Design Process Improvement: A review of current practice - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 185233701X ISBN 13: 9781852337018

Publisher: Springer, 2005

Synopsis

vi The process is important! I learned this lesson the hard way during my previous existence working as a design engineer with PA Consulting Group's Cambridge Technology Centre. One of my earliest assignments involved the development of a piece of labo- tory automation equipment for a major European pharmaceutical manufacturer.Two things stick in my mind from those early days – first, that the equipment was always to be ready for delivery in three weeks and,second,that being able to write well structured Pascal was not sufficient to deliver reliable software performance. Delivery was ultimately six months late,the project ran some sixty percent over budget and I gained my first promotion to Senior Engineer. At the time it puzzled me that I had been unable to predict the John Clarkson real effort required to complete the automation project – I had Reader in Engineering Design, genuinely believed that the project would be finished in three Director, Cambridge Engineering weeks.It was some years later that I discovered Kenneth Cooper's Design Centre papers describing the Rework Cycle and realised that I had been the victim of “undiscovered rework”.I quickly learned that project plans were not just inaccurate,as most project managers would attest,but often grossly misleading,bearing little resemblance to actual development practice.

About this title

Synopsis

There is always room for improvement in design. Maybe there is need for a better product, or for a better, more effective and economic, design process-the late delivery of new products has been shown to be the single largest contributor to the loss of company profits in the UK. Our own experience of working with automotive, aerospace and healthcare companies has shown that effective communication, management of change and process planning are essential ingredients for an effective product development process. This book aims to develop an understanding of these issues as a means to facilitate design process improvement. Part I contains a series of review articles written by a team of international experts on models of design, perspectives on design, design practice and design management. Part II provides an introduction to the wealth of academic research on these topics by presenting the activities of research centres from around the world.

It is for: business leaders who want to understand the role of design management as a driver for commercial success; design managers who want to improve their company design procedures; designers who want to know how to design more efficiently; researchers who want to explore the field of design process improvement. An up-to-date source of information on design process improvement may be found at: http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/designprocessbook

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 185233701X
• ISBN 13: 9781852337018
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 575
• Editor: Clarkson John, Eckert Claudia