Chapter 4 - Decision Making in Engineering Design

Abstract

This chapter discusses the fundamentals of engineering design processes, which include a general model of design to consider problems in integrated, concurrent design of materials and products. A general design problem is described using the following keywords: function, structure, expected behavior, and achieved behavior. Further, the general design process is described using analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The difference between analysis and synthesis is highlighted from a design perspective. The chapter discusses the decision-based view of design (DBD) and a specific implementation—the decision support problems (DSP) technique. Decision-based design (DBD) is focused on formalization of a rational decision making process. The two important constructs in the DSP technique are compromise decision support problems (cDSPs) and selection decision support problems (sDSPs). These constructs are used to model different types of decisions that occur in integrated product and materials design problems. One of the important aspects of modeling a designer's decision is to quantify his or her preferences towards the achievement of different design objectives. The chapter also discusses utility theory, which helps designers in modeling their preferences and allows designers in making tradeoffs between different design objectives in the presence of uncertainty.