This is the second of a two-part paper summarizing and reviewing research in mechanical
engineering design theory and methodology. Part I included 1) descriptive models; 2) …

If we will accept, going back far enough in human history, the selection of a drifting tree trunk
in a flooding river to carry a man to safety as the crude beginnings of our profession it might …

Design of a new artifact begins with incomplete knowledge about the final product and the
design evolves as it progresses from the conceptual design stage to a more detailed design …

Complex modern-day artifacts are designed by groups of experts, each with their own areas
of expertise. Current approaches to group design are often serial and iterative in nature …

Problems in engineering design are constraint-oriented and often involve multiple
perspectives. Designers must consider not only functional requirements of a product but also …

It is characteristic of collaborative engineering design that precedence relationships among
design activities contain information flow conflicts. Due to multi-actors interaction, conflicts …

Abstract Design can be viewed a sequential decision process that increases the detail of
modeling and analysis while simultaneously decreasing the space of alternatives …

The main difficulty associated with a collaborative design process is understanding the
product data exchanged during the design. Efficient and effective coordination of design …

Design is a sequential decision process that increases the detail of modeling and analysis
while simultaneously decreasing the space of alternatives considered. In a decision …

Designers often need to decompose a product into functioning parts during the product
design stage. This decomposition is critical for product development, as it determines the …