Teaching Market-Driven Engineering Design with an Agent-Based Simulation Tool

Abstract

In product design, there is often a disconnect between the engineers creating the product and the marketing team determining the best characteristics for the product. The research areas of “design for market systems” and “decision-based design” seek to bridge that disconnect through quantitative approaches that facilitate simultaneous technical design and marketing decisions. However, these market driven design frameworks have been primarily evaluated in the context of industry case studies, with limited integration into engineering education. This article presents the development and implementation of a simulation tool for teaching market-driven design in undergraduate engineering design courses. This classroom tool demonstrates the basic relationships between product design decisions, pricing and marketing choices, and predicted market success, by simulating the interactions among producers and consumers in a market system. The product attributes influence the cost and consumer utility of the product, which, along with price, affect market dynamics. The simulator was implemented in a third-year undergraduate design course to introduce the concept of market-driven product design, allowing student design teams to assess the impacts of different design variables on the market success of their design projects. Surveys and written reflections by the students were used to evaluate the simulator’s value in contributing to self-reported learning. The results showed that a majority of students expressed that the simulator provides a meaningful and engaging way to learn about market-driven design concepts.