Design should be managed as a physical process, too

Ballard, G; Koskela, LJ

Abstract

The mainstream stand in textbooks on design and design and management is that design is a problem solving process, starting from the perceived problem and ending with a detailed solution. We contend that these accounts overlook one necessary and important conceptualization of design, namely design as a physical flow process. This view holds design as a spatio-temporal process, where information (on whatever media) is traversing through a network of designers and other stakeholders. Among the characteristics of a design process, its duration, cost and often output quality can only be explained through this view. Accordingly, it is important to manage design as a physical process, based on the unique features of this view. However, due to a relative neglect of this view of design we have the situation that practical prescriptions and approaches to design management contain, at most, partial or fragmentary methods and tools towards management of the physical process side. Fortunately, the theoretical and practical development of this concept carried out in the framework of production management can be advantageously used also for the design context. However, because of the fundamental differences between material production in design, the concepts emanating from production have to be adapted for being valid design. Thus, for example, while in material production time reduction is the primary goal for management, in design, besides design time reduction, the elimination of making-do in design tasks must be taken as equally significant goal. A framework for conceptualizing management of design as a physical process has been presented, and practical development and trailing of a number of related methods in the context of building design accounted. Future work is needed for developing a seamless set of methods for design management, incorporating the concept of design as a physical process, besides other requisite concepts.

Citation

Ballard, G., & Koskela, L. (2009, August). Design should be managed as a physical process, too. Presented at International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED'09, Stanford, CA, USA

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED'09
• Conference Location: Stanford, CA, USA
• Start Date: Aug 24, 2009
• End Date: Aug 27, 2009
• Publication Date: Aug 24, 2009
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 1, 2014
• Keywords: design, physical process, flow process, design structure matrix, Last Planner, pull-push
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference