Design+Engineering

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__Design Engineering and the Engineering design process__
" “Design is the essence of engineer.” (Eide) The purpose of engineering design revolves around our natural instincts as human beings to always strive for more, and that is why engineering is one of the fastest growing careers. Society will always strive for more than what are available, pushing engineers, designers, and inventors to continuously produce more innovative ideas. Through the engineering design process, engineers are given the tools and guidelines needed to successfully create these innovative ideas," Engineering Design Process, December 1st 2006, Wikipedia, gotten on December 1st 2006,http://en.wikipeidia.org/wiki/Engineering_Design_Process

Design engineers are engineers who producing a viable design from a conceptual model, thereby making a realistic model from which a product can be made from the abstract template or idea from which it s envisiond. The output that they eventually create which usually takes the form of drawings, drawn out plans or sketches can be used to produce viable products with little need to modify their designs further. A design engineer is an individual who is responsible for the design and development of new gooda and services i.e youtube, new model nissans e.t.c and who is different from a designer by the fact that where a designer draws out the plan for a new product the design engineer also directs the development of the product usually leading the project and working closely with other designers and marketing experts to develop the concepts needed for the production of new goods and services. This process is tied very closely with the design concept and design process because the processes they use usually involve other concepts such as [|prototyping] and [|modeling] as well as [|usability testing]being made use of extensively during the engineering design process to help create the final product.

The engineering design process is a process used by engineers to help develop new evolutionary variants to present technology or new technologies, "it is defined as the process of devising as system, component or process to meet desired needs. It is the decision making process in which the basic sciences, mathematics, and engineering sciences are applied to convert resources optimally to meet a stated objective." Engineering Design Process,November 22nd 2006, Wikipedia,November 22nd 2006, [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_Design_process]

The engineering design process is a creative process in which a lot of explorations into many areas may be needed to be done and which may require that engineers adjust their thinking or plans to altered situations and requirements ( iterative design ). Reasons for these include the fact that the technology to be designed is innovative or even a new form of technology and so isn't well understood, the initial goals of the project while being apparent in what it is meant to accomplish may yet be unclear and thus the various objectives of the project may clash due to unforeseen circumstances such as initial goals i.e high speed internet access and better graphical details for a new piece of internet software taking longer and costing more than the budget for it will allowm making it untenable to try producing, demand for the product to be created fading before it reaches completion due to the presence or emergence of other innovative products e.t.c.

The process can be divided into a 10 step process. -Identify a need -Define the problem -Conduct research -Narrow Research -Analyzing set criteria -Finding alternate solutions to problems -Analyzing possible solutions -Making a decision -Presenting the product -Selling the new product

**__Identify a need__**
The first step in the engineering design process is to identify the need that needs to be satisfied usually by consumers or society, i.e a smaller camera with more features or capable of recording videos etc. Once this need has being identified the process can begin.

**__Define the problem__**
The second step involves finding out the problems involved in satisfying a need such as i.e compartmentalizing the features in a new product without sacrificing the quality of the product to include the new features, often considered the most difficult part of the engineering design process.

__Conduct Research__
This is considered the third part of the development process conducting research about what consumers may want included into a new product. During this process the engineer may want to ask themselves the following questions about what they may want to put into the new product and may even need to make use of statistics gathering materials to gather information from a variety of sources such as surveys or questionnaires to answer these basic questions, through a wide range of mediums such as the internet.Also reverse engineering of current products that have been designed to perform the task your product is intended to perform is another way to gather more information about what to aim for in creating the product as well as granting insight into how to do so.

-What has been written or said about the product itself? -What is wrong or right about the way the product is? -What can be done to solve a problem and how can it be manufactured? -How much will it cost to manufacture the new product with improvements added and will consumers agree to pay for the product's new price?

__Narrow Research__
At this stage the research that has been collected which up till then has been kept relatively open to allow from a wide array of possible solutions to be created is now going to have to be limited in order to get rid of extreme solutions that may prove to be costly, time consuming and ultimately inefficient to utilize i.e limit number of the features on a phone to allow it conform to size requirements.

__Analyzing Set Criteria__
At this stage we analyze the characteristics of the solution that have been collected through the use of research on customer preferences that they have deemed desirable to them i.e most recommendations for what the new product should have gotten from filled out questionnaires both handed out or online forms e.t.c. The importance of each criteria to be added to the final product are analyzed and agreed upon by the engineers who are working on the project.

__Finding Alternate Solutions__
At this stage alternate solutions are made to the criteria that have been developed in the former process which at this point they have compiled and analyzed all the possible characteristics the final product would or could have to determine what would need to be modified to produce a better final product, a lot of brainstorming is involving in this section of the design process as the advantages and disadavantages of each possible solution are all evaluated at this stage in the design process to find the best characteristics for the solution to the problems they are designed to solve.

__Analyzing Possible Solutions__
At this stage in the design process, a decision is made about the solution to be made use of, while all possible solutions must be analyzed for the best one, at this stage,at this point though number of possible solutions has to be reduced to gain the best possible and most viable solution. Using a variety mathematical and engineering principles, the engineer then analyzes the potential performance of the solution to determine if the solution is capable of being performed physically i.e whether a new design for a super sonic car actually works.It is at this stage that usability testing is used very intensively to test for how effective or feasible solutions agreed upon are.

__Making a Decision__
At this stage the time has come to make a decision. Some decisions have been made easy through the analyzing and constraining of the previous steps, but at other times the decision is made more difficult due to two or more choices being equally as viable to serve as the solution of choice. One of the reasons why making a decision is so difficult is the opportunity cost of choosing one solution over another solution with engineers coming up with many viable solutions but ultimately being unable to make a decision of which is the best. One tool that can be helpful in the decision making process is to be organize. Have as much information possible about all the alternative solutions in order to evaluate them efficiently. Another crucial tool is to have the objective for the problem and important criteria clear in mind. Frequently when working on a problem, an engineer may get side tracked, so it’s important to remember the purpose of the solution.

__Presenting the product__
In this stage of the design process, the product is presented to others. At this point in the process it is important to clarify exactly what solution has been made to the product to improve through it's redesign and engineering process. Details about the product can be given visually through sketches, blueprints or prototypes. At this stage it is important to have accurate designs suuch as blue prints etc. available in order to be able to describe to observers such as other designers and engineers your idea.At this stage prototypes can be used to demonstrate to others the purpose of the design created or the product itself.

__Selling the new product__
The final stage, in this stage the engineer is going to have to sell the design for the product, that they have created with the engineer going to have to persuade others to buy or invest in the new design or product by explaining the usefulness of the product in a convincing manner to the of it's viability, though it can also be said that throughout the design process the engineer has being marketing the concept.Ways in which the design or product can be communicated to various buyers and investors include written reports which descibes the design or product, which may be read by both management and clients or for explaining to others the nature of the product oral presentation can be used to name a few of the methods available for marketing the final design/product.

Depending on the engineering disciplines used in the design process, any or all of these factors have to be considered while creating a design or product.

-Power- How much energy the product needs to operate or can produce? -Speed- How fast does the design or product in question operate? -Cost- The price to manufacture it, can also be considered the price the consumer pays to use or purchase it. -Reliabilty- How well does the product operate, how good is it's quality? -Safety- Are there safety risks? -Functionality- Does it do what it's supposed to do? -Ease of use- How easy is it to use? -Aesthetics- How pleasing is it to feel, see, or use? -Ethics/Social Impact- How does the product affect the social envrionment, does it raise ethical issues? -Maintainablity- How easy is the product created to maintain or leave in good working condition? -Testability- How easy can a manufacturer test it's viability prior to mass production? -Manufacturability- How easy is the product or design to manufacture?

References

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_design_process -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_engineer -http://www.micron.com/students/engineer/design.html -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_testing -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototyping -[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_(physical)]