IETP4115: Integrated Engineering Team

Project

Engineering Design Process

Design Thinking

Semester 1, 2022/23
 Learning Outcome

At the end of this lesson, the students will be able to:

§ Apply engineering design process in to design and build solutions for everyday
problems.
§ Apply design thinking for problem solving.
 Engineering Design

§ Engineering...
§ is the application of science, maths, and technology, to design and
build solutions for everyday problems.
§ is the creation of products/processes to benefit society.
§ The main purpose of engineering is to design and build a prototype to
have it perform by solving a problem, improving a situation, or to use
it in a way where a task is easier to do.
 Engineering Design
§ Design...
§ To synthesize new or to arrange existing things in a new way to satisfy a
recognized need of society.
§ “Design establishes and defines solutions to and pertinent structures for
problems not solved before, or new solutions to problems which have previously
been solved in a different way.”
§ In the ABET handbook on accrediting engineering programs, it states
”Students must be prepared for engineering practice through the curriculum culminating
in a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course
work and incorporating engineering standards and realistic constraints that include most
of the following considerations: economic, environmental, sustainability, manufacturing,
ethical, health and safety, social and political”

§ The ability to design is both a science and an art.

 The Four C’s of Design

§ Creativity
§ Requires creation of something that has not existed before or has not existed in
the designer’s mind before.
§ Complexity
§ Requires decisions on many variables and parameters.
§ Choice
§ Requires making choices between many possible solutions at all levels, from
basic concepts to the smallest detail of shape.
§ Compromise
§ Requires balancing multiple and sometimes conflicting requirements.
 Types of Engineering Design
§ Original Design/ innovative design: this form generates a novel and original
concept with the goal of achieving a specific need.
§ Adaptive design: this is a form of design where an existing engineering
solution is adapted to satisfy a different need or is used for a novel application.
§ Redesign: an engineering design that targets improvement of an existing
design.
§ Selection Design. Most designs use off-the-shelf components such as gears,
bearings, joints, motors, or actuators, etc., that are supplied by their
manufacturers or distributors. In this design the task consists of selecting
components with the needed properties, quality, performances and cost from the
vendors’ catalogs.
§ Product Design and Industrial Design.
§ product design is a design of a product with primary goal to sell it to consumers.
§ Industrial design is also about designing a product for end-users; however, the attention
is given first to its functional value.
 Engineering Design
§In IETP, we focus on a few important aspects of design:
§Multidisciplinary
§Customer-driven, aggressive quantitative design
constraints
§Addressing at least one of the 17 SDG.
§Incorporation of practical considerations such as energy,
sustainability, manufacturing,...
§Project management
§Professional communication
 Engineering Design Process

§ Engineering Design Process

§ The engineering design process is a series of steps that engineers
follow to find a solution to a problem.
§ The steps include problem solving processes such as, for example,
determining your objectives and constraints, prototyping, testing and
evaluation.
§ It is an iterative process used to design and build solutions
 Engineering Design Process
§ Importance of the Engineering Design Process
§ Decisions made in the design process cost very little in terms of the overall
product cost but have a major effect on the cost of the product.
§ You cannot compensate in manufacturing for defects introduced in the design
phase.
§ The design process should be
conducted so as to develop quality,
cost-competitive products in the
shortest time possible.

Adapted from D. Ullman, The Mechanical Design Process, 4th ed., McGraw-
Hill, New York,2010.
§ A Problem-Solving Methodology
§ Definition of the problem
§ Gathering of information
§ Generation of alternative solutions
§ Evaluation of alternatives and
decision making
§ Communication of the results
Engineering Design Process
 Problem Definition

§ Product Development begins by determining what the needs are that a

product must meet.

§ Problem definition is the most important of these steps in the PDP.

§ Understanding any problem thoroughly is crucial to reaching an

outstanding solution.

§ The problem definition process is mainly the need identification step.

 Identifying Customer Needs
§ Who is the customer?
In addition to end users of the product, the customers of the design engineer
also include the manufacturing and assembly engineers and workers (or
anyone else downstream of the design process).
§ Identifying customer needs is an integral part of the concept
development phase
§ The process of identifying customer needs include five steps:
1. Gather raw data from customers,
2. Interpret the raw data in terms of customer needs
3. Organize the needs into a hierarchy
4. Establish the relative importance of the needs
5. Reflect on the results and the process.
Interpret the
raw data
How the customer How the marketing How the designer How the programmer How it was advertised
described it specialist understood it designed it wrote it

How it was documented What was in the How was the customer The final piece What the customer really
manufacturing plan billed wanted
 Concept generation

§ What is a concept?
§ A concept is an idea that is sufficiently developed to evaluate the physical
principles that govern its behavior.
§ A product concept is an approximate description of the technology, working
principles and form of a product.
§ Concepts are the means for providing function.
§ Concepts can be represented as verbal or textual descriptions, sketches,
paper models, block diagrams, or any other form that gives an indication of
how the function can be achieved.
§ Usually, hundreds of concepts are generated, of which 5 to 20 merit serious
consideration
 Concept generation activity

§ Common dysfunctions during concept generation:

§ Consideration of only one or two alternatives
§ Failure to consider carefully the usefulness of concepts employed by other firms
§ Involvement of only one or two people in the process,
§ Ineffective integration of promising partial solutions.
§ Failure to consider entire categories of solutions.
§ Structured approaches reduce the likelihood of costly problems (finding
superior concept later, competitor with better concept)

If you generate one idea, it is probably a poor one. If you generate twenty ideas, you may have a good one. Or,
alternatively He who spends too much time developing a single concept realizes only that concept.
 Concept generation: 5-Step Method
(Eppinger and Ulrich 2012)

§ Search externally has been covered in our previous lecture.

§ Here we will concentrate on search internally.
§ To come up with new concepts, your need to have creative thinking skills.
 Creative Thinking Methods

§ Ideas are created from the knowledge already in the possession of the
team.
§ The following are some of the most commonly used creative methods
for concept/idea generation.
§ Brainstorming
§ Brainwriting
§ Random input technique – lateral thinking
§ Synectics – design by analogy
§ Biomimetic
§ Concept map
 Brainstorming

§ In your research, consider the materials you will use and their costs per
unit
§ Brainstorm Solutions
§ Generate ideas that will solve the problem/identified need.
§ Brainstorming rules
1. Generate as many ideas as possible.
2. Withhold judgment and be respectful.
3. Encourage wild ideas.
4. Build on others’ ideas as much as possible.
 Decision Making

§ How can we make the right decision?

§ What is your goal in selecting concepts at conceptual design stage?

§ The goal is to expend the least amount of resources on deciding which
concepts have the highest potential for becoming a quality product.
 Concept Generation & Selection

§ An engineer or design team will determine

a product’s functional alternatives from its
morphological chart.
§ This will assist the design team in finding
the best design for the client’s need.
§ Having chosen a set of alternatives, the
design team can start sketching them as
devices
 Requirements for Selecting a Design

1) A set of design selection criteria

2) A set of alternatives believed to satisfy the set of criteria

3) A means to evaluate the design alternatives with respect to each

criterion
Concept Generation and Evaluation

§ Explore further about

§ Pugh Concept Selection method
§ Weighted decision matrix
§ Analytical hierarchy process
 Prototype
§ A prototype is an operating version of a solution.
§ It is often made with different materials (cheaper and easier to work
with) than the final version. They allow you to test your solution and
supply feedback.
§ Prototypes can help you to develop the structure, function, and
appearance of your solution.
§ Prototypes are a key step in the development of a final solution,
allowing the designer to test how the solution will work and even show
the solution to users for feedback.
§ Sometimes designers will make several prototypes during the
development of a solution.
 Designing to Codes and Standards
§ What are codes and standards?
§ A code is a collection of laws and rules that assists a government agency in
meeting its obligation to protect the general welfare by preventing damage to
property or injury or loss of life to persons.
§ A standard is a generally agreed-upon set of procedures, criteria, dimensions,
materials, or parts.
§ Chief aspects of Designing to Codes and Standards:
I
n
• Efficiency
c • Safety
r
e
• Interchangeability
a • Compatibility
s
e
§ ABET Code of Ethics:
“Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the
performance of their profession.”
 Design Thinking
§ Design thinking is a methodology which provides a solution-based approach to solving
problems.
§ It’s extremely useful when used to tackle complex problems that are ill-defined or
unknown—because it serves to understand the human needs involved, reframe the
problem in human-centric ways, create numerous ideas in brainstorming sessions and
adopt a hands-on approach to prototyping and testing.
§ Learning about the five stages of design thinking will empower you and allow you to apply
the methodology to your work and solve complex problems that occur in our companies,
our countries, and across the world.
§ We focus on the five-stage design thinking model proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute
of Design at Stanford (the d.school) because they are world-renowned for the way they
teach and apply design thinking.
 Design Thinking
§ Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to
understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and
create innovative solutions to prototype and test.
§ it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown.

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 3.0

 Video Resources
§ Exhibit 1 & 2 : Engineering Design Process

§ Exhibit 3, 4, and 5: Design Thinking

 References

§ Dieter, G. E., & Schmidt, L. C. (2012). Engineering Design (5th ed.).

New York McGraw-Hill.
§ Haik, Y. and T. M. Shahin (2011). Engineering design process,
Cengage Learning.
§ Eppinger, S. and K. Ulrich (2012). Product Design and Development,
McGraw-Hill Education.
§ Ullman, D. G. (2010). The Mechanical Design Process (4 t h ed.):
McGraw-Hill series in mechanical engineering.
 Appendix: SDG
§ 17 goals and 169 targets

https://sdgs.un.org/goals