Title: Design Performance: How Can We Meet Human Limitations with Human Resources?
Abstract: The topic of ICED 05 has been chosen deliberately: 'Engineering design in the global economy'. All over the world we experience globalisation as a development changing the societal, economical, political and technical conditions in a revolutionary sense [1]. This situation may be compared with the innovation of steam power launching the first industrial revolution in the mid 18th century and with mass production and mass transport launching a second industrial revolution in the 20th century. Thus, the very basic question arises: What are the implications of the global development for design? In the conference overview two characteristics of global design are mentioned: - manufacturing fluency: referring to the opportunities linked to competitive manufacturing all over the world - design fluency: referring to the opportunities of cooperation and interaction across time and space, such as video-conferences of geographically dispersed members of a design team. However, attempting to deal with consequences of global design, with benefits and costs, with limitations and benefits, this discussion cannot be restricted to the issues of material, mechanics and components influencing design performance. We need to take into account the resources and limitations of human beings confronted with the main characteristics of globalisation. Limitations can result in failures in design which may become extremely expensive in terms of cost and sometimes even in terms of life [2]. Therefore, efforts should be taken to strengthen the resources in order to reduce the probability of failures. But, until now, we do not know enough to prevent failures. We know that all design failures can be 'explained' as caused or at least contributed by human behaviour. However, the occurrence of design failures does not provide an understanding of the causes of human failures - and the occurrence of human failures does not provide enough knowledge to forecast how, when and in which context design failures will occur. But the occurrence of human failures is giving insights in the way humans think and act. From this knowledge concepts can be derived that support the abilities of the human being in dealing with the requirements of global design in a more secure and effective way.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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