Boundary Objects and Prototypes at the Interfaces of Engineering Design

Abstract

The primary hypothesis of this paper is that internal and external changes in design and manufacturing organizations affect the viability of boundary objects (representations, drawings, models – virtual and physical) and require changes in the underlying distributed cognitive models. Internal and external factors include new advances in technologies, insights into organizational processes, organizational restructuring and change of market focus. If the above hypothesis is true, then there are consequences for the methodologies of designing computational support systems for co-operative engineering work. We provide evidence by describing three empirical studies of engineering design we have performed in large organizations. We investigate how changing technologies disrupt the common grounds among interfaces and how this opens debate on the role of boundary objects, especially in the product visualization and analysis arena. We then argue that changes in market forces and other factors leading to changes in organizational structures often lead to erosion of common understanding of representations and prototypes, above all at the interfaces. We conclude by making the case that every structural and information flow change in engineering organizations is accompanied by the potential deterioration of the common ground. This requires the synthesis of new common grounds to accommodate the needs of new interfaces.