An approach to developing design technology

This paper presents an approach to developing design technology to support the design development process. It first outlines design co-ordination as the main motivation for the developed approach. Main aspects of product design development as well as some supporting technology is presented before the approach is discussed. The paper concludes that while it is often desirable to adopt vogue technology or techniques it is more prudent to carry out a comprehensive analysis of the needs of design practice, target performance improvement issues, use or develop appropriate design technology to achieve the greatest impact and analyse the effect. Such an approach will in itself identify more target areas to be supported and hence form the basis for continuous design technology improvement