The purpose of this conference is to further the development of an underlying theory of design and integration engineering that could lead to new ideas and new directions for the future regarding product designs that are realized through discrete manufacturing processes. To accomplish this goal, this conference will bring together a multi-disciplinary group of about 120 experts from fields such as design engineering, economics, operations research, and mathematics. The expectation is that one-third of the conference attendees will be from non-engineering disciplines.
Engineering is commonly thought of as applied science, and engineers are frequently referred to as problem solvers. In support of this view, engineering curricula are heavy in the physical sciences, somewhat lighter on mathematics, and include little or no soft science and liberal arts course work. Reflective of this curricula, practices in engineering design tend to be ad hoc (integrated circuit design and manufacturing is an exception) and they do not make effective use of available information. Further, manufacturing has been viewed as more of a soft science and given very little rigorous treatment, particularly regarding the process by which manufacturability considerations influence engineering design.
However, converting a concept into a product is a very complex process involving many inter-related steps and many participants. To a large extent, current practice is based on past experience and judgment, and change typically occurs through a series of incremental steps over a rather long period of time.
Recently, there a new view of engineering design has emerged, a view that engineering design is decision making. (For example, the recent Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) requirement for increased emphasis in engineering curricula on design begins by noting that design is a decision-making process.) This view of design forms the nexus of an emerging theory of design, provides a rational connection between design and manufacture, and carries through to all aspects of the product life cycle. The fundamental basis for a rigorous theory of design engineering already exists. Economics, operations research, decision theory, and game theory all contain important elements of the theory. The major problem is that this theory has been developed in fields distinct from design engineering, and have been considered to be of little relevance to design engineering. Thus, the implementation of rigorous decision theory into engineering design has been slow in coming. In the meantime, current approaches to engineering design are directly counter to extant theory. Major approaches in use, such as Quality Function Deployment and the Pugh matrix method, can be shown to be flawed in the context of classic decision theory. The result is that engineering design practice can readily be improved.
Integration engineering is closely related to engineering design. It deals with the interface between design and manufacture, including such issues as manufacturability, distributed manufacture and assembly, and the interface between standard design tools such as computer-aided design (CAD) and computer numerical control (CNC) machine instructions. The ultimate goal of integration engineering is to provide a seamless interface between design and manufacture. This would include smooth translation of CAD drawings into instructions for automated equipment, computerized generation of assembly sequencing and programming of production line robots, etc. A critical element involves providing feedback to a design engineer during the design process so that the consequences of particular design decisions can be evaluated.
Given this environment, a major purpose of this conference is to bring together experts of diverse backgrounds who can accept the paradigm of decision-based design and manufacture and who have an interest in advancing the state of design and manufacture through intelligent discussion and exchange of ideas. A key output of the conference is likely to be a better understanding of the underlying theory of engineering design and integration engineering, as well as an improved level of understanding of these fields by an influential group of practitioners and educators.