AXIOMATIC DESIGN AND CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

The ability to utilize concurrent engineering fully as a strategy for achieving shorter time to market, reduced development costs, and higher-quality products depends on an ability to communicate design decisions and to coordinate the creative process among diverse disciplines. To date, the use of concurrent engineering has dealt mainly with redefining organizational structures. However, there is a lack of a systematic framework for conducting group design activities, and basic principles for decision making. In addition, the information necessary to design and manufacture a quality product is constantly evolving with new market opportunities, and a comprehensive database is too large for human designers to handle efficiently. The paper presents the concept of axiomatic design as a framework for concurrent engineering. It is based on two design axioms that provide basic principles for decision making. The axiomatic approach discussed in this paper also provides a theoretical framework for introducing the computer as a design assistant, and an architecture for a computational design environment is presented. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the data model that is central to the computational environment.