Centre for Technology Management

Good Design Practice Program - Integrated engineering and industrial design

Aims

• Specify the elements of current good design practice
• Create and validate a generic process for the creation of new products integrating product planning, engineering and industrial design
• Identify barriers to adoption of good design practice by small and medium sized companies

Background

Recent research has shown that firms investing in product and industrial design have been commercially more successful than those who do not. A good example of successful design is the Sony Walkman, where by combining industrial design with manufacturing flexibility, Sony have been able to generate a family of products with large market impact but little marginal cost.

To produce a coherent design, there has to be an integration of the different design disciplines which includes marketing, product planning, industrial design and engineering input. This can be difficult however, as there is often perceived to be a cultural gap between engineers and industrial designers, or between Engineering and Marketing functions. Additionally, small engineering firms may not even include an industrial designer or marketing specialist. In these cases, it is important to have a robust process for product design and development to ensure that important issues are not overlooked.

The initial proposed model of good design practice uses a cross-functional design process with business, product planning, industrial design and product design inputs. Four live development projects are currently under study to identify the processes actually employed and to compare these with the model. The objective is to produce a generic process for the development of new products that can then be validated in a subsequent phase of the project. One of the ultimate outputs of the project will be a workbook to provide practical guidance to managers engaged in new product development.

Outputs

• A definition of good design practice
• A workbook - a set of published guidelines, tools and techniques for industrial companies to use in the product design and planning process
• A website containing information, tools and resources to support the workbook "Better Product Design"

Sponsors / Collaborators

• Monument Trust

Researchers

• James Moultrie
• Rob Holdway
• Pete Fraser
• John Drane
• David Allen