TECHNIQUE 31 Axiomatic Design

Use Functional Analysis upstream in your ideation efforts to identify opportunities for improving the value quotient of your future solutions (see Technique 3). A simple Functional Analysis can be performed without the help of an engineer or expert. But for the details involved in complex systems, a value engineer or expert with experience is advisable if not necessary—especially when dovetailing this technique with such other formidable techniques as Axiomatic Design (Technique 31) and Function Structure (Technique 32). 

It s important to understand all three types of customers so you can consider each group when designing your innovation. Once you ve done this, you can determine how best to meet each group s expectations through the use of such techniques as Axiomatic Design (Technique 31), Function Structure (Technique 32), and TILMAG (Technique 34). 

Use other techniques, such as Axiomatic Design (Technique 31), to convert your customer s expectations into a viable design starting with functional requirements. 

For simple designs, you can brainstorm a list of subfunctions. More complex systems require the use of Function Structure (Technique 32) or axiomatic design (Technique 31). For process-based innovations, a Process or Value Stream Map (Technique 46) will help you identify subfunctions, which may correspond to steps in the process. 

To undertake robust design, you ll definitely need help from an experienced engineer or statistician familiar with this approach to testing and analysis. You ll also need to know how to apply several other techniques in this book including Performance and Perception Expectations (Technique 30), Axiomatic Design (Technique 31), Design FMEA (Technique 40), and Design of Experiments (Technique 50). 

Using the list of desirable and measurable features from step 1, create an initial design. For this high-level design, you can apply any number of techniques, including Axiomatic Design (Technique 31), Function Structure (Technique 32), Structured Abstraction (Technique 23), and Separation... 

To begin, the Cool Case team has a few dimensions in mind height, width, depth, lightweight, big screen, the needed control buttons, and so on. Note that any team ready for prototyping has already determined the expectations of the customer, as well as the functional requirements of the product and many or most of its design parameters (see Axiomatic Design, Technique 31, for more details). 

Use this technique to help assess system implications when applying Axiomatic Design (see Technique 31) to translate functional requirements into design parameters. 

The progressive axiomatic design activity ensures that the final solution is the best design, delivers what the customer needs, and can be reliably manufactured or delivered. While axiomatic design can be readily understood at a high level, applying it to complex systems (its purpose) requires an expert who has extensive education and experience with the technique. 

Customer attributes are synonymous with performance and perception expectations, so see Technique 30 to help with forming the front end of your axiomatic design activity. 

Your first objective with axiomatic design is to make your design as independent as possible with reference to functionai requirements. After this you wouid make it as robust as possible, as per the information axiom, using such techniques as Robust Design (Technique 38), Design FMEA (Technique 40), and Mistake Proofing (Technique 49). 

The Function Structure technique is employed when you need to create design concepts and are translating functional requirements into design parameters. But since Function Structure doesn t necessarily address the independence of requirements and parameters, it s most effective when applied in conjunction with axiomatic design (see Technique 31). Function Structure is best applied with the help of a qualified engineer. 

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