Associations between factors influencing engineering design communication

Abstract

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'.