Product development in the Swedish Automotive industry: Can design tools be viewed as decision support systems?

Design engineers working in the automotive industry have to take many design decisions, based on numerous diverse criteria. This results in a high workload of complex decisions. One way to reduce decision complexity and improve decisions could be to improve design tools. Decision support systems (DSSs) have been used in a managerial context to improve decisions. In this article, the authors assess whether design tools generally can be viewed as DSSs. A combination of literature review, surveys and qualitative interviews with seven design engineers was used to assess whether current design tools function as decision supports in product development. Although the specific design context needs to be considered, this study’s results suggest that design tools can generally function as DSSs. In future work, the adaptability to different problem solving patterns needs further in-depth research in the form of individual studies for specific tools in specific contexts.