Prescriptive Study: Developing Design Support
5.6 Elaboration
The consequences of these decisions are taken into account in the Intended Introduction Plan and the Intended Impact Model. For instance, the decision to automate the creation of the CI diagram is expected to significantly reduce the time needed to evaluate embodiments, and therefore should increase the ‘% time left to improve’, as seen in the updated Intended Impact Model in Figure 5.11.
Figure 5.11 Lower part of the Intended Impact Model of the reliability example at the end of the Elaboration step in PS
Knowledge Issues
In many research projects, knowledge issues will be particularly dominant at this stage of development, although they will also play a role in the task clarification and conceptualisation steps.
In support development, research questions are often associated with a specific design issue, activity, stage and application. For instance, Stephenson (see Appendix C.8) asks “How can we improve evaluation (activity) of reliability (issue) at the embodiment design stage (stage) for earth-moving equipment (application)?” Chakrabarti (Appendix C.3) asks “How can we support designers in generating (activity) a wider range of mechanical designs (application) at the conceptual stage (design stage) to fulfil the intended functionality (issue)?” The intended use of the support for a particular application makes it imperative to gather domain knowledge. The issues, activities and stages provide the relevant context and thus focus.
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reliability of embodiment
level of unity
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provide early, semi-auto
assessment of C, S
knowledge of unity level provide early assessment
of U (existing)
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automatically create CI diagram
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Key Factor
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use of DfR methods
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% of project time left
to improve
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Upper part of IM (Fig. 4.9)
level of clarity
level of simplicity
quality of modification quality of
modification knowledge
of clarity level
knowledge of simplicity level
reliability of detail design
accuracy of CI-diagram
+ +
+ +
reliability of embodiment
level of unity
+ +
+ +
provide early, semi-auto
assessment of C, S
knowledge of unity level provide early assessment
of U (existing)
+ + + +
++
+ +
+
+
automatically create CI diagram
+
++
Key Factor
+ +
+ +
+ +
use of DfR methods
+
% of project time left
to improve
+ +
Upper part of IM (Fig. 4.9)
level of clarity
level of simplicity
quality of modification quality of
modification knowledge
of clarity level
knowledge of simplicity level
reliability of detail design
accuracy of CI-diagram
+
reliability of embodiment
level of unity
+ +
+ +
provide early, semi-auto
assessment of C, S
knowledge of unity level provide early assessment
of U (existing)
+ + + +
++
+ +
+
+
automatically create CI diagram
+
++
Key Factor
+ +
+ +
+ +
use of DfR methods
+
% of project time left
to improve
+ +
Upper part of IM (Fig. 4.9)
level of clarity
level of simplicity
quality of modification quality of
modification knowledge
of clarity level
knowledge of simplicity level
reliability of detail design
accuracy of CI-diagram
+ +
+
Domain knowledge will be necessary as part of some support for its functioning (e.g., a set of guidelines for design for Ergonomics), while for other support knowledge will be provided by the user (e.g., a morphological chart). Where domain knowledge plays a significant role, systematic gathering and structuring of such knowledge can be a significant portion of PS unless it has already been collected as part of DS-I.
In the reliability example, for instance, the researcher needed to gather technical details and failure data of specific sub-systems of existing equipment, as well as the guidelines and procedures designers apply in the early stages of embodiment and the information they have at their disposal, in order to be able to develop the assessment procedures and the CI diagram concept. Most of the data had already been collected in DS-I.
In situations where the required domain knowledge is not available or not complete, this knowledge must be generated. This requires an understanding of the domain. In the synthesis example, for instance, the Intended Support depends on the availability of a sufficiently rich, minimal, generic set of building blocks that can be easily combined into variants early in the development process. Being able to identify fundamental building blocks is a crucial aspect of this work and one of its main contributions: the building blocks suggested in the literature did not fulfil the requirements. The researcher, therefore, analyses the designs available in the domain for basic patterns (similarities) at the functional level. The result is a model and a modelling approach, as well as a set of generic building blocks. These are to be used in the Intended Support to generate new design concepts to be explored by the designer. This implies that the contribution of this research project is not only a support but also new (domain) knowledge about how to model technical systems at an abstract level, so as to support their creation.
The synthesis example illustrates a case in which the elaboration of the Intended Support requires a revisit of the DS-I stage, driven by specific questions dictated by the needs of the PS stage. This second DS-I focused on obtaining an understanding about similarities and fundamental functional differences of technical systems with a focus on mechanical designs. The results were models of building blocks and rules for their combination. The modelling language used was a creation of the researcher, as nothing suitable was available. The development of the building block models and combination rules could have been part of PS, had the aim of PS been to develop a tool for modelling building blocks. In the example this is not the case: the building blocks are given and a tool for their use was to be developed.
Various techniques for knowledge acquisition are available, especially from the discipline of knowledge engineering, see Appendix B.2.5. In addition, many data- collection methods from DS-I may be relevant (see Chapter 4 and Appendix A.4).
Deliverables
The Elaboration stage results in the completed Documentation of Intended Support. This includes the Intended Impact Model, the Intended Introduction Plan, and the Intended Support Description. The Intended Support Description describes the support in terms of the need or problems addressed, the goals and objectives of the support, its elements, how it works, the underlying concepts, theory, assumptions and rationale, and how it is to be realised.
At this stage of research it is useful to ask oneself the following reflective questions:
• Why do I believe this support leads to a result?
• What is my contribution to this support?
• Why do I believe this contribution to be academically worthwhile?
• Why do I believe the support to be practically worthwhile, or to contribute to a practical goal?
• Why do I believe that I have the competences or can obtain the competences to realise this support (if applicable).