Product and process model for intelligent management of concurrent design

An industrial design programme for developing a new final product and the related manufacturing process is a decision problem of formidable complexity. To obtain solutions of industrial significance one has to gradually approach the design efforts. It means that a preliminary design has to be first decided by utilizing a very simplified model of the new product and process. Then a progressively detailed design has to be developed, by using models of greater and greater detail. As a consequence, a multiresolutional design process arises, where each design stage allows one to obtain a more and more accurate description of the new objects to be developed. This multi-step multi-resolution decision making process is here denoted “innovation loop”. The paper gives an outline of the “innovation loop” by introducing a conceptual model of the design process with emphasis on its applicability