A morphological approach to product design in a concurrent engineering environment

The development of product design in a concurrent engineering environment requires the consideration and inclusion of life cycle factors early in the design process. This paper proposes a product design framework where these factors are considered. The phases of product design in a concurrent engineering environment include: design requirements, design functions, design alternatives, design attributes, and design environments. A five-step algorithm is proposed by which the optimal design alternative, among all the feasible alternatives, is selected. In order to illustrate the proposed framework, the design of a braking system is presented in each phase. A morphological approach to product design is proposed that consists of two related morphologies. Morphology 1 addresses the innovative aspect of product design. Morphology 2 considers the computational and optimisation aspect of product design. In conclusion, an integrated approach which reconciles both morphologies is suggested.