Seeking design solutions through decoupling problems – a global engineering example

Official URL: http://files.asme.org/asmeorg/NewsPublicPolicy/Newsletters/METoday/Articles/22064.pdf

In the race for higher power and efficiency, the challenges faced by design engineers get more complicated every day. It can be said that everything is being pushed to the limit. On the other hand, technological advances present opportunities and recourses that were not available before. Communication and transportation technologies reached to a level that multinational engineering teams can be formed tapping into the talents available across the globe. Different education systems bias engineering students –one way or the other- towards their established point of view. This may limit the ability of engineers to see a wider picture that may include solutions which do not fit in their established vision of the design space. In today’s global marketplace, common and obvious solutions are everywhere. The secret to success lies with unconventional/novel design approaches. Many international companies tap into the global talent pool, hiring engineers across the globe. While forming multinational teams at home was the early phase of this approach, the new trend is to form research centers at various locations in the developing countries. The second approach is getting popular as it also helps minimize costs in cases where there are lower wages abroad. This paper presents a real life example how such a multinational team developed a simple solution for a challenging application through decoupling an engineering problem.