Design knowledge for decision-making process in a DFX product design approach

Product design is a knowledge-intensive process and involves large quantities of decisions. The efficiency and effectiveness of these decisions depend on the provision of many kinds of related knowledge to designers from different sources throughout the product lifecycle. First, this paper makes a literature review about the related works on product design knowledge and classifies the product design knowledge into three categories, namely product, process and product support knowledge. Secondly, the knowledge needs of product design decisions are analyzed. The decisions made during the design process have a critical impact both on the design solution obtained but also on the design process itself. These decisions are of many different types and made by different kinds of engineers and managers. This work illustrates decision-making in product design and some related works are reviewed. The decision-making during the product design process is analyzed and classified into two main categories, namely organizational and technical decisions, which are illustrated in a three dimensional figure. Finally, some conclusions and future works are discussed.