Internet Based Design: E Design And E Decision Making

Abstract

It is inevitable that product design, and the associated engineering analysis to support such design, will be primarily accomplished by multidisciplinary teams, with members that need not be located in the same geographic location. Though some corporations are practicing distributed design, most notably the multi-national automobile manufacturers, a documented procedure for conducting this form of distributed design and product development has yet to be created, tested, and distributed. This paper documents an innovative method for integrated internet-based distributed product design. A team of Mechanical Engineering seniors, Management majors and high school students from across the U.S. teamed to design and construct a series of three electromechanical devices, using the internet as the primary design communication platform. Effective internet communications using off-the-shelf software have been used to guide the idea generation, concept prototyping and detailed engineering design necessary to manufacture autonomous and remotely controlled robotic devices. The paper details the distributed design (e-design) methodology, examines three case studies which apply the e-design process, and illustrates how distributed decision making methods can be applied to entrepreneurial teams with members located in different locations.