Improving design decision making

Here at the ISERC in Nashville this week, I picked up the January 2014 issue of
IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors (http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/uehf20/current) and found the article "Adapting Engineering Design Tools to Include Human Factors" by Judy Village et al.

The article describes how researchers at Ryerson University (in Toronto) worked with human factors specialists and engineers at a large electronics manufacturer to change how that firm designs the assembly process for its new products.  The changes led to design tools that help the firm's engineers consider human factors issues during the design process to make assembly easier, safer, and faster.  That is, the changes modified the objectives and constraints used to make assembly process design decisions.  For example, the design must satisfy a human factors target by scoring well on 22 items related to human factors.

In addition, the process used to develop these new design tools is interesting.  According to the article, "an action research approach was used, where researchers were embedded in the organization and together took action" to plan, implement, and improve the tools.  This process emphasized understanding the design process and its metrics, tools, and language and then identifying opportunities to improve the design tools with feasible, desirable changes (that is, the changes had to "fit the design process" and "provide important metrics for business performance").

Although the new design tools may be specific to this firm, the process used can be applied elsewhere.  The authors state that their contribution includes "the lessons learned about the process of adapting internal engineering tools"; that is, they have showed how an organization can improve design decision making.