= The engineering design process = Humans design and manufacture because they want to have artefacts for their own needs. In craft-based societies these two activities are intertwined. In modern society these activities are mostly separated, the process of making starts after the process of designing is completed. Good books about Engineering Design are the books of N. Cross titled: ”Engineering Design Methods. Strategies for Product Design” [Cross2000] and the book of G. Pahl & W. Beitz titled: ”Engineering Design, A Systematic Approach.” [Pahl1996]. Both describe the VDI 2221 model of the engineering design process. The VDI 2221 model, see table 1, describes 7 sequentially executed subtasks. ||||||||'''Table 1: VDI 2221 subtasks''' || || ||'''Subtask''': ||'''Input''': ||'''Output''': || ||1 ||Clarify and design the design task ||Design task ||Specification || ||2 ||Determine functions and their structures ||Specification ||Function structure || ||3 ||Search for solution principles and their combinations ||Function structure ||Principal solution || ||4 ||Divide into realisable modules ||Principal solution ||Module structure || ||5 ||Develop layouts of the key modules ||Module structure ||Preliminary layouts || ||6 ||Complete overall layout ||Preliminary layouts ||Definitive layout || ||7 ||Prepare production and operating instructions ||Definitive layout ||Product documents || VDI 2221 assumes that step-backs in the design task are possible. Design methods: * [[Creative Design methods]] * [[Rational Design methods]] Other design methods can, for instance, be found at the Digital Society school see the Design method toolkit: https://toolkits.dss.cloud/design/ website. ---- FrontPage