A Framework for Decision-Based Engineering Design

TLDR

Engineering design is increasingly viewed as a decision‑making process that draws on economics, operations research, and decision sciences, requiring a total systems perspective and rigorous axioms, but this rigor excludes popular methods such as Quality Function Deployment. This paper presents the underlying notions of decision‑based design, outlines its axioms, and discusses its implications for engineering education.

Abstract

Engineering design is increasingly recognized as a decision-making process. This recognition brings with it the richness of many well-developed theories and methods from economics, operations research, decision sciences, and other disciplines. Done correctly, it forces the process of engineering design into a total systems context, and demands that design decisions account for a product’s total life cycle. It also provides a theory of design that is based on a rigorous set of axioms that underlie value theory. But the rigor of decision-based design also places stringent conditions on the process of engineering design that eliminate popular approaches such as Quality Function Deployment. This paper presents the underlying notions of decision-based design, points to some of the axioms that underlie the theory of decision-based design, and discusses the consequences of the theory on engineering education.