The design of complex products, such as aero engines or cars, requires the co-ordination of many different individuals and groups of designers. Communication has been identified by many researchers and practitioners in industry as a major determinant of success or failure in design projects. Communication is influenced by manifold factors on different levels, be it through product attributes, information and media-specific factors or factors arising from organisational and team structures, and individual activities. Understanding of associations between these factors supports successful communication management. This paper presents associations between selected factors influencing communication. It shows a network of correlating factors covering a number of aspects of communication in engineering design and focuses particularly on 'collaboration', 'mutual trust' 'overview of sequence of tasks in the design process', and 'autonomy of task execution'. The overall objective of this paper was to explore interrelations between factors influencing communication in product development emerging from data acquired through empirical studies. A communication grid analysis in five case studies in industry yielded empirical data from engineers and managers scoring their perception on the current status of factors influencing communication. The scores formed the basis for statistical calculations. Research identified interesting associations between factors influencing communication using statistical data analysis techniques. The term association is used as in most cases the nature of connection and direction of influence is inconclusive. Results obtained were brought into conjunction with findings in the literature for validation purposes as well as for an indication of the direction of influence. Correlations identified areas of attention for design management in practice and led to a means of influencing communication directly through uncovering connections between different factors.


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    Title :

    Associations between factors influencing engineering design communication


    Additional title:

    Assoziationen zwischen den Faktoren, die die Kommunikation im technischen Design beeinflussen


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2007


    Size :

    14 Seiten, 4 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 56 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Storage medium


    Language :

    English




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