Teaching Front End Engineering Design (FEED) : Richard Devon & Kathryn Jablokow Penn State University
Teaching Front End Engineering Design (FEED) : Richard Devon & Kathryn Jablokow Penn State University
Teaching Front End Engineering Design (FEED) : Richard Devon & Kathryn Jablokow Penn State University
Abstract
In this paper, we reshape the design process for teaching into two fundamental stages:
developing the problem and developing the solution. Each of these is followed by a design
review. In this manner, we address the fundamental tendency of novice designers, and some
experts, to rush not only into the solution stage but to a specific solution. We assume that
engineers know how to develop solutions, but they may be less careful in developing the right
understanding of the problem. Luckily, the design process is characterized by an inverted
relationship between decisions and costs. As the design process goes forward, the process costs
rise, but decisions become arguably less important - if never unimportant. So, problem
development is when we are making the most important decisions and spending less, usually far
less, than later on. We can afford to do problem development well, just as we cannot afford to
slight it.
We characterize problem development as Front End Engineering Design (FEED). It begins with
some sort of trigger, which may, in fact, not be a problem at all but an opportunity or a neat idea
or invention. It ends with a set of design objectives that have target specifications. We currently
have eight categories of activities in FEED: an account of the initial trigger, design
characterization, team management, market assessment and benchmarking, user needs
assessment, product exploration, a development plan, and the target specifications. We expect
others who adopt FEED to modify it according to their own views, as we probably will in the
future also.
This process is then assessed through an early design review to make sure it was done well. It is
then followed by the familiar solution development stage, and that is followed by a critical
design review. Throughout these stages, we use a new concept of design validation to show the
way in which both the design process and the product ideas are continually subject to validation
and ultimately to testing, manufacture, use, and disposal. This is aimed at teaching design as a
thoughtful reflective process.
Much of what we discuss here will appear familiar, but the restructuring is new and should be
effective in design education. We reference popular design texts to help highlight the
distinctiveness of our approach. Other new ideas presented in this paper include the trigger
concept, design characterization, design validation, and managing risk through Design for NOT
X. FEED is also a venue for innovative design. Users, and lead users in particular, can provide
many ideas for new products both of needs and technologies. The use of Design for X and
NOTX expands the imagination with respect to possible venues, uses, and risks of the type of
product being considered. And benchmarking new products and breakthroughs in relevant
technologies may provide completely new ideas. (Our students do this by organizing RSS feeds
from carefully selected sites in Google Reader.) Only being creative in the solution development
stage means missing a lot of opportunities, and possibly some of the best.
This paper is intended to provide an anchor for future papers on these topics. Examples of
student work will be provided based on two years of the first author using and developing the
approach.
1. Design Maturation. Novice designers often neglect problem development, becoming fixated
on particular solution concepts that are later found to be unsatisfactory.5 Even then, novice
designers may continue to hold on to their early ideas and try to “design out” their flaws instead
of starting over with a new design concept and/or returning to the problem definition to make
sure they have understood it correctly - as an expert designer is more likely to do.
At the same time, other studies in design education have shown that a systematic approach to the
early stages of design can be helpful to students,20 as long as it is not too rigid. Fricke12 reports
that a “flexible-methodical procedure” is the best option, in which successful designers ask
questions that explore the structure of the problem, search actively for information, critically
check and prioritize requirements, and return to clarifying the problem when first solution
concepts fail, rather than pursuing those early concepts in depth.
Atman, et al., studied design maturation in students and found that seniors design with less time
spent on problem development and more time on solution development (developing alternatives)
than first year students do.3 This apparent counter example to our claims seems to indicate that
stressing solution development over problem development is learned behavior. The authors even
refer to novices “getting stuck” on problem definition.3 In our experience, we do not see that.
However, they refer to Cross & Cross’s 1998 clinical protocol study of two professional
designers, in which they document their “...careful framing of the problem, [which] has begun to
receive attention in other studies as well. Some researchers discuss this as task clarification,
specification, and problem analysis.”6
Design educators, too, often use the language of task clarification,24 although we find it overly
narrow and only corresponding to some of the things we advocate in product exploration.
Atman, et al.,3 use the term “problem scoping.” Despite their concern with novices spending too
much time on the scoping stage, their data really show that both novices (first year) and experts
(seniors) spend over 80% of their time on scoping (done less by the seniors) and “modeling”
(roughly design embodiment of a found solution and done more by the seniors) and little on any
other categorized activity, such as gathering information or idea generation. Nevertheless, this
literature review by Atman, et al.,3 indicates that professionals see problem development as an
important activity, which raises a question about their apparent view that maturation means
spending less time on problem development. They are simply presuming that the data represent
maturation, which is an inductive rather than deductive conclusion unsupported by studies of
professional designers.
In another view, Ahmed’s series of studies of design maturation among working engineers
(descriptive design) found, for example, that analogous reasoning becomes much more
sophisticated in experienced designers since novices work with far less experience and technical
knowledge.1,2 Experts used analogies a lot for analysis and evaluation, whereas novices
primarily used them for generating concepts and a cognitive “safe haven.” [All analogies were
used only in conceptual design and none in detail design and only one was transferred from a
different knowledge domain] Expertise does bring habits of mind, however, and Ahmed does
not compare differences in creativity, which might not always be as one sided.
Further, Ahmed’s focus, and that of the research she reviews, is on solution development and not
on problem development, where different types of maturation may be evident, not the least of
which would be doing it thoroughly. And in an earlier study with Wallace and Blessing,2 Ahmed
noted that: “The majority of studies of novices and experienced designers were found to focus
upon differences in external activities, such as time spent gathering information, rather than
problem solving activities.” So, the emphasis on solution development is, for her, a necessary
corrective to these studies, which are typically of very small numbers of professional designers.
Yet in design education (prescriptive design), it is hard to argue for this corrective.3, 4, 23 Given
that our interest in FEED was prompted by the rise of consulting services in FEED in industry, it
is possible that there is a disconnect between teaching design and practicing it. Our experience
obviously has led us to this conclusion and the brief review of popular design textbooks below
supports this. In Ahmed’s defense, well taught innovative design that is informed by what is
happening in industry (good and bad) is certainly an appropriate service to provide, but not at the
expense of problem development.11
2. Improved Return on Investment (RoI). There is evidence that spending more time on front
end engineering leads to more projects getting finished on time. This means that FEED improves
the RoI curve (moving it up and to the left), and FEED consultants argue exactly that. It is
widely understood that designs are shaped most by conceptual design processes, where the most
important decisions are made. That is, when least is being spent early in the design process,
most is being decided. The National Research Council has estimated that at least 70% of the
costs of product development, manufacture, and use are determined in the early stages of
design.16 The same rationale applies to the other human costs and benefits of the design.
A number of companies, most publicly Rolls-Royce and Ford, have conducted studies to
evaluate the expense of design changes at various points in the design process. The
overwhelming conclusion has been that the expense increases by several orders of magnitude as
a design moves through its various development stages; it is far cheaper to make changes at the
conceptual stage than during the production phase.7 As another example, systems engineering
effort is typically concentrated in the early stages of design, and the graph below indicates its
value in reducing cost overruns.15
A good example of FEED is Emerson Process Management.10 They aim to provide the plan for
the project process and provide cost estimates within 10%, plus typically bringing the timeline
forward of the traditional cost–break even curve, thus saving money. They also provide the
design services, but FEED is the initial problem development process that sets the project scope,
identifies the stakeholders, and which assesses risks to, and benefits of, the project. Emerson
explicitly uses an interdisciplinary team to do this. Our use of the term FEED derives from
Emerson’s use of it, although we have changed the meaning to emphasize design more and
economics less.
In addition, Innotec14 argues that “Around 80% of the entire costs are defined in the early
planning phase of an industrial plant construction project, the so-called Front End Engineering &
Design (FEED) phase. Decisions that are made at the start of this FEED phase influence
subsequent design tasks and largely determine the usability, performance, and cost-effectiveness
of a plant or unit. These in turn have a direct effect on the safety and environmental compatibility
of the plant or unit in subsequent operation.”
3. An Approachable Process Model. The two-step FEED-Solution (F-S) design process model
is simple for students to understand, and as such, it is very likely to improve student learning. In
Figure 2, we show the F-S model for the case of market pull. Since the market is the driver of
this process, we refer to it as market driven. This is distinct from the case in which an invention
(technology push), a spin-off (from say R&D), or public policy is the driver. None of the
referenced engineering design texts teach this F-S model, few treat anything like FEED as a
coherent stage-based set of activities, none teach design validation, and few even cover design
reviews.
Figure 2. The FEED-Solution (F-S) Model of the Design Process (Market Pull)
1. The Trigger. By highlighting the input to the design process as the trigger, we want to de-
emphasize the degree to which the design process is focused on simply addressing a problem and
draw attention to the variety of ways in which it can begin. None of the referenced design texts
unpack the way the design process begins with this much analysis; most simply generalize this
stage as “problem identification.” Unpacking the beginning of the process makes the next stage
of FEED easier to do, as it diffuses the rush to solutions by not assuming the situation to be a
problem in need of a fix. The trigger may not be a problem at all - it could be an opportunity or a
neat idea or an invention. It is also sometimes just someone’s “pet idea”.
Figure 3 depicts some of the variety which occurs at the onset of the design process. More focus
on the trigger might usefully lead to new research, so we can learn even more about it.
C. Implementing FEED
We are certain that instructors who adopt the F-S model will populate FEED in different ways.
Here, we will discuss how we are currently implementing FEED at Penn State University as an
illustration; please note that over the two years of its use, it has been modified each semester. We
begin with Team Management, in which the students form teams and establish the logistics of
communication and collaboration through the following activities:
1. Form teams: Students introduce themselves with personal information (e.g., intended major,
home town, interests, special skills), establish communication channels, and set up a
collaborative team site (using Google Apps).
2. Timeline management: Students use a tool such as a Gantt Chart to schedule the work to be
done in terms of the major tasks. This schedule will change during the project, but they are
required to get started on it as soon as possible.
3. Work breakdown structure (WBS): Students assign tasks (who will do what by when) by
adapting the Gantt chart. This structure will change as they proceed; they must document and
date changes as they occur.
4. Project risk assessment: Students are asked to assess the risks to their project, not the risks
associated with the use and disposal stages of the product being designed.
5. Design documentation (file recording and sharing plan): Students create a table for the files
and sites created, and with whom they should be shared. Specifying the sharing protocol is a
good idea in general, although it was the direct result of teaching design using Google Apps
(by the first author) where sharing has many options.
6. Progress log: Students create a Word document and enter short weekly reports describing
their progress, including: what was done; what was not done; what changes occurred and
whether the timeline and/or work breakdown structure were modified; the objectives for the
next week; and reflections on any problems, challenges, and/or opportunities - i.e., what have
they learned about the design process?
It is not easy for students to plan a design project in their first design course, because it is
something they have never done before. And it gets harder when they realize there is no one
template that works for all design processes. Yet they must do it. The F-S model gives them a
simple framework. They may use a Gantt chart for the time line and the FEED elements may be
shown concurrently at first with a reasoned realignment occurring as they progress. Their
progress log is both a record and a means of managing iteration/problems in the process. At least
they always have a certain end date to their projects. They should further learn to anticipate
prototype testing, manufacturing and marketing, and the need to develop a mission statement that
guides the process. And thinking about the use and disposal stages is appropriate in planning
Product Exploration
With an initial problem definition in mind, students are asked to explore their product
understanding through functional analysis, another iteration of Design for X considerations, risk
assessment (Design4NOTX), scenario planning and design, and by taking a systems view. A
useful tool for this exploration is mind mapping (to create a conceptual representation of the
project), which can be done collectively using free web-based collaborative tools like
Mindmeister or FreeMind.
Functional analysis is a fairly well-documented activity (see, e.g., Cross5) in which students are
asked to consider the functional requirements of the technology, as well as how those
requirements map onto user needs and behavior. In taking a systems view, students consider both
internal and external systems integration - that is, they explore the systems that will be integrated
within their design, as well as the systems into which their design may be integrated, both in use
and/or disposal. In addition, students explore whether systems and resources exist for global
supply chains and for the planning, design, testing, and manufacturing/construction/authoring of
their designs.
Next, we move to a second iteration of Design for X (D4X), now with a better understanding of
the market, the customers’ needs, and design functionality in mind; the key questions still
revolve around the main objectives for the design. The flip side of this analysis - product risk
assessment, or Design for NOT X (D4NOTX) - is also highly important; that is, students need to
consider any conceivable unintended consequences, uncertainties, and other unknowns. A good
way to do this is to review the Xs that are not salient but may be clues to hidden problems, to
make manifest that which is latent. In addition, students are asked to develop plausible scenarios
that explore how the type of product they are designing interacts and impacts the user
environment and socioeconomic context in which it is produced and used, by extrapolating from
existing trends. An analysis of the current constraints on the product and its development are
included.
Each review is of the design process, as distinct from a stage-gate review that looks at the whole
project or a review of the design proposal per se. The early design review should be a
documented team meeting in which the team reviews what has been done to date, and all reflect
on whether anything was missed or anything new requires attention. The critical design review
accomplishes the same aims for the solution development process. It is often used after a detailed
design has been completed, and this is very desirable, but, in a first design course, we want to
stress learning the design process.
Team 1: 13 elements, no EDR but a good reflection statement for the whole project
FEED: Problem Statement, Client [null page], Mission Statement, Product Risk Assessment,
Project Risk Assessment, Market Assessment and Benchmarking, Progress Log, Stakeholders,
Timeline, WBS
Immediately followed by User Centered Design (survey), Product Dissection, Design for X, and
Weighted Objectives
Followed by: User Centered Design (survey), Product Dissection, Design for X, Objectives Tree,
and an EDR.
These are typical examples. One atypical example was a four person team that collapsed to 2
people. They overcompensated and had about 20 elements in FEED - all in one long list in the
menu, with no design reviews and an unclear solution development stage as they ran out of time.
This extreme case, which was kindly assessed, showed the need to manage time well even when
you just have two major stages, but there is no question that FEED is the longest stage in the F-S
model and in the future we will monitor time spent on each stage. FEED is also, we believe, the
stage that lower division students can do best.
In sum, this is a work in progress, but a core set of activities have emerged which constitute the
largest part of the design project for the students. It is followed by a fairly conventional solution
development stage (rdg: Chapter 5 of Ulrich & Eppinger), where they learn about innovative
design, deploy several innovative methods selected from mycoted.com, and use concept testing
with the user base. However, FEED has also provided them with a rich store of ideas, usually in
the form of design objectives.
The text that perhaps most helped to chart the path of design education in recent decades is
Engineering Design by Pahl and Beitz (translated by Wallace and Blessing).18 The original
German edition was published in 1977 and the first English edition in 1984. It has evolved
considerably in the fairly recent 3rd edition, particularly in Design for X coverage. However, its
500+ pages are almost completely dedicated to problem solving rather than to problem
development. Likewise, Dym and Little,9 who published their 3rd edition in 2009, present one
fairly solid chapter on problem development before moving directly to generating solutions
(albeit conceptual solutions to start), although they do return to discuss project management and
Design for X later in the book.
Dieter’s text8 has almost 800 pages, but only one chapter on problem development and one on
teamwork. Its approach is otherwise similar to Ulrich & Eppinger,21 as are many other U.S.
design texts. Dieter includes two good chapters on materials, which is a topic too often absent in
design texts but also found in Ogot & Kremer17, although that has very little on problem
development. Ullman22 has two chapters on problem development focused on project planning
and customer needs, rather like Dieter. Voland’s chapter on developing the problem uses
unconventional but interesting methods, such as situational analysis, Why-Why, and Duncker
diagrams.24 Pugh’s text was ground-breaking in several ways, including Design for X and his
still prescient proposal to link design to R&D.19 However, his famous interest in graphically
depicting the design process culminated in his spiral model and a 6-stage process, neither of
which go beyond market assessment for problem development.
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