Product Design Problem Modern Corporations Which Integrate

Product Design Problem

Modern corporations which integrate the design, manufacture and marketing phases of a particular product are often confronted by the continual conflict which exists between industrial designers who conceptualize new ideas and engineers tasked with transforming that vision into tangible form. A delicate balance must be achieved by savvy executives seeking to achieve peak levels of performance and production from both their design and engineering wings. The world of industry is littered with discarded ideas and dashed dreams, and more often than not the ultimate success or failure of a product is determined by the ability of designers and engineers to cooperate while constructing and refining a prototype. When the lines of communication between any sectors within a firm are limited or severed, due to professional biases and petty disputes, the product which eventually goes to market will typically be substandard in either its stylistic design or its engineered functionality. As a general executive matter, I contend that a rigorous and thorough process of objective evaluation must be applied to the relationship between design and engineering, one which clearly assesses and efficiently implements necessary compromises.

Research conducted by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design has consistently indicated that while "industrial designers and engineering designers both contribute to new product development, industrial designers have a bias towards appearance and user-interface; whereas engineering designers focus on functionality and manufacture" (Pei, Evans & Campbell, 2007). The divergent professional philosophies held by designers and engineers invariably inform and affect their contributions to the manufacture of a given product, which is why any competent executive must endeavor to bridge this gap. The most effective and efficient new product development is derived from the concept of collaborative design, whereby "individuals with different, but complementary skills work together to seek collective goals and mutual understanding while sharing resources with a common vision" (Pei, Evans & Campbell, 2007). Traditional product development techniques, which sequester the design and engineering phases from each other in a misguided attempt to assure secrecy before a product hits the market, are simply outdated and must be replaces by modernized applications such as computer-aided design (CAD) and rapid prototyping (RP). Taking into account the "inherent conflict resulting from the way in which we measure and evaluate employees' performance in design vs. those who work in manufacturing," the most competitive companies in today's marketplace are those "using RP to communicate between functional departments" (Folkestad & Johnson, 2001).