1.

1 Some Background Philosophy The first objective of any engineering design project is the
fulfillment of some human need or desire. Broadly, engineering may be described as a judicious
blend of science and art in which natural resources, including energy sources, are transformed into
useful products, structures, or machines that benefit humankind. Science may be defined as any
organized body of knowledge. Art may be thought of as a skill or set of skills acquired through a
combination of study, observation, practice, and experience, or by intuitive capability or creative
insight. Thus engineers utilize or apply scientific knowledge together with artistic capability and
experience to produce products or plans for products. A team approach is nearly always used in
modern industrial practice, enabling engineers from many disciplines, together with marketing
specialists, industrial designers, and manufacturing specialists, to integrate their special
credentials in a cooperative cross-functional product design team effort.1 Mechanical engineers
are almost always included in these teams, since mechanical engineers have broad training in
principles and concepts relating to products, machines, and systems that perform mechanical
work or convert energy into mechanical work. One of the most important professional functions of
mechanical engineers is mechanical design, that is, creating new devices or improving existing
devices in an attempt to provide the “best,” or “optimum” design consistent with the constraints
of time, money, and safety, as dictated by the application and the marketplace. Newcomers to
mechanical 1 See 1.2. design activity, even those with well-developed analytical skills, are often at
first frustrated to find that most design problems do not have unique solutions; design tasks
typically have many possible approaches from which an “optimum” must be chosen. Experienced
designers, on the other hand, find challenge and excitement in the art of extracting a “best” choice
from among the many potential solutions to a design problem. Transformation of the frustrations
of a newcomer into the excitement experienced by a successful seasoned designer depends upon
the adoption of a broadly based design methodology and practice in using it. It is the objective of
this text to suggest a broadly based design methodology and demonstrate its application by
adapting it to many different important engineering design scenarios. Practice in using it must be
supplied by the reader. 1.2 The Product Design Team Before any of the engineering design
methods, concepts, or practices described in this textbook can be put to productive use, it is
necessary to first translate customer needs or desires, often vague or subjective, into quantitative,
objective engineering specifications. After clear specifications have been written, the methods
presented in this text provide solid guidelines for selecting materials, establishing geometries, and
integrating parts and subassemblies into a whole machine configuration that will safely and
reliably meet both engineering and marketing goals. The task of translating marketing ideas into
well-defined engineering specifications typically involves interaction, communication, and
understanding among marketing specialists, industrial designers, financial specialists, engineering
designers, and customers,2 cooperatively participating in a cross-functional product design team.3
For smaller companies, or smaller projects, the team functions just listed may be vested in fewer
team members by assigning multiple-function responsibility to one or more participants. The first
steps in translating customer needs or marketplace opportunities into engineering design
specifications are usually managed by marketing specialists and industrial designers. Marketing
specialists on the product design team typically work directly with customers to bring a sharper
focus to perceived needs, to establish marketing goals, to supply supportive research and business
decision-making data, and to develop customer confidence that their needs can be efficiently met
on schedule. Industrial designers on the team are responsible for creating an initial broad-based
functional description of a proposed product design, together with the essentials of a visual 2
Chapter 1 / Keystones of Design: Materials Selection and Geometry Determination 2 It has become
common practice to include customers in product design teams. The argument for doing so is the
belief that products should be designed to reflect customers’ desires and tastes, so it is efficient to
interactively incorporate customer perceptions from the beginning (see ref. 1). On the other hand,
an argument has been made that customers do not lead companies to innovation, but rather into
refining existing products. Since technical innovation often wins the marketplace in today’s
business world, companies that concentrate solely on following customer perceptions and desires,
rather than leading customers to innovative new ideas, are at risk. 3 An interesting side issue
related to the formation of a product design team lies in the task of choosing a team leader
without generating interpersonal conflicts among the team members. It has been argued that
choosing a team leader is the most important decision that management will make when setting
up a product design team (see ref. 1, p. 50). Others have observed that good followership is as
important to team success as good leadership (see ref. 2). The qualities that typically characterize
good leaders are, in great measure, the same qualities found in effective followers: intelligence,
initiative, self-control, commitment, talent, honesty, credibility, and courage. Followership is not a
person but a role. Recognition that leaders and followers are equally important in the activities of
an effective cross-functional product design team avoids many of the counterproductive conflicts
that arise in teams of diverse participants. concept that embodies appealing external form, size,
shape, color, and texture.4 Artistic renderings and physical models5 are nearly always developed
as a part of this process. In developing an initial product design proposal, industrial designers must
consider not only broad functional requirements and marketing goals, but also aesthetics, style,
ergonomics,6 company image, and corporate identity. The result of this effort is usually termed a
product marketing concept. A good product marketing concept contains all pertinent information
about the proposed product that is essential to its marketing, but as little information as possible
about details of engineering design and manufacturing, so as not to artificially constrain the
ensuing engineering decision-making processes. This policy, sometimes called the policy of least
commitment, is recommended for application throughout the engineering design and
manufacturing stages as well, to allow as much freedom as possible for making downstream
decisions without imposing unnecessary constraints. Engineering designers on the product design
team have the responsibility of identifying the engineering characteristics that are directly related
to customer perceptions and desires. Describing the potential influences of engineering
characteristics on the marketing goals, and evaluating the product design proposal in measurable
terms, is also an engineering design function. Ultimately, engineering specifications for designing a
practical, manufacturable product that is safe, cost-effective, and reliable are primarily the
responsibility of the engineering designer on the team. To implement the work of a cross-
functional product design team, it is usually necessary to establish a set of planning and
communication routines that focus and coordinate skills and experience within the company.
These routines are formulated to stimulate design, manufacturing, and marketing departments to
propose products that customers want to purchase, and will continue to purchase. One matrix-
based model for interfunctional planning, communication, and evaluation is called the house of
quality.7 The principles underlying the house of quality paradigm apply to any effort toward
establishing clear relationships between manufacturing functions and customer satisfaction that
are not easy to visualize directly. Figure 1.1 illustrates a fraction of one subchart8 that embodies
many of the house of quality concepts, and provides a sequence of steps for answering the
following questions: 1. What do customers want? 2. Are all customer preferences equally
important? 3. Will delivering perceived needs yield a competitive advantage? 4. How can the
product be effectively changed? 5. How much do engineering proposals influence customer-
perceived needs? 6. How does an engineering change affect other characteristics? Building a
house of quality matrix to answer these questions begins with customer perceptions, called
customer attributes (CAs). Customer attributes are a collection of customer phrases describing
product characteristics deemed to be important. For the car door example of Figure 1.1, the CAs
shown at the left boundary include “easy to close,” “stays 4 See ref. 1, p. 8. 5 At this conceptual
stage, models are usually crude and nonfunctional, although some may have a few moving parts. 6
Ergonomics is the study of how tools and machines can best be fitted to human capabilities and
limitations. The terms human factors engineering and human-machine systems have also been
used in this context. 7 See ref. 1. The house of quality concepts presented here are extensively
paraphrased or quoted from ref. 3. 8 Extracted from ref. 3. The Product Design Team 3 open on a
hill,” “doesn’t leak in rain,” and “allows no road noise.” Typical product applications would define
30 to 100 CAs. The relative importance of each attribute, as evaluated by the customer, is also
included, as shown in Figure 1.1. The importance-weighting numbers, shown next to each
attribute, are usually expressed as percentages, where the complete list of all attributes totals 100
percent. Customer evaluations of how the proposed product (car door) compares with
competitive products are listed at the right side of the matrix. These evaluations, ideally based on
scientific surveys of customers, identify opportunities for improvement and ways to gain
competitive advantage.