Management of Engineering Design

Engineering design work may be classified as:

Creative Design: Design of a completely new item. This has to be done from a prototype developed by an inventor. It requires high degree competence as the invention has to designed in a such a way that the cost of producing the product will give a profit.

Developmental Design: This type of design may proceed from an existing design but the ultimate product could differ significantly from the earlier design.

Adaptive Design: Adapting the existing design for some constraints of the engineering system in which it will be used.

Approach used in Engineering Design

1. Needs analysis
2. Define the design problem: Converting the customer requirements into technical specifications is done in this step.
3. Developing high level alternative solutions to the problem
4. Perform feasibility analysis
5. Optimize selected solutions
6. Choose a solution
7. Do the detailed design


Objectives for Design Department

Customer Acceptable Design
Creative Design
Reliable Design
Profitable Design
Design for Manufacture
Meet Design Delivery targets

Management Decisions in Engineering Design Activity or Function
Management Decisions - Planning, Organizing, Resourcing, Directing and Control Decisions

Accepting the design task
Developing the estimates for budget, office space, human resources, equipment etc.
Acquiring the resources
Breakdown of tasks
Liaising with suppliers
Deciding priorities
Division of responsibility among various technical responsibilities
Monitoring the output


Review of Design by Specialists

Manufacturability Review - Constructability Review
Safety Review
Reliability Review
Maintainability Review
Industrial Engineering Review
   - Ergonomic Review
   - Value Engineering Review
  - Engineering Economics Review


Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_management

AMEC - detailed engineering phase activities list
http://www.amec.com/documents/1_about_us/brochures_and_publications/detailed-engineering-design-phase.pdf

NSW Transport Rail - Design Management Process Manual
http://engineering.railcorp.nsw.gov.au/Disciplines/AllStandards/Design_Management_Process.pdf

Managing Design in Outsourced Contracts for Design
http://oro.open.ac.uk/28479/1/IJTM_ManagingEngDesign.pdf


Video Presention on Engineering Design Management
http://vimeo.com/40625313

Design Engineering:  Bentley White Paper
http://ftp2.bentley.com/dist/collateral/docs/assetwise/wp_design-engineering_hilmar-retief.pdf