Designing Engineers An Introductory Text

by McCahan, Susan; Anderson, Phil; Kortschot, Mark; Weiss, Peter E.; Woodhouse, Kimberly A.

• ISBN13: 9780470939499
• ISBN10: 0470939494
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-01-27
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

Designing Engineers First Edition is written in short modules, where each module is built around a specific learning outcome and is cross-referenced to the other modules that should be read as pre-requisites, and could be read in tandem with or following that module. The book begins with a brief orientation to the design process, followed by coverage of the design process in a series of short modules. The rest of the book contains a set of modules organized in several major categories: Communication & Critical Thinking, Teamwork & Project Management, and Design for Specific Factors (e.g. environmental, human factors, intellectual property). A resource section provides brief reference material on economics, failure and risk, probability and statistics, principles & problem solving, and estimation.

Author Biography

Susan McCahan is currently the Vice Dean, Undergraduate in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. She joined the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Toronto in 1992. From 2006 to 2011 she served as Chair of First Year for the Faculty. Her research area is energy systems and engineering education. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of contributions to engineering education has been the recipient of several major teaching awards including the 3M National Teaching Fellowship and the Medal of Distinction in Engineering Education from Engineers Canada. She was also part of the team of instructors that received the Alan Blizzard Award for collaborative teaching in 2007. She has developed and taught courses on energy systems, heat transfer, and combustion. Professor McCahan's current research focuses on the design of the engineering education environment.

Table of Contents

Preface v

Part 1 How Engineers Design 0

Introduction 1

Design Process Overview 5

Project Phases 10

Communicating throughout the Process 14

What Engineers Design 18

How Engineering Projects Are Initiated 22

Navigating the Engineering Design Process 27

Engineering School Projects 32

Part 2 Design Process 34

Requirements

Introduction to Requirements 35

Functions 43

Objectives 50

Constraints 56

Documenting the Context 61

Describing Stakeholders 69

Describing Users, Operators, and Clients 76

Characteristics of Good Requirements 83

Summary: Putting It All Together 92

Functional Basis 96

Multi-use Design Tools

Black Box Method 101

Decomposition 104

Information Gathering 108

Benchmarking 115

Pairwise Comparison 122

Idea Generation

Introduction to Idea Generation 125

Brainstorming 128

Creativity Methods 134

Morphological Charts, Analogy, and TRIZ 140

Decision-making

Design Evaluation and Selection 144

Selecting a Design Solutiona 150

Decision Methods for Teams 160

Iterating

Stages in Iteration: Generate, Select, Reflect 163

Suggested Iteration Process 167

Reflection Considerations for Iteration 173

Investigating Ideas

Using Metrics 177

Investigating Ideas through Models and Prototypes 180

Feasibility Checking 185

Routine Design 189

Post-Conceptual Design

Intermediate Design 194

Final Design 202

Post-Final Design Engineering 213

Part 3 Implementing a Project 218

Working in Teams

Introduction to Teamwork 219

Organizing 225

Tools for Organizing 230

Producing 237

Managing Teams 240

Management Strategies 247

Sample Team Documents 253

Project Management

Introduction to Project Management 261

Project Management Concepts 267

Creating a Project Plan 273

Estimating Cost and Time 279

Project Cycle (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Monitoring a Project (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Project Analysis (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Advanced Tools and Methods (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Personal Management (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

MS Project Instructions 284

Client Interaction

Client Meetings (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Asking Questions and Listening (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Critical Thinking

Basic Concepts 293

Critical Thinking in Design Documents 300

Making and Supporting Statements Effectively 306

Skeptical Thinking 313

Communication

Engineering Communication 318

Organizing Communication 323

Putting Together an Engineering Report (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Diagrammatic Elements 330

Using Pictures and Photographs 339

Influencers of Communication 344

Organizing Presentations 349

Effective Slides 354

Part 4 Design for X 360

Durability

Design for Durability 361

The Environment

Design for the Environment: Introduction 365

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) 369

LCA Goal Definition and Scoping 375

LCA Inventory Analysis 382

LCA Impact and Improvement 388

Sustainability 396

Flexibility

Design for Flexibility: Introduction 401

Managing Flexibility 408

Human Factors

Design for Human Factors: Introduction 413

Task Analysis 420

Use Case Method 426

Concept of Operations 433

Intellectual Property

Design for Intellectual Property: Introduction 438

Principles of Patentability 444

Intellectual Property in the Design Process 449

Frisbee Patents 454

Manufacture

Design for Manufacture: Introduction 460

Manufacturing Process Choices 468

Safety

Design for Safety: Introduction 475

Identifying Hazards 481

Safety in the Design Process 486

Workplace Safety 495

Testing & Maintenance

Design for Testing and Maintenance (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Part 5 Resources 498

Principles and Problem Solving

Problem Spectrum: Open, Constrained, and Closed (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Solving Closed Problems (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Writing up a Problem Solution (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Significant Figures (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Conservation of Mass and Energy (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Estimation

Introduction to Estimation 499

Estimation Techniques 504

Estimating Cost and Labor 515

Estimation Confidence 518

Probability & Statistics

Introduction to Probability and Statistics (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Discrete Distributions (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Continuous Distributions (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Fitting a Line (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Uses (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Economics

Introduction to Economics 523

Time and Money Calculations 528

Project Decisions 532

Types of Costs and Revenues 540

Payback 546

Failure & Risk

Introduction to Failure and Risk 550

Handling Risk 555

Why Things Fail 563

Part 6 Case Studies 570

Aerial Photography 571

The Razor Sole Skate (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

A Video Titler for Sewer Inspection (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

The Steam Whistle Brewery (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Selling Flowers (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Sample Design Briefs (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Historic Design Failures (see www.wiley.com/college/mccahan)

Glossary 577

Index 601