Design Engineering: A Manual for Enhanced Creativity

As with any art, science, or discipline, natural talent is only part of the equation. Consistent success stems from honing your skills, cultivating good techniques, and hard work. Design engineering, a field often considered an intuitive process not amenable to scientific investigation, is no exception. Providing descriptive theory, broad context, and practical examples, Design Engineering: A Manual for Enhanced Creativity explores how to quantify creativity, codify inspiration, and document a process seemingly based solely on intuition. The authors discuss how to clarify the design task, conceptualize candidate solutions, and search for alternatives. They delineate how these phases fit into an industrial context, including engineering product development, and what to consider during design engineering to satisfy all customers. The book discusses activities and methods for performing engineering design work in a rational, reviewable, and documented way, increasing the likelihood of finding an optimal solution. The presentation covers substantiated use of intuition and opportunism as an integral part of rational, systematic, and methodical designing. It examines the influence of other topics on the work, such as psychology, computers, teamwork, application of methods, and education. The authors recommend that results from these less systematic activities be brought into the rational and systematic framework to document the results. Based on the authors' extensive industrial experience, the book elucidates a coherent body of knowledge of design engineering. The book clearly details an easily applicable theory that not only gives you solid design tools, but can also be adapted to any existing design situation.