Evaliation of System Design tools used in Senior Design Projects&nbsp;System engineering (SE) is a multidisciplinary approach for the design, management, and realization of a complex system. In the area of product development, SE is utilized on structuring a product development process into simple and collaborative activities that proceed throughout the entire product lifecycle, while at the same time, on supporting engineers’ decision making. In the last three years, we documented the product development processes in the senior design projects carried out by seniors in a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering Technology program. Students adopted the SE product development approach and utilized a set of design tools in the process. In this paper, we evaluate the popular tools, analyze student acceptance of these tools, and discuss their officiousness at supporting students making decisions.&nbsp;In the senior design projects, students followed the product development process presented by Ulrich and Eppinger. At first, students conducted market research and collected a set of customer requirements. Then, a function structure was created based on the customer requirements. Design alternatives were then generated, among which a couple of promising design concepts were selected. After that, preliminary product concept was developed into detailed product architecture and CAD model based on simulation result such as motion simulation and stress analysis. Furthermore, students mapped customer requirements into product specifications; this activity is necessary to ensure that customer requirements are satisfied while all product specifications are contributing to certain customer requirements. Finally, hazard and failure analysis was conducted to increase the safety of the product design. Typical design tools used in the process have Affinity Diagram, Function Structure, Combination Table (Morphological Chart), Decision Matrix, Qualify Function Deployment, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis. In the projects, we have observed that some tools were naturally adopted by students while others were less likely to be accepted. In this paper, we evaluate these tools by looking in their nature, observing student behavior, and surveying student opinion. The study will help improve these tools and enable student gain knowledge in product development through project based learning. Moreover, such a typical product development process is widely used in industry. In our study, we paid special attention to how students understand and learn to use these tools, and whether or not these tools are effective at helping students make decisions and complete this project. The result of this project will also help us modify the process by increasing&nbsp;parallel activities.

Evaluation of Systematic Design Methods Used in Senior Design Projects

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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