Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables

Edward James Christie; Daniel D. Jensen; Richard T. Buckley; Devin A. Menefee; Kyle Kenneth Ziegler; Kristin L. Wood; Richard H. Crawford

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Design Tools and Methodology II
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education
Page Count: 22
Page Numbers: 25.1091.1 - 25.1091.22
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21848
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/21848
Download Count: 1810

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Dan Jensen is a professor of engineering mechanics at the U.S. Air Force Academy where he has been since 1997. He received his B.S. (mechanical engineering), M.S. (applied mechanics), and Ph.D. (aerospace engineering science) from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has worked for Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, NASA, University of the Pacific, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, and MSC Software Corp. His research includes design of micro air vehicles, development of innovative design methodologies, and enhancement of engineering education. Jensen has authored approximately 100 papers and has been awarded more $2.5 million of research grants.

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Richard T. Buckley Ph.D. U.S. Air Force Academy

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Devin A. Menefee U.S. Air Force Academy

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Devin A. Menefee is Cadet First Class at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and a mechanical engineering major.

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Kyle Kenneth Ziegler

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Kristin L. Wood University of Texas, Austin

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Kristin L. Wood is currently a professor, Head of Pillar, and Co-director of the International Design Center (IDC) at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). Wood completed his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering (Division of Engineering and Applied Science) at the California Institute of Technology, where he was an AT&T Bell Laboratories Ph.D. Scholar. Wood joined the faculty at the University of Texas in Sept. 1989 and established a computational and experimental laboratory for research in engineering design and manufacturing. He was a National Science Foundation Young Investigator, the Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professor in Engineering, and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas, Austin.

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Richard H. Crawford University of Texas, Austin

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Richard H. Crawford is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, Austin, and is the Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow No. 3. He received his B.S.M.E. from Louisiana State University in 1982 and his M.S.M.E. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1989, both from Purdue University. He joined the faculty of UT in Jan. 1990 and teaches mechanical engineering design and geometry modeling for design. Crawford's research interests span topics in computer-aided mechanical design and design theory and methodology, including research in computer representations to support conceptual design, design for manufacture and assembly, and design retrieval; developing computational representations and tools to support exploration of very complex engineering design spaces; research in solid freeform fabrication, including geometric processing, control, design tools, manufacturing applications; and design and development of energy harvesting systems. Crawford is co-founder of the DTEACh program, a Design Technology program for K-12, and is active on the faculty of the UTeachEngineering program that seeks to educate teachers of high school engineering.

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Abstract

Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables AbstractPrototyping is an initial instantiation of a concept as part of the product development process.Prototypes serve numerous purposes both from a business and an engineering standpoint.Businesses use prototypes to gather detailed customer feedback on issues like aesthetics,ergonomics, and theme, as well as for marketing research and cost analysis. Prototyping is usedby engineers to provide manufacturing and assembly data, to investigate system integrationissues and to develop analysis and testing strategies. In some cases, prototyping is also used inthe concept generation phase of the design process to assist designers to either expand or contractthe set of possible concepts. Clearly prototyping is an important part of most design processes.We define the prototyping strategy as the set of decisions that dictate what actions will be takento accomplish the development of the prototype(s). Prototyping strategies include a variety ofdifferent options. In the broadest sense, prototypes can be either physical or virtual. Virtualprototypes can include computer simulations and/or engineering analysis. Physical prototypescan be developed either for a subsystem or for the entire system. In addition, physical prototypescan be either full size or dimensionally scaled and can be either fully functional or be created toexhibit only partial functionality. Additional choices that are part of a prototyping strategyinclude whether one chooses to develop prototypes for a number of concepts in parallel andwhether one plans to develop a sequence of prototypes of a concept. The choices made for theprototyping variables identified above can make tremendous differences in the length, cost andeffectiveness of the prototyping work. However, very little research has been carried out toidentify how these variables should be chosen for a specific design project.In this paper we document an extensive literature review in the general area of prototyping.Prototyping strategies currently in use by a variety of different product developers are identified.When it is possible to identify either a business or engineering perspective, that perspective isnoted. The wide variety of different prototyping strategies currently in use are identified andgrouped into categories with similar characteristics. Specific differences in the prototypingstrategies for business vs. engineering focused work are noted. Based on the literature review,the current state of the art for prototyping strategies is established. Of particular note is the factthat there is a dearth of information in the literature of how the decisions that constitute aprototyping strategy are made. In light of this fact, an additional contribution of this paper is tohypothesize a set of characteristics of a design problem that can be used to optimize prototypingstrategies.

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Christie, E. J., & Jensen, D. D., & Buckley, R. T., & Menefee, D. A., & Ziegler, K. K., & Wood, K. L., & Crawford, R. H. (2012, June), Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21848

TY - CPAPER
AB - Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables AbstractPrototyping is an initial instantiation of a concept as part of the product development process.Prototypes serve numerous purposes both from a business and an engineering standpoint.Businesses use prototypes to gather detailed customer feedback on issues like aesthetics,ergonomics, and theme, as well as for marketing research and cost analysis. Prototyping is usedby engineers to provide manufacturing and assembly data, to investigate system integrationissues and to develop analysis and testing strategies. In some cases, prototyping is also used inthe concept generation phase of the design process to assist designers to either expand or contractthe set of possible concepts. Clearly prototyping is an important part of most design processes.We define the prototyping strategy as the set of decisions that dictate what actions will be takento accomplish the development of the prototype(s). Prototyping strategies include a variety ofdifferent options. In the broadest sense, prototypes can be either physical or virtual. Virtualprototypes can include computer simulations and/or engineering analysis. Physical prototypescan be developed either for a subsystem or for the entire system. In addition, physical prototypescan be either full size or dimensionally scaled and can be either fully functional or be created toexhibit only partial functionality. Additional choices that are part of a prototyping strategyinclude whether one chooses to develop prototypes for a number of concepts in parallel andwhether one plans to develop a sequence of prototypes of a concept. The choices made for theprototyping variables identified above can make tremendous differences in the length, cost andeffectiveness of the prototyping work. However, very little research has been carried out toidentify how these variables should be chosen for a specific design project.In this paper we document an extensive literature review in the general area of prototyping.Prototyping strategies currently in use by a variety of different product developers are identified.When it is possible to identify either a business or engineering perspective, that perspective isnoted. The wide variety of different prototyping strategies currently in use are identified andgrouped into categories with similar characteristics. Specific differences in the prototypingstrategies for business vs. engineering focused work are noted. Based on the literature review,the current state of the art for prototyping strategies is established. Of particular note is the factthat there is a dearth of information in the literature of how the decisions that constitute aprototyping strategy are made. In light of this fact, an additional contribution of this paper is tohypothesize a set of characteristics of a design problem that can be used to optimize prototypingstrategies.
AU - Edward James Christie
AU - Daniel D. Jensen
AU - Richard T. Buckley Ph.D.
AU - Devin A. Menefee
AU - Kyle Kenneth Ziegler
AU - Kristin L. Wood
AU - Richard H. Crawford
CY - San Antonio, Texas
DA - 2012/06/10
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Prototyping Strategies: Literature Review and Identification of Critical Variables
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/21848
DO - 10.18260/1-2--21848
ER -