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Part Two
Design
Early conflict resolution
Characterizing the design activity as a whole series of decisions is a useful way of thinking about
design. However, a decision, once made, need not totally and utterly commit the organization.
For example, if a design team is designing a new vacuum cleaner, the decision to adopt a particular
style and type of electric motor might have seemed sensible at the time the decision was
made but might have to be changed later, in the light of new information. It could be that
a new electric motor becomes available which is clearly superior to the one initially selected.
Under those circumstances the designers might very well want to change their decision.
There are other, more avoidable, reasons for designers changing their minds during the
design activity, however. Perhaps one of the initial design decisions was made without sufficient
discussion among those in the organization who have a valid contribution to make. It may
even be that when the decision was made there was insufficient agreement to formalize it, and
the design team decided to carry on without formally making the decision. Yet subsequent
decisions might be made as though the decision had been formalized. For example, suppose
the company could not agree on the correct size of electric motor to put into its vacuum
cleaner. It might well carry on with the rest of the design work while further discussions
and investigations take place on what kind of electric motor to incorporate in the design.
Yet much of the rest of the product’s design is likely to depend on the choice of the electric
motor. The plastic housings, the bearings, the sizes of various apertures, and so on, could
all be affected by this decision. Failure to resolve these conflicts and/or decisions early on in
the process can prolong the degree of uncertainty in the total design activity. In addition,
if a decision is made (even implicitly) and then changed later on in the process, the costs of
that change can be very large. However, if the design team manages to resolve conflict early
in the design activity, this will reduce the degree of uncertainty within the project and reduce
the extra cost and, most significantly, time associated with either managing this uncertainty
or changing decisions already made. Figure 5.11 illustrates two patterns of design changes
through the life of the total design, which imply different time-to-market performances.
Project-based organization structures
The total process of developing concepts through to market will almost certainly involve
personnel from several different areas of the organization. To continue the vacuum cleaner
example, it is likely that the vacuum cleaner company would involve staff from its research
and development department, engineering, production management, marketing and finance.
All these different functions will have some part to play in making the decisions which
will shape the final design. Yet any design project will also have an existence of its own. It
will have a project name, an individual manager or group of staff who are championing the
Figure 5.11 Sorting out problems early saves greater disruption later in the design activity