Aircraft design

Design service

Series aircraft design

Situation

Junior designers struggle to design a successor. Progress is slowing down whenever there are no senior designers looking over their shoulder, or to spar with them.

Challenge

[Improving a design service, Advancing a design team] What can junior designers learn from senior designers to design a successor?

Ambition

[Time] Junior designers design a successor more quickly. This is desirable, feasible, and viable.

Design service

Series aircraft design

Competitive position

[Weakness] Unlike senior designers, junior designers do not know well how to design a successor.

Problem

[System] What junior designers can learn from senior designers to design a successor is to make use of the design rationale of earlier aircraft in the same series. This capability is valuable but not organized: junior designers do not have it. They can develop it, and its nature is implicit. Prognosis:

• Unfavorable without intervention.
• Favorable after an intervention.

Design service

Series aircraft design

Concept

[System] Teach junior designers how to make use of the design rationale of earlier aircraft in the same series.

Intervention

Step 1. Define how to make use of the design rationale of earlier aircraft in the same series: have a knowledge engineer interview senior designers to extract knowledge of the way of working to retrieve, reuse, revise, and retain design rationale.

Step 2. Transfer knowledge of how to make use of the design rationale of earlier aircraft in the same series: have senior designers train junior designers in the way of working.