This paper explores functional decomposition in early design. In the first part of this study, we explore how the three most common methods (top-down, energy-flow, enumeration) affect concept generation for novice design teams (n=25). We found that nearly all the features in the final concept could be mapped to the function diagram, though not all the functions mapped to the actual concept. This suggests that there is not much change in system functionality between these two phases, despite being separated by a few weeks. We also found that teams who used top-down and energy-flow performed nearly the same, and teams who used enumeration performed worse than those who used energy-flow. Based on these results, we recommend using either top-down or energy-flow, but not enumeration in early design. We also observed that teams used the diagramming process to reach a consensus and support team communication. The second part of this study evaluates design reports (n=78) from industry engineers taking a distance learning design course. Even though roughly half of the reports used functional decomposition, there was no correlation between using functional decomposition and final design quality as measured by various grade components. We also observed that half of the function diagrams were tree diagrams. This supports prior findings that a top-down, tree-based approach is more intuitive for engineers. Together, these results suggest that functional decomposition is helpful for team communication, but show no direct correlation with design outcome. We also recommend training strategies for teaching decomposition based on differences between the two datasets.
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ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference
August 2–5, 2015
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Design Engineering Division
- Computers and Information in Engineering Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-5717-5
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Empirical Studies of Functional Decomposition in Early Design Available to Purchase
Joran W. Booth,
Joran W. Booth
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
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Abhinav K. Bhasin,
Abhinav K. Bhasin
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
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Tahira N. Reid,
Tahira N. Reid
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
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Karthik Ramani
Karthik Ramani
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
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Joran W. Booth
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Abhinav K. Bhasin
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Tahira N. Reid
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Karthik Ramani
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Paper No:
DETC2015-47865, V007T06A018; 9 pages
Published Online:
January 19, 2016
Citation
Booth, JW, Bhasin, AK, Reid, TN, & Ramani, K. "Empirical Studies of Functional Decomposition in Early Design." Proceedings of the ASME 2015 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Volume 7: 27th International Conference on Design Theory and Methodology. Boston, Massachusetts, USA. August 2–5, 2015. V007T06A018. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2015-47865
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