Visual analytics for evaluation of value impact in engineering design

Paper in proceeding, 2016

Many traditional engineering design processes in industry have evolved, and now-adays they are supported by computational tools and methods. As a consequence, apart from the quantity of information and data, a network of simulation methods produces information at various level of detail and nature. Furthermore, human interactivity is an essential consid-eration when building and designing such computational systems, simply because there is a requirement to process and understand this information that is produced during an engineer-ing project effectively in real time. We introduce here a Visual Analytics perspective in computational engineering design pro-cess, as well as tightening the interactive analysis of engineering data with Parallel Coordi-nates and Scatter plots. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach we use a case study that describes the design of an aero engine component critically suffering from the op-erating conditions but at the same time from the change of specifications and customer re-quirements. Some of the benefits include minimisation of rework through early identification of behaviour in selected Value Dimensions, as well as the ability to trade product performance (e.g. weight, minimum expected life) with internal stakeholder expectations (e.g. higher overall productivi-ty of aircraft, low degree of aircraft modifications, faster design convergence). Furthermore, the proposed method develops the ability to identify architectural options that align with Val-ue Creation Strategies, but also the evaluation of design options in advance of physical trade studies.