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The Given-Find-Solution (GFS) method is a widely used procedure to systematically understand "what the problem is" in engineering problems. Nevertheless, the GFS method does not provide a clear guide on how to handle uncertainty, feasibility, and preference for design problems. Addressing this issue is crucial since the designer usually requires making assumptions to be able to propose functional solutions. The Given-Find-In Order To-Subjected To (GFIS) method and roadmap are here proposed to systematically state a design problem and requirements using fuzzy desirability functions to handle uncertainty, feasibility, and preference. The GFIS method lists the parameters, variables, specifications, restrictions, and preferences to facilitate the decision-making process. A comparative study was conducted with undergraduate students from Tecnológico de Monterrey enrolled in the course Design Methodologies. The students solved a band brake design problem before and after applying the GFIS method, and their performance was compared. The results showed a significant improvement in their decision-making ability, their capability to find feasible solutions, and the time required to make a design proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The company that's famous for integration also excels at building functional expertise. Challenged by world-class competitors, manufacturing companies in the United States have undergone a renaissance in the last decade. [...]

During the past decade, Japan's major source of competitive advantage in the global automotive industry has been its ability to bring new, high-quality products rapidly to market. Simultaneously designing a [...]

How Toyota's product design and development process helps find the best solutions and develop successful products. Toyota Motor Corporation is an industry leader in product development lead time while using [...]

The Patient Safety Committee of The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) has initiated a new patient safety training program. The pilot module of this program will focus on hypothermia prevention, with the goal of decreasing the negative effects of hypothermia for surgery patients. Previous literature has shown that hypothermia can result in a higher incidence of surgical wound infections and longer postanesthesia recovery times, among other adverse effects. Therefore, educating medical personnel on patient safety techniques like hypothermia prevention is important for achieving positive patient outcomes. However, organizational research indicates that implementing and sustaining improvements system-wide requires a "continuous improvement culture." Earlier research has identified concepts such as double-loop learning, problem-solving, error management, and organizational routines as key elements of a continuous improvement culture. Antecedent to the ASAPS training program, a case study analysis of three surgery practices was performed to better understand the relationship between organizational structure, hypothermia domain knowledge, and continuous improvement culture characteristics. The data analysis indicates a positive correlation between hypothermia prevention and elements of a continuous improvement culture. These findings suggest that a patient safety training program, which includes learning objectives directed at improving organizational culture in addition to specific research-based preventative techniques, is more likely to achieve sustained improvements in patient outcomes than training focused on preventative techniques alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System-level design is proposed as the set of activities that aid design engineers in transitioning from highly abstract conceptual ideas to detailed designs. It is characterized by exploration of and decisions about the arrangement of components and subsystems, and design of interfaces. While these activities are sometimes included in engineering design frameworks, it has not been well studied. And yet, the results from three analyses of empirical data derived from mechanical engineering student design projects suggests that such activities seem to have a significant impact on independently assessed outcome measures, even though they comprise a small percentage of student effort. This further suggests that system-level design may be a high average activity worthy of further investigation. This paper defines system-level design, summarizes the research method used and analyses of the empirical data, and presents a tool to aid in the system-level design phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uncertainty in product development projects creates significant challenges for managers who are under intense competitive pressures to increase product quality, while reducing development time and costs. Traditional wisdom dictates the early selection of a single design in order to freeze interfaces between product subsystems so that team members can work effectively in parallel, resulting in more productive product development efforts. Prior research, however, uncovered a paradoxical case. Toyota Motor Corporation achieves the fastest development times in its industry by intentionally delaying alternative selection, a strategy termed set-based development. The current work adapts real options concepts to product development management to partially explain this paradox. A formal simulation model is used to show that converging too quickly or too slowly degrades project value. Furthermore, the model demonstrates that the wisdom of set-based strategies can be explained by the application of a real options approach to product development management. Implications for managers and directions for future work are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Argues that effective, truly concurrent design requires shifting to a paradigm where design team members reason and communicate about sets of designs called `set-based concurrent engineering.' Distinction between point-based design and set-based design; Prevalence of set-based design communication among Japanese than among United States parts suppliers.