The Design Process - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 41

Detailed design

Embodiment

Prototype and
test

Specification

Pass Implement

Evaluation and analysis

Figure 3.14
Iterative model.

design office accuse the manufacturing office of a lack of creative spark. Neither is true - it is
efficient communication which is missing.

Do not think that this is only applicable to large companies. It is a mindset that even the
smallest micro-company can get into: the same issues and problems arise.

It should have started to be apparent that communication is an important aspect in the
control of design. One of the next steps taken to improve communication is the adoption of
concurrent design/concurrent engineering.

3.3.1.3 Concurrent Design/Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent engineering 10 suggests that the waterfall approach and its ad hoc nature are not
conducive to an efficient design system. The model recognizes that iterations are required to
come to a final solution and that teams will be set up (or selected) to obtain the answers or
solutions to a particular problem. It is still serial in nature but, where possible, tasks that can
be done at the same time are scheduled concurrently .

First, let us examine the change to the waterfall model. Instead of having a drop at the end of
the task, there is an eddy that signifies some form of iteration is inevitable and this iterative
process involves all of the tasks ( Figure 3.14 ).

Even if you never adopt concurrent engineering as a design model, embrace the concept
illustrated in Figure 3.14 . Its ultimate goal is to be right the first time every time . While each
individual task in the loop cannot be right first time, the goal is to use the loop such that the
design is not implemented until it is right.

You should also notice that there is an inherent danger in this model: never-ending loops.
In computing “getting stuck in a loop” is a common issue - you will have met it on your

10 Once again, this is a topic in its own right. A quick search of e-books will find you a plethora of texts to satisfy
your curiosity.