Summary of 1st Workshop of Design Performance Cluster

University of Strathclyde

9th February 2005http://www.dmem.strath.ac.uk/desperf/

Focus of Cluster

• Design growing in importance to UK companies as we reposition ourselves in the value stream

• Very little attention has been paid to managing the performance of the design process

• Different design communities have their own ideas, approaches, concepts etc.

• The overall aim of the cluster is to provide a platform to facilitate the sharing, consolidation and promotion of activities in design performance research and practice.

Aims & Objectives

• Bring together researchers from diverse communities who can really lead the field in design performance at an international level.

• Develop a research agenda, along with priorities and groupings to take the key research issues forward.

• Start groupings of collaborative activity to tackle key research issues and form innovative research partnerships.

• Encourage cross-fertilisation of ideas, concepts, frameworks and approaches.

• Create a dialogue between designers, artists, engineers, architects, social scientists, etc.

• Involve industry in these key discussions.• Disseminate information to the wider community.

Core Members

• Simon Austin, Loughborough

• Hilary Bates, Warwick

• Umit Bititci, Strathclyde

• Alan Bridges, Strathclyde

• John Clarkson, Cambridge

• Chris Clegg, Sheffield

• Helen Driva, Nottingham

• Alex Duffy, Strathclyde

• Steve Evans, Cranfield

• Bill Ion, Strathclyde

• Dave Langford, Strathclyde

• Fiona Lettice, Cranfield

• Chris McMahon, Bath

• James Moultrie, Cambridge

• Bill Nixon, Dundee

• Kul Pawar, Nottingham

• Sheng Feng Qin, Brunel

• Nigel Slack, Warwick

• Palie Smart, Cranfield

• Derek Thomson, Loughborough

Attending 1st Workshop

• Hilary Bates, Warwick (ops. management, automotive, outsourcing)• Umit Bititci, Strathclyde (PM, strategy)• Alan Bridges, Strathclyde (architecture, arch. computing)• Chris Clegg, Sheffield (org. psychology, org. change, innovation)• Mary Duffy, Cardiff (innovation, NPD)• Mark Haffey, Strathclyde (design optimisation, processes)• Margo Hutchison, Cluster Co-ordinator • Jill MacBryde, PI (design process, value, PM, team performance)• Chris McMahon, Bath (design education, design collaboration) • James Moultrie, Cambridge (industrial design, SMEs, design mgt.)• Bill Nixon, Dundee (design evaluation, accounting link to NPD)• Kulwant Pawar, Nottingham (ops management, NPD)• Shengfeng Qin, Brunel (collaborative design, distributed design)

Emerging Themes

• Lifecycle

• Strategy

• Collaboration

• Skills, training and culture

• Design process performance

• Modelling of the design process

• Other

Lifecycle

• How do we feed longer term performance issues back to the designer?

• How do we measure the real lifecycle cost

• Designing to extend or shorten product life

• Sustainability (legislation, responsibility, re-use etc)

Strategy

• Design is about more than product development (branding, image, value, space) – but do we measure design performance in a wider context?

• Alignment, consistency & coherence – how to measure?• How can we develop measures that will help with

decisions about investment in design, risk management etc.?

• Can we quantify the impact of design?• With blurred boundaries between manufacturing & service

– is what we mean by design changing? What are the implications for strategy and measurement?

Collaboration

• Where does design fit in the extended enterprise – and what are the management implications?

• Can we learn from construction industry?• Outsourcing of design – how much design expertise

to retain in-house?• Does the use of design consultants really impact on

design performance?• How can we measure shared risk, benefits, IPR? • What working practices are needed for design

collaboration?

Skills, training & culture

• Can we articulate and measure key skills needed for design?

• Skills in teams – what should be the balance of internal and external expertise?

• Is there a measurable risk associated with buying-in skills for parts of design process?

• Do we have a design culture in the UK? How does this affect design performance?

• Changing views of performance – what are the implications for designers and educators?

Design process

• Are we overplaying efficiency measures at the expense of effectiveness measures?

• Should we be rethinking the design review as a performance measure?

• What would a balanced scorecard for design performance look like?

• “world class design” – should we have an audit tool as in “world class manufacture”?

• What measures are needed for distributed design process performance?

• What is the link between value and performance?

Modelling

• What modelling tools to use?

• We can model the process - but not the human factors?

• Is it possible to simulate design process?

• Process models normally help us address efficiency – but what models can we use to measure effectiveness?

Other

• What do we mean by design - and is this changing?

• Is the design environment really different – and if so what sort of management and measures are needed?

• If we can’t measure, are we going to stifle investment?

• Impact of legislation?• How can SMEs move up the value chain by

leveraging design capability and at what cost?

Planned Activity

• Workshop 1 – report on current activity and emerging themes

• Workshop 2 – development of themes and research agenda. SWOT analysis.

• Workshop 3 – research challenges, agenda and priorities• Workshop 4 – mini-conference; presentation of research

proposals• Summer school• Website• Course materials