Wealth creation from design

The UK adds much less value per manufacturing employee than its competitors. Value is added by good management and, even more, by good design. The Design Council believes that the UK has the best design sector in the world. So what is the way forward? The authors summarise the contents and discussion of an IEE colloquium on ´Wealth creation from design´ (1995). The conclusion drawn from this event are summarised and include the following: More money spent at the early stages of a design project saves its cost, many times over, in development and manufacturing costs; the tendency to spend increasing amounts as design proceeds from conception (1%), through evaluation (10%), to realisation (89%), must be reversed; establishing the design specification is one of the most important stages of design and the effort required to do this must not be limited; method in design will produce better products.<>