur on e.g.
methods of information management techniques comes
materials, production machines and fulfilment of functions.
forward: it is not important how and why a certain activity is
In general, a change in one of the driving aspects will initiate
carried out, all that matters is the information content it
changes in other driving and driven aspects. If a check of
deals with [5]. In other words, in order to assess the possible
the proposed change leads to conflicts within the other
improvement suggested by the team member, S and S+A
driving aspects, new non-conflicting variants of the design
can be used to initiate Engineering Process Support (see
have to be generated. Consequently, three modules of the
section 5.1). Based on the task networks and task chains
architecture have to conjointly find viable solutions:
generated within the workflow management procedures, a
inconsistency detection, design variant generation and
number of processes can be initiated to achieve a valid
design variant ranking.
situation for S+A.
Based on the information content, inconsistency detection
will indicate problems or possible flaws. If an inconsistency This valid solution can probably only be reached by
has been detected, design variants have to be generated. changing the related entities as well. As a simple example: if
When e.g. the driving aspect ‘material’ is changed from a change of the chosen material for a certain product design
instance A to B, a subset of production processes can be is proposed (S+A), this will probably influence the geometry
composed. Each element of the production processes of the product as well (see also section 3). Consequently,
subset may have its own constraints on the shapes that can the related entities will have to accept a A-status as well.
be manufactured. The geometry of the product has to This again triggers workflow management, resulting in the
change and with that, the extent in which the functions are initiation of design and engineering processes. Ostensibly,
fulfilled will change. A tree structure of possible design this leads to a stupefying chain reaction instantaneously
solutions, with a consistent PRIS, will emerge. Because saturating any manufacturing system.
also a different ‘route’ is possible (material - function -
geometry - process plan, see figure 2) a second tree 5 MANAGEABILITYOF WHAT-IF DESIGN
structure will emerge, representing new design variants. Information management not only addresses the
When many processes and materials are available to the information content, but also caters to the denotation of the
designer, the tree structures will grow to a substantial size. information and its context; therefore the chain reaction
As it is impossible to examine all the individual design mentioned is confined. Additionally, the use of an ontology
variants, a ranking algorithm is needed, in order to be able constrains the chain reaction: firstly, it helps to value the
to focus the attention of the designer at the most promising relation between entities, so dependencies are evaluated in
design variants. Based on this approach, design variants a meaningful manner. Secondly, the ontology -togetherwith
can be generated and assessed, whilst guaranteeing the workflow management- holds knowledge of the mutual
validity of the solution. dependencies between entities, thus stringently limiting the
number of variants that have to be assessed.
4 A GENERIC APPROACH FOR WHAT-IF DESIGN
There is no theoretical proof that these measures are
As the applied approach as described in the previous efficacious in achieving a practicable environment for
section is limited to one domain, and is also confined to a automated what-if design. However, it goes without saying
situation in which the processes that can be addressed are that indications that are usually employed to assess the
known, it will be extremely difficult to assemble a generic quality of a design remain unchanged if what-if design is
design support system. Therefore this research not only used. Mentioned are for example design axioms like Suh’s
uses a bottom-up approach, but simultaneously tries to design axioms [6] or the communication axiom: minimise
assure the genericness of the methodology by a top-down the need for communication [2]. The more a product design
working method. meets these axioms, the easier it will be to employ what-if
From a top-down approach, what-if design can be seen as a design. In other words, if a product design is robust, the
request for the controlled evolvement of information in a ‘shock-wave’ caused by what-if questions will decay much
certain direction. More precisely: what-if design faster than for other designs.
hypothesises a certain status of the information content that Besides, a what-if based system can never leave the
deviates from the actual information content. This causes a boundaries of what is permitted to ‘return’ to it in a
A-state, which results in an ambiguity in the information subsequent step. This implies that after each change, the
content. The ontology will not connive at such a situation; evolved value S+A will be assessed, leading to the early
the influence of this A-state on the other entities in the detection of impossibilities and even an indication for ‘weak
information kernel will be mapped. It is important to note that spots’. As a consequence, the evolvement of the
in this approach neither the actual information content nor information content can almost be guided along preferred
the functionality of the processes involved is prescribed. routes, thus strongly limiting the number of variant
If the ‘derangement‘ in the information content is known, the situations that have to be compared. Moreover, the
two sets of information that exist (being the initial status S propagation of variations in the information content can be
and the changed status S+A) can be formalised as two limited as well.
5.1 Workflow management The process goal is used as the starting point for the
The engineering process support (EPS) concept governing generation of a task network. The network is constructed by
the workflow management of e.g. what-if questions is aimed reasoning back towards the current information content of
at coordinating and supporting activities based on evolving the product information structure, thus realizing an
information content [2][5][7].The concept has three main information pull methodology for process modelling.
components, addressing process management, decision When tasks are executed, information is generated and, as
support and knowledge management. There is a strong a result, the state of the information structure changes.
correlation, as e.g. the construction of new process models Consequently, the current task chain will be evaluated to
is buttressed by historic information provided linking determine if it is still the optimal process solution. This
process management and knowledge management. illustrates how the mechanism reacts to the evolution of the
The process modelling methodology, as it is defined within information content. The process models are generated
the EPS concept, presents a novel approach to the and evaluated at run-time.
management of engineering processes. The process
modelling functionality is part of the ‘process manager’ 6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
component (see figure 3).The methodology that has been In aiming at a design support system that facilitates implicit
developed for the generation of process models is based on tasks and assists in more challenging tasks, real and
linking task definitions to information content. adequate synthesis in development processes can be
achieved. This integration is enabled in appreciating the
Tasks role of information management and workflow management
Within the context of information management based as foundations for what-if design. Basing the approach on
systems, a task is defined as a systematic set of defined the information content, rather than on process
work to be done or undertaken in order to arrive at a descriptions, allows for the aggregate application of e.g.
specified result and to achieve a directed, predictable and ontologies and information based workflow management.
desired evolution in the information content. A task can be
defined independent of the level of aggregation, from which In order to ensure the generic character of the what-if
it is reasonable to argue that a task can consist of tasks that system, a domain and task independent working method
together can realize the work of the initial task. As a result, are adopted; however, ensuring practicability of the
task composition and decomposition allow for the approach, a more applied research is conducted
realization of process management functionality across simultaneously. Together, these will -in future research-
different levels of aggregation. The execution of a task can lead to the implementation of a modular design support
be seen as a transition from a state established by a certain system for what-if design.
information content to another state, established by an The dimerous approach ensures that the system is not
evolved information content. Consequently, a task can be limited to certain domains, levels of aggregation or areas of
seen as a process that needs and yields information. In the interest. As the used methods are generic, and the all tasks
ontology, a ‘task-blueprint‘ is available to aid in the definition can be deployed in a flexible and combinatorial manner, the
of new tasks. This subset of the ontology is referred to as system becomes a learning system, adapting to the growing
‘task ontology’. A task is defined by the information it needs and changing situation it is employed in, thus contributing to
(input) and the information it yields (output). As a result, a the requested synthesis in design processes.
task definition specifies the types of information entities
together with their relations, for input and output. 7 REFERENCES
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