Computer aided engineering and project performance: managing a double-edged sword

The authors review the results of field research conducted at two US electronics firms and recommend a strategy for employing computer-aided engineering tools which maximizes the benefits while avoiding of minimizing the pitfalls. It was found that computer tool use is correlated with less innovative work when used to support engineering analysis and problem solving, and with more innovative work when used to support engineering development. Suggested reasons for this dichotomy are twofold. Computer tools can make engineers much more efficient for certain types of tasks, allowing more time to be spent in innovative pursuits. However, much of this efficiency is achieved by cloning old solutions, which in turn encourages homogeneity, stifles innovation, and biases the engineer to use a convenient but suboptimal solution. Computer tools also tend to be highly focused, constraining the bandwidth of the problem-solving process to fit the capabilities of the computer tool