Teaching Axiomatic Design to Engineers – Theory, Applications, and Software

Axiomatic design (Suh 1990, 2001) shows that the engineering of good designs can be taught as a science. There is a simple set of underlying rules, or design axioms, on which good designs are based. The design axioms provide the opportunity for teaching design as a science, in that it is based on some simple underlying principles. Taking advantage of this opportunity a systematic approach to teaching how to engineer and critically evaluate good designs has been developed. Three steps are used in introducing axiomatic design. First is providing motivation, which is attempted by observing that design is fundamental to all engineering. The purpose of traditional engineering analysis, which is emphasized in engineering studies, is to support design. Second is developing the concept that there are two simple axioms, independence and information, that govern design, just as Newton’s laws govern mechanics. Third is observing that in order to apply the axioms designs must be decomposed into a hierarchical structure. This leads to stating that there are three essential elements to engineering design: the axioms, the structure, and the process for creating that structure. A barrier to teaching, and using this scientific, axiomatic approach to design, has been the difficulty of creating, modifying, managing, and communicating anything beyond relatively simple design hierarchies. Any design with more than a few functional requirements was difficult to manage. Recently introduced design software (Acclaro, www.axiomaticdesign.com), has overcome this barrier. It can easily handle many hundreds of functional requirements and facilitates the application of the independence axiom. The impact on the teaching process is that the students learn to construct large design hierarchies quickly, and spend more time on mastering applications.