Procedures of Engineering Design

What is Engineering Design?

There have been many definitions suggested to describe what is meant by Engineering Design. One
which m ay best summ arize all the aspects of the field of endeavor is that suggested by Morris
Asimow.

Engineering Design is a "purpos eful activity dir ected towar d the go al o f f ulfilling hum an need s,
particularly those which can be m et by technologi cal factor, of our civilization." (M. Asim ow-
"Introduction to Design," Prentice Hall).
The emphasis is placed on three important phrases which tell us what Engineering Design is
(i) A purposeful activity.
(ii) Aimed at the satisfaction of human needs.
(iii) Based on technological factors.

It is most important that we fully realize the implications of these three features whenever a design
project is presented to us. It is well known that the profession or engineering exists to solve
problems presented to its m embers by the sound applica tion of scientific princi ples. It is required
that these problem s be solved, within a define d tim e li mit and taking due account of econom ic,
human and legal factors.

The second aspect which is accentuated in the above description is that of "fulfilling human needs."
This is th e most im portant consideration in desi gn and is the prim ary reason for the existence of
engineering. These needs can be m anifest in m any different ways but we m ust always realize wh o
it that engineering should serve is. The third consideration separates Engineering Design from other
fields where hum an needs can b e s atisfied by music, literature, art, architecture and other artistic
activities. T hus Engineering Design is, by defi nition, lim ited to thos e areas wh ere the logical
application of scientific princi ples is an essential m ethod of solution. This does not m ean that
artistic and aesthetic considerations are not taken into account; merely that they are not the prim ary
consideration in most cases.

Characteristics of Engineering Design

There are a num ber of features w hich are nece ssary to recognize as constituting the m ajor
characteristics of Engineering Design. Engineering Design can be considered as being
1. Goal Oriented.
2. Variform
3. Constrained
4. Evolutive
5. Probabilistic
6. Value Comparative
7. Compromising

Goal Oriented-has already been considered. T here is a de finite objective in m ind. If the design
problem ha d been carefully defined these objec tives are clearly seen . There are m any cases,
however, where the problem has not been caref ully defined and the objectives are hazy. It is then
the engineer's first task to identify the real problem.
Variform-there is no limit to the number of possible solutions to any problem . Some of these are
simply not feasib le or d esirable but can perhaps be developed into a more accep table solution. On
the oth er hand, there are lik ely to be a num ber of apparently quite acceptable solu tions. It is th e
responsibility of the engin eer to allow the free flow of ideas a nd then to select the one idea which
will be put into practice.

Constrained-The freedom of choic e open to the e ngineering designer is lim ited by m any
considerations. Typical of these are
(a) The natural laws of physics, chem istry, mathematics etc. Thus gravity exists, carbon burned in
air produces CO2 and Integral of cos t = sin t.

(b) Economics. The finance, staff and m aterials available for a project are lim ited. This means the
engineer cannot achieve perfection but he should pur sue a target of excellence which is consistent
with the financial limitations which have been imposed in various ways.

(c) Human considerations. The requirements of individuals must be taken into account. The pilot of
an aircraft, the crane driver and the operator of a dom estic can opener ha ve certain physical and
psychological characteristics which im pose i mportant constraints on the design proposals. T he
requirements of social groups should be included in the design considerations. Here we m ay have
to think of aesthetic, cultural and religious factors as well as pollution, noise and the social
objectives of the community.

(d) Legal factors. There is a range of legal cons iderations which m ay provi de restrictions to the
designer's freedom of a ction. Th ese include statuto ry requ irements, patent laws, contracts and
guarantees.

(e) Produ ction Facilities . Eventually the produ ct has to be m anufactured and distributed to the
consumers. Thus real m aterials, which are ava ilable at the required tim e, m ust be used. The
necessary production facilities, and the means of transport, installa tion and m aintenance must also
be available when required.

Evolutive-new infor mation frequently becom es availa ble as the design is worked through. The
problems presented during the design operation m ay suggest other schem es. Thus improvem ents
frequently becom e available and may be incorporated in the fina l design. This phase is rather
similar to th e activity of a scientist, who is c ontinually searching for pe rfection in his field. The
engineer however, cannot afford to seek perfecti on but he must be able to re alize the valu e of
incorporating changes in his scheme. It is obviously desirable then to rec ognize the likely need to
make changes when the time scale for the project is being worked out.

Probabilistic-the data available and the calculations the designer makes always contains an element
of uncertain ty. There is an ever present chanc e that the f inal assessm ent will not be com pletely
accurate. T he engineer m ust take this into account in his delibe rations so th at, in spite of
uncertainties, the finished product will achieve the required objective. This requires a consideration
of saf ety and allowance s f or possib le weakness . This will of ten requir e additional m aterial or
duplicate equipment which adds to th e cost of the product. This m ay have to be offset in critical
situations b y carry ing out exten sive research a nd developm ent projects. The aircraft industry
provides m any exam ples of this concern. Here extr a weight of an aircra ft greatly reduces the
income earning potential. Therefore it becom es economically desirable to ca rry out m any tests to
reduce the probable uncertainties to a minimum.

Value Comparative-the final decision as to the alternative selected for final design and manufacture
is based on a com parison of relative values and estimated production costs. Value is a relative
quantity and can only be determ ined in a com parative m anner. This m ay be difficult to achieve
with accuracy but is nevertheless a necessary exercise to be followed through.

Compromising-in spite of uncertainties, conflicting requirements of tim e, perfection and cost, and
lack of adequate knowledge, it is e ssential that the need be satisfie d. It is theref ore necessary to
make compromises right down the line of activity in order to achieve th e most effective solution.
With the progression of tim e it is found that developm ents in materials and technology, changes in
the economic and labor m arket and community needs lead to different soluti ons to essentially the
same problem. The great variety of for ms of bri dge cons truction be ars witn ess to the sh ift in
balance between conflicting requirements over the years.

Characteristics of Designers

The discussion of the ch aracteristics of design in the last section l eads on to som e consideration of
the des igner. Som e will be appa rent f rom what has be en written alr eady and som e will become
evident in later chapters. It seem s desirable, however, to group all of the aspe cts at this s tage. We
can then describe the characteristics required of designers as including

• Ability to identify problems.

• Imaginative.

• Inventive.

• Sense of urgency.

• Ability to simplify problems.

• Numerate.

• Decisive.

• Open minded.

Ability to identify problems. One o f the common characteristics of a s uccessful d esigner is the
ability to recognize problems before anybody else. To be truly successful, however, he must be able
to correctly identify the problem to be overcome. This activity will be discussed in greater detail in
the next chapter.
Here it is d esirable to point out th at the cor rect iden tification of the real p roblem is a primary
requirement in setting the project heading to the right goal.

Imaginative. When we are m oving into a new area it is obviously important that we have a strong
imagination to f oresee possible pro blems which will arise. There are likely to be changes in the
operating environment during the lif etime of the pr oduct. You will be awar e of bridges designed
many years ago which are still serviceable in spite of considerable changes in the traffic pattern and
size of community. The equipment we design may be used by a wide variety of people both skilled
and unskilled in its use. We should be able to imagine how each class woul d react and attem pt to
retain saf ety even if the equipm ent is not used correctly. T he circum stances of use m ay also be
quite different from that for which the product w as originally intended. The operating environment
may be hot, cold, wet, dry, dusty, or vib rating relativ e to the spe cified environm ent. Again the
designer should be able to im agine the environm ent of t he use of the product. Consider, for
example, the designe r of a m otor car. The des igner, sitting in his a ir conditioned office in Detr oit
must be able to imagine the use of his design of a station sedan by a sheep station owner in outback
Saudi Arabia. The tem perature will be high in summ er, the roads dusty and he m ay carry various
items of equipment in the waggon.

Inventive. The two characteristics just described are prerequisites for an inventive m ind. However
they are not sufficient conditi ons. The inventive person must be capable of developing new
concepts which will satisfy the desired objectives.

Sense of Urgency. This has already been referred to pr eviously and is one of the im portant
characteristics of a designer. He must be able to think and act quickly but without losing his
effectiveness by panic. He must also maintain a sense of balance between what is ideal and what is
attainable within the restriction of time and finance.

Ability to simplify problems. Many situations lead to quite com plicated analysis which needs to be
carried out f or predicting the perfor mance of the product. E ven with the advent of com puters it is
necessary to simplify the problem so that it becomes tractable. The engineer must therefore be able
to recognize the major facts to be taken into account and to reduce the difficulty of the problem. He
will th en be able to co mplete th e necessa ry a nalysis in a reasonab le tim e. Associated w ith this
simplification is the need to understand the consequences of simplification. Thus the engineer must
have an almost intuitive unders tanding of the principl es involved so he can make reasonable
corrections to take into account the errors he is making through simplification of the problem.

Experience in asses sing past d esigns in the light of their operational pe rformance will prov ide an
excellent basis for this developm ent of understa nding. It is collective e xperience of team s of
engineers which largely contributes to the evol ution of new concepts which are successful in
operation. Other activities which as sist the developm ent of confid ence in sim plification are those
described as research and devel opment. R and D provide an exce llent opportunity to discover the
connection between reality and th e sim plified model under contro lled conditions. One can, for
example, study the effect of a lim ited num ber of changes and determ ine their effect. In this way
correlation or correction factors ca n be derived for the conversion of model predictions into real
performance predictions.

Numerate. Since there is a considerable am ount of anal ysis of concepts in design evaluation it is
essential that the d esigner be ad ept at m athematical analy sis. He must be capable of developing
appropriate m athematical and com putational pro cedures to solve the equations which develop
during the analysis. Consequently th ere must be signif icant attention paid to th ese attributes in the
training of engineering designers. The developm ent of high speed com puter technology has m eant
that m any problem s which were previously intract able can now be solved. This has opened up
whole areas of design activity which were not economically feasible previously.
Decisive. This again is a necessary characteristic of the engineering des igner. There are a num ber
of possible solutions which have to be evaluated and then a d ecision made as to the most suitable.
This decision activity occurs at all stages of th e design process. Thus decisions have to be m ade
regarding the nature of m odel to be considered, on the m ethod of analysis, on the relative
importance of attributes of the design, on the market to be serviced, and on the best design.

The designer must then be psychologically capable of making a decision and to have the courage to
go ahead with his decision. There is no room for indecision and som e pressure to avoid being too
conservative. Thus the designer m ust be prepared to stick out his neck-provi ded, of course, that his
neck joins a knowledgeable brain to a firm foundation of engineering and scientific principles.

Open minded. There are many reasons why the solution to a given proble m will change with tim e.
The designer should be prepared to change his at titude as the environm ent changes. One cannot
conceive new solutions if the m ind is closed to the receptance of new ideas and to acceptance that
the world is continually changing. He must also be prepared to accept that his own reasoned
solutions may not be the m ost suitable. He m ust therefore be prepared to accept criticism and to
change his ideas if other concepts appear to be superior.

The Design Procedure

The major stages of engineering design may be listed as

• NEED
• IDEA
• DECISION
• ACTION

That there is a NEED i s established and defi ned, followed by the developm ent of IDEAS, the
DECISION as to which alte rnative will be translated to reality by the ACTIONS of the production
team. The early stages of this process are basically the mental process of idea creation and decision
making. These processes have been studied by psychologists who have defined the stages involved.
It is true that some people are "born inventors" who seem to always have creative thoughts whereas
there are others who have "never had an or iginal idea in thei r lives. There are m any people,
however, who have the cap ability f or origin ality, bu t f or one reason or another, have never
developed the facility. It is for this reason that, in the early s tages of design practice, it is valu able
to adopt a conscious approach to the developmen t of a creative attitude. This will obviously be
more effective if th e co nscious efforts are those which will b ecome autom atic and subconsciou s
efforts with the passage of time.

It appears that the stages of thinking followed by creative people are as follows
• DEFINITJON OF NEED
• PERIOD OF INCUBATION
• CONCEPTION OF SOLUTIONS
• ANALYSIS OF IDEAS
• DECISION
This same procedure can be expanded; but kept e ssentially the sam e; to make it applicab le to the
task of engineering design. Thus we may identify the stages of design as consisting of

STATEMENT OF NEED
OBJECTIVE DHINITJON
OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS
CONCEPTION OF SOLUTIONS
EVALUATION OF SOLUTIONS
MODIFICATIONS
DECISION
SPECIFICATION FOR MANUFACTURE
ORGANIZATION FOR MANUFACTURE

The need to achieve a satisfacto ry solution to the pro blem presented has b een referred t o
previously. It is implicit in the statement that the designer is looking for the best solution consistent
with the variety of constraints im posed. When we think of the benefits w hich accrue from design
activity and also the cos t or the procedure we begi n to rea lize that the project must be m anaged in
order to achieve the best benefit- Cost relationship. Let us consider aspects of each of these and
develop an understanding of the principles of the management of design.

The benefits arising is a result of improved design activity include

Satisfaction or need-basic objective
Greater reliability of product
Increased efficiency
Greater sales appeal

These, and other attributes go to wards increasing the valu e of the product being designed. In m ost
cases the value, in terms of community acceptance, will be increas ed as the total time spent on the
design phase increased. However the increase in value generally follows a law of dim inishing
return, th at is, the rate of increase of value b ecomes smaller with tim e devoted to the exercise.
There is, of course, no certainty that the v alue of a product will increas e with des ign effort. The
effort must be exerted wisely and concentrated into areas which will lead to the g reatest benefits.
That is, the critical areas of a pr oject need to be defined and ade quate time allowed for these to be
properly executed.

The cost of the design activity is closely pro portional to the tota l e ffort spent on design a nd
development. There are, however, significant (actors which upset this proportionality. When a large
design team is recru ited in order to "crash prog ramme" a project th ere is a reductio n in efficiency
due to the problem of c ommunication. On the other hand, a team which is too sm all will also not
work efficiently over the long period of ti me. Another serious factor related to elapsed tim e rather
than ef fort is the conse quential los s if the pr oblem is not solved within the tim e period allowe d.
Thus it is likely that th e cost of design will r ise, at an incr easing rate, with the des ign effort and
time which has elapsed.

For Study Materials and coaching of

AMIE Section A and B
Contact JYOTHIS ACADEMY,
KOTTAYAM