Selection method

Research Theme: Change Management

The selection of design features and design strategies are two critical decision stages in incremental change. This research aims to enhance the understanding of the influence of change analysis on concept and strategy selection. The objectives are to enhance current concept selection tools and to develop a more systematic approach to select design strategies.

Motivation

There is a need for product variety in today’s market. One possible way to address this need is to adopt incremental change (design), which involves the generation of new products through modification of existing products.

In order to leverage on the current product lines, it is attractive to retain as many components as possible. However, changes can propagate across product components when accommodating new design features. It is therefore important to pre-empt undesirable change propagation early in the design process. One promising checkpoint is during concept selection. Concept selection is a juncture in the design process where one or a few ideas are selected for further development. If information on potential change propagation can be presented at this phase, designers can be better prepared and can reassess their options before more resources are committed.

Objectives

  • Explore methods to evaluate concepts in incremental change
  • Explore methods to identify components for design strategies
  • Enhance understanding of the influence of change analysis on concept and strategy selection

Method

An extensive literature review was carried out in conjunction with industrial case studies to understand current concept and strategy selection practises and their limitations.

Findings

Early results suggest that the consideration of change propagation during concept selection can help alert designers of potential changes and influence design choices.

By classifying components based on change characteristics, appropriate design strategies can be implemented for individual components. These strategies include design for flexibility and design for standardisation.

Acknowledgements

There is a need for product variety in today’s market. One possible way to address this need is to adopt incremental change (design). In the context of incremental change, new products are generated through modification of existing products. In order to leverage on the current product lines, it is attractive to retain as many components as possible. It should be noted, however, that changes can propagate to other components when fitting the new design features with the rest of the product. It is therefore important to pre-empt undesirable change propagation in the design process. One promising checkpoint is during concept selection. Concept selection is a juncture in the design process where one or a few ideas are selected for further development. If information on potential change propagation can be presented at this phase, designers can be better prepared and can reassess their options before more resources are committed.

One important decision to make after the concept selection phase is the selection of design strategies to implement the new design features. Should the new components be standardised for high volume production? Or should they be made flexible in anticipation of future changes? While the guidelines on how to implement design strategies exist, methods to identify components for such strategies still requires more research.

Selected Publications

  • KOH, E.C.Y., KELLER, R., ECKERT, C.M. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2008) ' Influence of Feature Change propagation on Product Attributes in concept selection' in 10th International Design Conference (Design 2008), Dubrovnik, Croatia
  • KOH, E.C.Y., KELLER, R., ECKERT, C.M. and CLARKSON, P.J. (2007) 'Component classification: a change perspective' in 9th International Design Structure Matrix Conference (DSM'07), Munich, Germany