Design And Engineering

Engineering design is a systematic, intelligent process in which engineers generate, evaluate, and specify solutions
for devices, systems, or processes whose form(s) and function(s) achieve clients objectives and users needs while
satisfying a specified set of constraints. In other words, engineering design is a thoughtful process for generating plans
or schemes for devices, systems, or processes that attain given objectives while adhering to specified constraints.
The Four Cs of Design Creativity
Requires creation of something that has not existed before or has not existed in the designers 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

design objective : a feature or behavior that we wish the design to have or exhibit.

design constraint : a limit or restriction on the features or behaviors of the design. A proposed design is
unacceptable if these limits are violated.

functions : things a designed device or system is supposed to do. Engineering functions almost always
involve transforming or transferring energy, information, or material. We view energy transformation or
transfer quite broadly: It includes supporting and transmitting forces, the flow of current, the flow of charge,
the transfer of material, and so on.

means : a way or a method to make a function happen. For example, friction is a means of fulfilling a
function of applying a braking force.

form : the shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material. Form is central to industrial
design, a very important part of product design.

Types of Designs
Engineering design can be undertaken for many different reasons, and it may take different forms.
Original design , also called innovative design . This form of design is at the top of the hierarchy. It employs an
original, innovative concept to achieve a need. Sometimes, but rarely, the need itself may be original. A truly original
design involves invention. Successful original designs occur rarely, but when they do occur they usually disrupt
existing markets because they have in them the seeds of new technology of far-reaching consequences. The design of
the microprocessor was one such original design
Adaptive design . This form of design occurs when the design team adapts a known solution to satisfy a different
need to produce a novel application . For example, adapting the ink-jet printing concept to spray binder to hold
particles in place in a rapid prototyping machine. Adaptive designs involve synthesis and are relatively common in
design.
Redesign . Much more frequently, engineering design is employed to improve an existing design. The task may be to
redesign a component in a product that is failing in service, or to redesign a component so as to reduce its cost of
manufacture. Often redesign is accomplished without any change in the working principle or concept of the original
design. For example, the shape may be changed to reduce a stress concentration, or a new material substituted to
reduce weight or cost. When redesign is achieved by changing some of the design parameters, it is often called variant
design.
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Selection design. Most designs employ standard components such as bearings, small motors, or pumps that are
supplied by vendors specializing in their manufacture and sale. Therefore, in this case the design task consists of
selecting the components with the needed performance, quality, and cost from the catalogs of potential vendors.
Industrial design. This form of design deals with improving the appeal of a product to the human senses, especially
its visual appeal. While this type of design is more artistic than engineering, it is a vital aspect of many kinds of
design. Also encompassed by industrial design is a consideration of how the human user can best interface with the
product.
PROBLEM DEFINITION AND NEED IDENTIFICATION
Out of all the steps in the engineering design process, the definition of the problem is by far the most important step. A
complete and thorough understanding the problem is prerequisite in achieving the targeted solution. For example, the
ultimate test of a product is how well it sells. However, it is first essential to understand and provide what a customer
wants in the product which can only be achieved by defining the problem precisely at the first place.
Identifying Customer Needs It is usually the desire of the customers that drive the development of a new product or
modification of an existing product. It is thus critical to collate the need or views of the customers when starting a
design project. The needs of the customers can be gathered through multiple routes.
Interviewing with customers An active team should constantly meet current and potential customers to identify the
strength and weakness of a product so as to examine if there is any need to upgrade.
Focus group A focus group refers to a small sub-set of existing customers or potential customers. A discussion is
usually facilitated in many such groups separately to identify more closely the merits and demerits of the product.
Customer survey A written questionnaire is possibly the best way to know the pubic opinions for redesigning an
existing product or developing a new product.
Customer complaints Complaints from customers provide a significant premise to identify the requisite improvement
for an existing product.
Constructing a Survey Instrument
Following are some essential steps to prepare a survey document based on the views and feedbacks from the
customers.
1. Determine the purpose of the survey, its result and the how the result will be used.
2. Determine the type of possible data collection method such as face to face interview or by questionnaire or some
other way.
3. Determine what specific information is needed. Each question should have a clear goal. Also the number of
question should be optimized and kept at as minimum as possible.
4. Design the questions in such a way that they are unambiguous, unbiased, clear, brief and simple to understand and
to answer too. There are usually three basic type of questions.
Attitude questions: how the customer thinks or feels about something,
Knowledge questions: Questions asked to determine whether the customer know the specifics about the product,
Behavior questions they usually contain phrases like how often, how much, or when.
Following are some tips for developing the questions.
Use simple language and vocabulary. Each question should have a specific goal and focus directly on one specific
topic.
Questions may include yes no do not know or strongly disagree mildly disagree neutral mildly agree
strongly agree, etc.
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 Open ended questions allow customers to express more explicitly,

Arrange the question in such an order that it makes sense and provides content to what you are trying to learn from
the customer,
Pretest the survey on a small sample before distributing the survey. It helps to identify questions that were poorly
built, misunderstood, whether the rating scale was adequate and whether the questionnaire is too long
Administer the survey: Proper care should be taken that the sample of the survey should constitute a representative
from all the key areas.
Evaluating Customer Needs The responses of the customer should be evaluated on a relative scale, say using a scale
from 1 (low importance) to 5 (high importance). Those responses with high average score should be given a greater
priority when redesigning an existing product or designing a new product. It is very essential to divide the customer
needs into two groups: hard constrains that should be satisfied (must) and softer needs that can be traded off against
other customer needs (wants). Customer needs can best be identified from face to face interview, from a focus group
survey or from the higher-ranking items in the written survey.
Customer requirements Customer requirements must be characterized on the basis of performance, time, cost and
quality. The performance would refer to the specific or intended function of a product. The time would include all the
time aspects that would be involved in the design. A proper design should be able to reduce the cycle time to market a
new product. The cost includes all the monetary aspects of the design and hence, quite crucial. The cost aspect also
determines the buying decisions of any product by the customers. The quality is a complex characteristic with many
aspects and definitions and can best be defined as the totality of features and characteristic of a product that bears on
its ability to satisfy its stated needs. Another important aspect of the customers requirements is the value of a product
that can be envisaged as the ratio of the function (or the quality) provided and the cost. For example, the quality of a
manufactured product can be envisaged from the following eight basic dimensions.

Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem
by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.
Structured brainstorming by a design team can also generate ideas and insights, and in opening up new avenues for
research and analysis. However, productive brainstorming is a complex activity that requires thought, preparation, and
appropriate professional behavior.
There are four fundamental brainstorming principles.
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Criticism is not allowed . Any attempt to analyze, reject, or evaluate ideas is postponed until after the
brainstorming session. The idea is to create a supportive environment for free-f lowing ideas.

Ideas brought forth should be picked up by the other members of the team. Individuals should focus only on
the positive aspects of ideas presented by others. The group should attempt to create chains of mutual
associations that result in a f nal idea that no one has generated alone. All output of a brainstorming session is
to be considered a group result.

Participants should divulge all ideas entering their minds without any constraint. All members of the group
should agree at the outset that a seemingly wild and unrealistic idea may contain an essential element of the
ultimate solution.

A key objective is to provide as many ideas as possible within a relatively short time. It is not unusual for a
group to generate 20 to 30 ideas in a half hour of brainstorming. Obviously, to achieve that output the ideas are
described only roughly and without details.

It is helpful for a brainstorming session to have a facilitator to control the f low of ideas and to record the ideas. Write
down the ideas verbatim on a flip chart or blackboard. Start with a clear, specific written statement of the problem.
Allow a few minutes for members to collect their thoughts, and then begin. Go around the
group, in turn, asking for ideas. Anyone may pass, but all should be encouraged to contribute.
Build on (piggyback on) the ideas of others. Encourage creative, wild, or seemingly ridiculous
notions. There is no questioning, discussion, or criticism of ideas. Generally the ideas build
slowly, reach a point where they flow faster than they can be written down, and then fall off.
When the group has exhausted all ideas, stop. A good format for brainstorming is to write
ideas on large sticky notes and place them on the wall where the entire team can view them
and hopefully will build upon them. This procedure also facilitates performing the next step in
problem definition, the affinity diagram.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
The basic five-step process usually used in a problem-solving works for design problems as well. Since design
problems are usually defined more vaguely and have a multitude of correct answers, the process may require
backtracking and iteration. Solving a design problem is a contingent process and the solution is subject to unforeseen
complications and changes as it develops. Until the Wright brothers actually built and tested their early gliders, they
did not know the problems and difficulties they would face controlling a powered plane.
The five steps used for solving design problems are:
1. Define the problem
2. Gather pertinent information
3. Generate multiple solutions
4. Analyze and select a solution
5. Test and implement the solution

1. DEFINE THE PROBLEM

You need to begin the solution to a design problem with a clear, unambiguous definition of the problem. Unlike an
analysis problem, a design problem often begins as a vague, abstract idea in the mind of the designer. Creating a clear
definition of a design problem is more difficult than, defining an analysis problem. The definition of a design problem
may evolve through a series of steps or processes as you develop a more complete understanding of the problem.
Identify and Establish the Need
Engineering design activity always occurs in response to a human need. Before you can develop a problem definition
statement for a design problem, you need to recognize the need for a new product, system, or machine. Thomas
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Newcomen saw the need for a machine to pump the water from the bottom of coal mines in England. Recognizing this
human need provided him the stimulus for designing the first steam engine in 1712. Before engineers can clearly
define a design problem, they must see and understand this need.
The perceived need, however, may not be the real need. Before you delve into the details of producing a solution, you
need to make sure you have enough information to generate a clear, unambiguous problem definition that addresses
the real need. The following example illustrates the importance of understanding the need before attempting a
solution.
Example: Automobile Airbag Inflation - How Not to Solve a Problem A company that manufactures automobile
airbags has a problem with an unacceptably high rate of failure in the inflation of the bag. During testing, 10 percent
of the bags do not fully inflate. An engineer is assigned the job of solving the problem. At first the engineer defines the
problem as a failure in the materials and construction of the inflation device. The engineer begins to solve this
problem by producing a more robust inflation device. After considerable effort, the engineer discovers that improving
the inflation device does not change the failure rate in the bags. Eventually, this engineer re-examines the initial
definition of the problem. The company investigates the airbag inflation problem further and discovers that a high
degree of variability in the tightness of folds is responsible for the failure of some bags to inflate. At the time the bags
were folded and packed by people on an assembly line. With a more complete understanding of the need, the engineer
redefined the problem as one of increasing the consistency in tightness of the folds in the bags. The final solution to
this problem is a machine that automatically folds the bags.
Often the apparent need is not the real need. A common tendency is to begin generating a solution to an apparent
problem without understanding the problem. This approach is exactly the wrong way to begin solving a problem such
as this. You would be generating solutions to a problem that has never been defined.
Develop a Problem Statement. The first step in the problem-solving process, therefore, is to formulate the problem in
clear and unambiguous terms. Defining the problem is not the same as recognizing a need. The problem definition
statement results from first identifying a need. The engineer at the airbag company responded to a need to reduce the
number of airbag inflation failures. He made a mistake, however, in not formulating a clear definition of the problem
before generating a solution. Once a need has been established, engineers define that need in terms of an engineering
design problem statement. To reach a clear definition, they collect data, run experiments, and perform computations
that allow that need to be expressed as part of an engineering problem-solving process.
Consider for example the statement "Design a better mousetrap." This statement is not an adequate problem definition
for an engineering design problem. It expresses a vague dissatisfaction with existing mousetraps and therefore
establishes a need. An engineer would take this statement of need and conduct further research to identify what was
lacking in existing mousetrap designs. After further investigation the engineer may discover that existing mousetraps
are inadequate because they don't provide protection from the deadly Hantavirus carried by mice. Therefore, a better
mousetrap may be one that is sanitary and does not expose human beings to the Hantavirus. From this need, the
problem definition is modified to read, "Design a mousetrap that allows for the sanitary disposal of the trapped mouse,
minimizing human exposure to the Hantavirus."
The problem statement should specifically address the real need yet be broad enough not to preclude certain solutions.
A broad definition of the problem allows you to look at a wide range of alternative solutions before you focus on a
specific solution. The temptation at this point in the design process is to develop a preconceived mental "picture" of
the problem solution. For example, you could define the better mousetrap problem as "Design a mousetrap that sprays
the trapped mouse with disinfectant." This statement is clear and specific, but it is also too narrow. It excludes many
potentially innovative solutions. If you focus on a specific picture or idea for solving the problem at this stage of the
design process, you may never discover the truly innovative solutions to the problem. A problem statement should be
concise and flexible enough to allow for creative solutions.
Here is one possible problem definition statement for our better mousetrap problem: A Better Mousetrap: Certain
rodents such as the common mouse are carriers and transmitters of an often fatal virus, the Hantavirus. Conventional
mousetraps expose people to this virus as they handle the trap and dispose of the mouse. Design a mousetrap that
allows a person to trap and dispose of a mouse without being exposed to any bacterial or viral agents being carried on
the mouse.
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Establish Criteria for Success Criteria for success are the specifications a design solution must meet or the attributes
it must possess to be considered successful. You should include criteria in the problem statement to provide direction
toward the solution. At this point in the design process, the criteria are preliminary. As the design solution develops,
you will most likely find that the initial criteria need to be redefined or modified. Preliminary criteria must not be too
specific so they allow flexibility through the design process.
The criteria that apply to a particular design problem are based on your background knowledge and the research that
you've conducted. Since each problem or project is unique, the desirable attributes, or criteria, of the solution are also
unique. Some criteria are unimportant to the success of the design. The list of criteria is developed by the design team.
The design team is made up of people from various engineering backgrounds that have expertise pertinent to the
problem. This team may also include people from backgrounds other than engineering, such as managers, scientists,
and technicians. The design team must evaluate each criterion and decide if it is applicable to the design effort. Later
in the design process, value judgments must be applied to the list of criteria. Therefore, it makes little sense to include
those criteria that will be of relatively low priority in the evaluation of design solutions. For example, if you were
designing a critical life support system, you would not include the criterion of "must be minimum cost," because cost
is not an important factor in evaluating this design.
The following is a list of preliminary criteria for a better mousetrap design. This list would be included in the problem
definition statement.
The design must be low cost.
The design should be safe, particularly with small children.
The design should not be detrimental to the environment.
The design should be aesthetically pleasing.
The design should be simple to operate, with minimum human effort.
The design must be disposable (you don't reuse the trap).
The design should not cause undue pain and suffering for the mouse.
2. GATHER PERTINENT INFORMATION
Before you can go further in the design process, you need to collect all the information available that relates to the
problem. Novice designers will quickly skip over this step and proceed to the generation of alternative solutions. You
will find, however, that effort
Search for Information Resources
Traditional publications are still an essential source of information to engineers and scientists. However, electronic
information transfer and retrieval are quickly becoming a standard source for engineers and scientists. When you
begin a search for information relating to a design problem, you must be prepared to go to many different sources
The Internet. There is a wealth of information on the Internet from a variety of sources. Manufacturers, professional
and trade organizations, suppliers of products, and many government agencies have valuable resources on their
websites. Search engines such as Google(www.google.com) and Teoma(www.teoma.com) offer tools to locate
relevant information quickly and efficiently

3. GENERATE MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS

The next step in the design process begins with creativity in generating new ideas that may solve the problem.
Creativity is much more than just a systematic application of rules and theory to solve a technical problem. You start
with existing solutions to the problem and then tear them apart-find out what's wrong with those solutions and focus
on how to improve their weaknesses. Consciously combine new ideas, tools, and methods to produce a totally unique
solution to the problem. This process is called synthesis.
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4. ANALYZE AND SELECT A SOLUTION Once you've conceived alternative solutions to your design problem,
you need to analyze those solutions and then decide which solution is best suited for implementation. Analysis is the
evaluation of the proposed designs. You apply your technical knowledge to the proposed solutions and use the results
to decide which solution to carry out.
Analysis of Design Solutions Before deciding which design solution to implement, you need to analyze each
alternative solution against the selection criteria defined in step l. You should perform several types of analysis on
each design. Every design problem is unique and requires different types of analysis. The following is a list of analysis
that may need to be considered; bear in mind that the importance of each varies depending on the nature of the
problem and the solution. Functional analysis
Industrial design/Ergonomics
Mechanical/Strength analysis
Electrical/Electromagnetic
Manufacturability/Testability
Product safety and liability
Economic and market analysis
Regulatory and Compliance
The following paragraphs provide details of some of these analysis types.
Functional analysis. This part determines whether the given design solution will function the way it should.
Functional analysis is fundamental to the evaluation and success of all designs. A design solution that does not
function properly is a failure even if it meets all other criteria. Consider for example the invention of the ballpoint pen.
This common instrument was first invented and manufactured during World War II. The ballpoint pen was supposed to
solve the problems of refilling and messiness inherent to the fountain pen. Unfortunately, this new design had never
been evaluated for functionality. The early pens depended on gravity for the ink to flow to the roller ball. This meant
that the pens only worked in a vertical upright position, and the ink flow was inconsistent: Sometimes it flowed too
heavily, leaving smudgy blotches on the paper; other times the flow was too light and the markings were unreadable.
The first ballpoint pens tended to leak around the ball, ruining people's clothes. An elastic ink developed in 1949,
allowed the ink to flow over the ball through smooth capillary action. Not until the 1950s did the ballpoint pen finally
become a practical writing instrument, thanks to proper ink and engineering. Economy, appearance, durability, and
marketability of a design are unimportant if the product does not function properly.

Ergonomics. Ergonomics is the human factor in engineering. It is the study of how people interact with machines.
Most products have to work with people in some manner. People occupy a space in or around the design, and they
may provide a source of power or control or act as a sensor for the design. For example, people sense if an automobile
air-conditioning system is maintaining a comfortable temperature inside the car. These factors form the basis for
human factors, or ergonomics, of a design. A design solution can be considered successful if the design fits the people
using it. The handle of a power tool must fit the hand of everybody using it. The tool must not be too heavy or
cumbersome to be manipulated by all sizes of people using the tool. The geometric properties of people-their weight,
height, reach, circumference, and so on-are called anthropometric data. The difficulty in designing for ergonomics is
the abundance of anthropometric data.
Product Safety and Liability. The primary consideration for safety in product design is to assure that the use of the
design does not cause injury to humans. Safety and product liability issues, however, can also extend beyond human
injury to include property damage and environmental damage from the use of your design. Engineers must also
consider the issues of safety in design because of liability arising from the use of an unsafe product. Liability refers to
the manufacturer of a machine or product being liable, or financially responsible, for any injury or damage resulting
from the use of an unsafe product.
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Economic and Market Analysis. The net result or purpose of most engineering designs is to produce a product that
generates a profit for the company. Obviously, each alternative design has to be evaluated against criteria such as sales
features, potential market, cost of manufacturing, advertising, and so on.
Mechanical/Strength Analysis. Engineering analysis of a preliminary design often include the analysis of its
mechanical features. The engineer conducts mechanical analysis to answer questions such as, "Will the device or
structure support the maximum loads that it will be subjected to?" You must also determine the effect of shocks and
repetitive or dynamic loading over the life of the product. Many systems generate heat, so you need to determine if the
design can dissipate all of the heat being generated during normal operation. Thermal analysis is an area important to
the design of electronic equipment. Many pieces of electronic equipment fail prematurely due to inadequate heat
transfer.
The Decision Process After analyzing your alternative solutions, you need to decide and document which design
solution is the best. You will refine and develop the best solution in more detail during the later stages of the design
process. At this stage, to evaluate each solution objectively against the stated design criteria or requirements, you need
a quantitative basis for judging and evaluating each design alternative
5. TEST AND IMPLEMENT THE SOLUTION The final phase of the design process is implementation, which
refers to the testing, construction, and manufacturing of the solution to the design problem. You must consider several
methods of implementation, such as prototyping and concurrent engineering, as well as distinct activities that occur
during implementation, such as documenting the design solution and applying for patents.
Prototyping. The first stage of testing and implementation of a new product, called prototyping, consists of building a
prototype of the product-the first fully operational production of the complete design solution. A prototype is not fully
tested and may not work or operate as intended. The purpose of the prototype is to test the design solution under real
conditions. For example, a new aircraft design would first be tested as a scale model in a wind tunnel. Wind tunnel
tests would generate information to be used in constructing a full-size prototype of the aircraft. Test pilots then fly the
prototype extensively under real conditions. Only after testing under all expected and unusual operating conditions are
the prototypes brought into full production.
Concurrent Engineering. Traditional design practices are primarily serial or sequential: Each step in the process is
completed in order or sequence only after the previous steps have been completed. The implementation of the design
occurs after a prototype or model is created from engineering drawings. A machinist working from the engineering
drawings generated by a drafter, or an engineer, makes the prototype. Only after creating a prototype of the design
would the engineer discover that a hole was too small, parts didn't mate properly, or a handgrip was misplaced. The
part would have to be redesigned and the process completed until a satisfactory solution was reached.
Quality Function deployment
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a planning and problem-solving tool that is used from transforming customer
requirement into the engineering characteristics of the product. QFD helps to transform the customer needs (also
referred to as voice of customer) into engineering characteristics (and appropriate test methods) for a product. It is a
graphical technique, which systematically looks at all the elements that are deemed important based on customers
survey go into the production definitions. A sample layout of the QFD diagram is shown below.

Following are a brief outline of each section of the quality function deployment table.
Customer requirements (whats) These are typically the customer requirements.
Competitive assessment It shows how the top two or three competitive products rank with respect to the customer
requirements. This starts with ranking each customer requirements on a scale of 1 to 5 and then by considering
planned improvement and any requirements that are planned for special attentions.
Engineering characteristics (hows) The engineering characteristics that enable satisfying the customer requirements
are listed in this column.
Correlation matrix It shows the degree of interdependence of the engineering characteristics with each other in the
roof of the house.
Relationship matrix It represents the correlation between the engineering characteristics and the customer
requirements.
Absolute importance To determine the absolute importance we need to multiply the numerical value in each of the
cells of the relationship matrix(6) by the importance rating (3) and then sum the numbers in the cells of each column.
Relative importance This represents the absolute importance but normalized on a scale of 1 to 100.
Technical competitive assessment This refers to the benchmarking of the company performance against the top two or
three competitors for each of the engineering characteristics.
Technical difficulties These depict the ease (or the extent of difficulty) to achieve each engineering characteristic.
Target values This would depict the final target set based on the key engineering characteristics that are deemed
important and the assessment of the technical difficulty.

Product Design Specifications The product design specification is the basic control and reference document that
would include the outcomes of the product development exercise, and is the must to begin with and execute the design
and manufacturing of any specific part or product. The quality function deployment tool provides the most crucial
inputs in writing the product design specifications. Following are some of the important elements of a typical product
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design specification document. It is, however, not necessary that the product design specification document of any
product will contain all these elements.
[A] In-use purposes and market requirements (a) Title and Purpose or function of the product,
(b) Predictable unintended use of the product,
(c) Special features of the product,
(d) What would be the competitive products?
(e) What is the indented market and why there is a need for this product?
(f) Relationship of the product to the other company products,
(g) Anticipated market demand (units per year) and target price.
[B] Functional Requirements (a) Functional performances such as flow of energy, information, materials, operational
steps, efficiency, accuracy, etc.,
(b) Physical requirements such as shape, size, weight, surface finish, etc.,
(c) Service environment such as storage and transportation requirement,
(d) Life-cycle issues including useful life, reliability (mean time to failure), robustness, ease of installation,
maintenance and repair, recyclability, etc.
(e) Human factors including importance of aesthetics, ergonomics and user-training.
[C] Corporate Constrains (a) Is there adequate time to design a quality product and its manufacturing process ( time to
market)
(b) What are the requirements for manufacturing this product?
(c) Do existing relationships with the suppliers pose any constraint on manufacturing?
(d) Are there any constraints in using the trademark, logo, brand name?
(e) What are the profitability and return on investment (ROI) that must be met?
(f) The production team should follow professional ethics at every level of the design process when they are dealing
with suppliers, dealers, corporate officials, society etc.
[D] Social, Political and Legal Requirements (a) The product design specification should meet / contain all the
requisite safety and environmental regulations,
(b) The product design specification should contain all the required standards,
(c) The product design specification must be completed with respect to all safety and liability norms,
(d) The product design specification should consider all the information related to the patents and intellectual property
that are applicable.
Product Design Specifications (PDS) is explained with the following example in which the PDS is done for an
adjustable wheel chair.

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GENERATING THE DESIGN SPACE, A SPACE OF ENGINEERING DESIGNS

How do we generate or create actual designs? We start by building a design space, an imaginary
intellectual region of design alternatives that contains all of the potential solutions to our design problem.
A design space is a useful notion that conveys a feel for the problem at hand: A large design space
suggests a design domain with a large number of acceptable designs, or a design problem with a large
number of design variables. While we can often look at a domain and intuit something about its design
space (e.g., auto and building designs occupy very large design spaces), it is not clear how we identify a
design space for unfamiliar or new devices. We now introduce the morphological chart as a formal tool
for generating design spaces and for generating within those spaces a population of designs that perform
the functions we specify. After that we will look at analogical thinking, another approach for generating
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design alter natives, and then offer one verbal and two graphical tools for coming up with designs in
team- based activities.

A morphological (morph) chart for the juice container design problem with functions listed in the
leftmost column. The means by which each can be implemented are arrayed along a row to each entry's
right.
Selection of Materials
Appropriate selection of material is significant for the safe and reliable functioning of a part or
component. Engineering materials can be broadly classified as metals such as iron, copper, aluminum,
and their alloys etc., and non-metals such as ceramics (e.g. alumina and silica carbide), polymers (e.g.
polyvinyle chloride or PVC), natural materials (e.g. wood, cotton, flax, etc.), composites (e.g. carbon
fibre reinforced polymer or CFRP, glass fibre reinforced polymer or GFRP, etc.) and foams. Each of these
materials is characterized by a unique set of physical, mechanical and chemical properties, which can be
treated as attributes of a specific material. The selection of material is primarily dictated by the specific
set of attributes that are required for an intended service. In particular, the selection of a specific
engineering material for a part or component is guided by the function it should perform and the
constraints imposed by the properties the material.
The problem of selection of an engineering material for a component usually begins with setting up the
target Function, Objective, Constraints, and Free Variables. The Function refers to the task that the
component is primarily expected to perform in service for example, support load, sustain pressure,
transmit heat, etc. The Objective refers to the target such as making the component functionally superior
but cheap and light. In other words, the Objective refers to what needs to be minimized or maximized.
The Constraints in the process of material selection are primarily geometrical or functional in nature. For
example, the length or cross-sectional area of a component may be fixed. Similarly, the service conditions
may demand a specific component to operate at or beyond a critical temperature that will prohibit use of
materials with low melting temperature. The Free Variables refer to the available candidate materials

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