Abstract
Engineering design touches on the very diverse aspects of product creation in all areas of expertise. Regardless of whether the area covered is in the field of food, software, buildings, or cars, it still requires the art of design. Design may not be fully dictated upon the knowledge of the inventors but also the needs of the market place and completion. Since the beginning of time, engineering has been the sole key to survival and development. The early inventors followed the same criteria that designers today use. This is efficiency and necessity. The three books touch on different areas that explain engineering design.
Ullman
Ullman (2002) insist that the design process can only be measured by product cost, quality of the design, and time of presentation to the market. Research has shown that the most notable motivating for customers is the price, better compared to product existing in market, and efficiency. The factor of price is adequately discussed in the chapter. The author highlights on the fact that many engineers tend to overlook the fact that design contributes to almost 5% of the total cost of production of the machinery (Ullman 2002). If the machinery is of higher quality, the percentage goes even higher. This concludes that cost is fundamental to the design and quality of a product.
Ullman (2002) also discusses the issue of quality. He defines quality as the ability of a product to do the work it is stipulated for. Another characteristic of good quality is the durability. The way that most products meet this requirement is incorporating latest technology and having additional features.
Ullman and Otto & Wood show similarity in that they focus on the structure of engineering design other than the technical know-how of design. In addition, Ullman and Otto & Wood both insist that engineers do not overlook on process of manufacturing the design. This in most occasions will call for a new manufacturing methodology. Ullman includes assembly, installation, recycling, and use to the new design. Notably, Dym & Little and Ullman differ in defining the constraints of the engineering design. While Dym & Little states that the constraints involve the designer, client and customer, Ullman claims that the constraints are customers, marketing, design, and client.
Otto & Wood
Otto & Wood (2000) specializes on this topic on making a fit for the customer’s needs. In the very beginning, he highlights on the time taken in developing the perfect product giving examples of Microsoft, Ford, Xerox and the rest. Notably, he shows that the key to success is incorporation of the best ideas in the market to make a fully efficient product. This translates that compromises have to be made to succeed in such ventures. Also, research must be performing to find out the customer’s needs before making a design.
Otto & Wood (2000) give the general methodologies of creating a perfect design. These are backing on creativity to solve existing problems, taking into consideration the fundamentals of an effective design, and finally its consequences to the user and environment. When creating the product design, many engineers foresee the element of design manufacturing process. The book cautions about such oversees and advices engineers to always keep both factors in mind since they rely on each other (Otto & Wood 10).
Otto & Wood and Ullman share similar ideas since they both advocate for adapting better other ideas that already exist in the market and incorporating them to make a better idea. Otto & Wood call it adaptive design to create a variant design. Another similarity is that Dym & Little and Otto & Wood insist on the repetitiveness of designing in order to succeed in the area. However, this book differs from the other two. This is because Otto & Wood show that designs may fail due to several oversights while the other book neglects on this crucial factor. Such occurrences happen due to misconceptions, wrong information and the difference in cultures (Otto & Wood 6).
Dym & Little
Dym & Little (2004) define engineering design as the organized, intellectual creation, and weighing of the best specifics that best fit a product whose form will meet the needs of the constraints. The class that sets the constraints of a design is the designer, client, and the customer. However, the most important role is played by the customer since they decide whether the product best meets their needs then the designer transforms the idea into the product.
The chapter visits on the factor of communication in design (Dym & Little 9). Communication in design is very vital. This arises since for an idea to be translated into design then product, it must be understandable. The book also shows factors to consider while designing in order to achieve the most success. The first is that designing goes beyond mathematics. Formulas and logarithms though important, may be deemed useless in the first stages of design since structure is the most important. The second is that for one to succeed, they must understand that a problem may have different solutions.
The similarity that arrives between the three books is that the customer is the most important part of design process. In fact, they almost dictate the actions of the designer. This determines the success or failure of a design. Another similarity is that both Dym & Little and Ullman compare design from the beginning of time and showcase that the fundamentals still mater to date. However, Dym & Little differ from the other books in that they mainly discuss the technical part while the others discuss the how to do technically to succeed in design. However, this gives insight and relevance both to the engineers and layman readers.
References
Dym, Clive., & Little, Patrick. Engineering Design: a project based introduction. California Paper B ack. 2004. Print.
Otto, Kevin., & Wood, Kristin. Dallas. Product Design. Prentice Hall. 2000. Print.
Ullman, David. The mechanical design process. New York City. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2002. Print.
