Current research in the conceptual design of mechanical products

Decisions made at the conceptual design stage have significant influence on factors such as costs, performance, reliability, safety and environmental impact of a product. However, knowledge of all the design requirements and constraints during this early phase of a product's life cycle is usually imprecise, approximate or unknown. Faced with such complexity, individual designers have restricted themselves to narrow, well-defined sub-tasks and as a result, progress in this area has been patchy and spasmodic. The purpose of this survey is to document the current state of research and development in this crucial design activity and in doing so, to identify avenues of fruitful exploration. In this paper, we provide a comparison of the advantages/disadvantages and limitations between the various techniques/tools and, where applicable, suggest possible future research directions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.