Preparation
Situation
Organization. A team of designers is tasked to design a series aircraft. The team consists of senior designers and junior designers. When confronted with design issues, junior designers tend to slow down if no senior designers are looking over their shoulders or sparring with them.
Environmental factors. Competition with other aircraft manufacturers.
Issues. Lesser accessibility of the knowledge of senior designers leads to more time and effort to resolve a design issue.
Ambition
Objective. Reduce the effort of designers needed to design a series aircraft.
Benefits. Less design effort and lower design costs.
Analysis. Worth pursuing.
Assessment of aircraft design
Identify
Required capabilities to design a series aircraft:
- Deliver design service:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series [tacit].
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series [implicit].
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series [implicit].
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft [implicit].
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft [implicit].
Compare
Ranking of required capabilities:
- Organizational strategy:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series.
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
Appraise
Maturity of required capabilities:
- Group:
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
- Organizational:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series.
Advice for aircraft design
Route
Directions for competency development of required capabilities:
- Apply focus:
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
Unite
Formation of unique capabilities from required capabilities:
- Design a new aircraft in an existing series using the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series:
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
Secure
Organizational design:
- System. Elicit and include as instructions in the standard operating procedure:
- Retrieve the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Reuse the design rationale of another aircraft in the same series.
- Revise the design rationale of aircraft.
- Retain the design rationale of aircraft.
- Skills. Train junior designers in executing the standard operating procedure.
Background research
Frances Brazier, Pieter van Langen, and Jan Treur (1997). A compositional approach to modelling design rationale. AIEDAM 11, 125-139.