Dimensions of order in engineering design organizations

Abstract

Design practice and artifacts in engineering design organizations can be ordered along four orthogonal dimensions, namely (i) the principle of ordering (top down vs bottom up), (ii) the structure of ordering (aggregation-decomposition vs generalization-specialization), (iii) the breadth of ordering (diversity vs parsimony) and (iv) the perspective of ordering (horizontal vs historical). Four case histories of design organizations are used to illustrate the above and also to demonstrate the tension (either in conjunction or in cyclic sequence) and/or balance between the extremes of the above dimensions. Mechanisms for creating a balance or tension between bottom up generation and top down influence are proposed.