IMPROVING DESIGN METHODOLOGY: SYSTEMATIC EVALUATION OF PRINCIPLE SYNTHESIS
Year: 2015
Editor: Christian Weber, Stephan Husung, Marco Cantamessa, Gaetano Cascini, Dorian Marjanovic, Srinivasan Venkataraman
Author: Katzwinkel, Tim; Heller, Jan Erik; Schmid, Alexander; Schmidt, Walter; Löwer, Manuel; Feldhusen, Jörg
Series: ICED
Institution: RWTH Aachen, Germany
Section: Design Theory and Research Methodology, Design Processes
Page(s): 147-154
ISBN: 978-1-904670-65-0
ISSN: 2220-4334
Abstract
Developing new products based on a systematic approach is essential for the entrepreneurial success of technology companies. Through functional analysis and successive synthesis of a product reformative solutions can be generated. The paper in hand reviews existing methods and illustrates the occurring hurdles and advantages. Commonly used, the morphological box with its inevitable and hardly manageable large number of theoretical solutions resulting from combinatorial explosion is investigated. To overcome those drawbacks, a new software-based method for stepped synthesis is presented which integrates existing knowledge about physical principles and an evaluation algorithm. The applicability of this new method is evaluated in a student survey using a software prototype.
Keywords: Computational Design Synthesis, Decision Making, Design Methodology, Evaluation, Early Design Phases