Design change and complexity

Design changes can be surprisingly complex. We examine the problems they cause and in what ways they are complex, mostly in the area of engineering design change. To assist this analysis we distinguish between (i) a static background of connectivities designs, processes, resources and requirements, (ii) descriptions of these elements and (iii) the dynamics of design tasks acting on descriptions. The background might consist of existing, similar designs, ways of describing them and established processes used to create them. We view design change, and design more generally, in terms of this model of background structure, associated descriptions and actions on descriptions. Sources of complexity in design change are examined and we indicate where these occur in different aspects of the model.

[1]  J. H. Johnson,et al.  Hierarchical Set Definition by Q-Analysis, Part II. Traffic on the Hierarchical Backcloth , 1983, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[2]  Timothy A. W. Jarratt,et al.  A model-based approach to support the management of engineering change , 2004 .

[3]  Udo Lindemann,et al.  The Development Department and Engineering Change Management , 1998 .

[4]  Claudia Eckert,et al.  Development of a Product Model to Support Engineering Change Management , 2004 .

[5]  B. D. O'Donovan,et al.  Simulating Design Processes to Assist Design Process Planning , 2004 .

[6]  C. Terwiesch,et al.  Managing the Process of Engineering Change Orders: The Case of the Climate Control System in Automobile Development , 1999 .

[7]  J. H. Johnson,et al.  Hierarchical Set Definition by Q-Analysis, Part I. The Hierarchical Backcloth , 1983, Int. J. Man Mach. Stud..

[8]  I. C. Wright,et al.  A review of research into engineering change management: implications for product design , 1997 .

[9]  Johan Malmqvist,et al.  A Comparative Study of Engineering Change Management in Three Swedish Engineering Companies , 1998 .

[10]  Herbert Negele,et al.  Coping with changes : Causes, findings, and strategies , 2000 .

[11]  J. Yorke,et al.  Chaos: An Introduction to Dynamical Systems , 1997 .

[12]  P. John Clarkson,et al.  Providing an Overview during the Design of Complex Products , 2004 .

[13]  P. Clarkson,et al.  Predicting change propagation in complex design , 2004 .

[14]  David D. Lyon.  Practical CM: Best Configuration Management Practices , 2000 .

[15]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[16]  Mark V. Martin,et al.  DESIGN FOR VARIETY: DEVELOPMENT OF COMPLEXITY INDICES AND DESIGN CHARTS , 1998 .

[17]  Jeffrey Johnson,et al.  The Multidimensional Networks of Complex Systems , 1995 .

[18]  Y. Suhov,et al.  An entropic measurement of queueing behaviour in a class of manufacturing operations , 2001, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[19]  P. John Clarkson,et al.  Change and customisation in complex engineering domains , 2004 .

[20]  Louis L. Bucciarelli,et al.  Designing Engineers , 1994 .

[21]  Peter John Clarkson,et al.  ‘Signposting’, A Parameter-driven Task-based Model of the Design Process , 2000 .

[22]  E. Jaynes.  Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics , 1957 .

[23]  Shamkant B. Navathe,et al.  C-FAR, change favorable representation , 2000, Comput. Aided Des..

[24]  Nigel Cross,et al.  Engineering design methods , 1989 .

[25]  Claudia Eckert,et al.  Designing in the context of fashion – designing the fashion context , 2001 .

[26]  Mats I. Johansson,et al.  Engineering Change from a Logistics Perspective , 2001 .

[27]  Norbert Wiener,et al.  Cybernetics: Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. , 1949 .

[28]  Claudia Eckert,et al.  Complexity of planning in design , 2005 .

[29]  John C. Knight,et al.  Improving Communication of Critical Domain Knowledge in High-Consequence Software Development: an Em , 2003 .

[30]  Nam P. Suh,et al.  Axiomatic Design: Advances and Applications , 2001 .