The Design Process - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 44

Need

Develop specification

Conceptual design

Initial embodiment

Detailed design

Casing team Power pack

team

Chuck team Drive unit

team

Communication

Implementation

Figure 3.17
Concurrent model for power drill design.

For small projects the extra overhead generated by concurrent design projects, as illustrated in
Figure 3.17 , may exceed any savings generated. In larger projects, where individual elements
are clearly visible, concurrent methodologies are regularly adopted. They are particularly
prevalent in the automotive and aerospace industries.

However, one should not lose sight of the benefits of recognizing the iterative aspects of
design. Nor should one forget that most designs have some form of subcontracting (e.g.,
packaging). It is here where concurrent models can help the small project.

3.3.1.4 Collaborative Models
Even concurrent models rely on one team informing another of an error in an aspect of the
specification. The advent of the World Wide Web has made a new methodology more viable:
collaborative design . Collaborative design is a model that depends on a repository being
accessible, somewhere in cyberspace. All members of a design team have access to that
repository. This changes the model, illustrated in Figure 3.18 , slightly. It includes where the
information is held: normally not a person but a secure web-based facility.

Modern Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems almost universally have a built-in
collaborative nature. Historically this exchange of information has been inhibited by the
need for specialist software (that is often very expensive) to access data and to view designs.
Modern web-based developments have made life much easier for collaborative models. One
example is e-drawings® 12 , which is a package that allows everyone to see designs as they