Margins in design – review of related concepts and methods

Journal article, 2023

Margins are defined as the difference between a design parameter’sminimum required value to ensure functionality, and its actual capa-bility. Margins allow engineers to mitigate uncertainties of variouskinds. While some margins are intentionally allocated, some othersmay get included inadvertently in designs or arise from changes torequirements. Although common in use, the concept of margins hasnot been formalised systematically. This paper offers the first system-atic literature review of margins. Concepts related to margins can befound in various interrelated domains with similar underlying princi-ples. However, these concepts have developed in isolation, leadingto a divergent and fragmented understanding. This paper bringsthese strands together by differentiating between margins whichmay be deliberately added or discovered during a typical productlifecycle and relates this to various domains such as safety, manu-facturing etc. The paper discusses approaches to model, size andallocate margins. The thematic analysis presents insights into theimportance of systematic use and management of margins and alsoraises currently observable gaps in the literature.