Supporting change prediction in complex engineering domains

Dr Claudia Eckert
The Design Group, Open University

Complex engineering products are designed incrementally from previous designs. To reduce cost and risk in development processes, existing solutions are carried forwards through generations of products. The effectiveness of design processes depends to a large extend on the interplay between parts that are kept constant and parts that are innovated. However, it is often difficult to contain change to those parts, that are intended to be changed, as changes can lead to knock on changes in other parts. This seminar reports on research on engineering change through the design process. It presents a tool that helps designers to predict the effect of changes across a product and to visualise the connections between different parts of the product.