Four Design Routes in Electronics Engineering Product Development

This paper briefly reviews a number of models of design in the engineering domain and develops an alternate model based upon a series of case studies of electronic design and manufacturing companies and upon the premise that design engineers act as “administrative man” when designing. The four design paths postulated are Repeat Order, Variant Design, Innovative Design and Strategic Design. The rationale for four paths is discussed, as is their impact on company resources and design procedures. A new metric is developed to aid the design path selection process and to allow design managers, for the first time, to assess the degree of complexity of a design. Int. J. Design & Manufacturing vol3 no.2 pp.147158 June 1993 version 2.0 2 fourpaths FOUR ALTERNATIVE ROUTES TO ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING PRODUCT DESIGN