The use of design methods within production machinery companies

Abstract

This paper presents a review of how production machinery companies typically develop their products and also investigates the perceived views of typical designers within this sector with regard to the utilization of formal design methods. This analysis is based on an extended visit to a production machinery company and a series of one day visits to other companies followed by an extensive questionnaire survey. The results have indicated that production machinery companies tend to control their product development process through regular design review meetings and, in general, the level of awareness and utilization of formal design methods is very low. A series of ‘roadblocks’ that are responsible for the avoidance of more widespread use of formal design methods within these particular companies has also been identified. The subject of ‘formal design methods’ created much interest from a significant number of those who responded to the questionnaire. It is concluded that there is a demand within production machinery companies for training and the development and implementation of new and:or existing design procedures that are specifically applicable for production machinery companies.