2016 AIChE Annual Meeting
Design for Manufacturing – a New Approach to Engineering Design Education
Author
Collins, L. R. - Presenter, Cornell University
Engineering design is often taught separately in each department as a problem with an artificially small number of design options and relatively simple economic models. While it exposes students to some aspects of ideation to generate design options and optimization to select the best one, it misses many critical real-world challenges. Firstly, design teams in industry are multidisciplinary, incorporating all of the engineering and business expertise required to develop the product. Secondly, the design should take into account the market and its willingness to pay for the product. Thus, the cost of manufacturing the product ultimately influences the product specification. Cornell is piloting a new approach to design education that allows students to traverse the full spectrum, from product definition to the manufacturing process that will deliver the product at spec and at the right price. We will present two case studies on this new approach to design education.