GRAI-Engineering: A method to model, design and run engineering design departments

Abstract

Due to strong competition (economic pressure, time-to-market, the emergence of competing products, etc.) industrial enterprises have to continually increase their competitiveness. Having started with the manufacturing cycle, they now have to improve the design cycle. Engineering design has become one of the main added-value activities in the industrial environment and needs to be carefully controlled. The product engineering design department has to be efficiently organized. This paper presents a method that provides a solution to the problem. The GRAI engineering method can be used to re-engineer the way in which products are designed (taking the product, the process and the design organization into consideration) and, more generally speaking, the design of the engineering design department. Integration of the product, process and organization, with the aim of improving the performance of product engineering design is first analysed, leading to the conclusion that a method is needed to support the design activity. The GRAI model, based on the systemic approach and adapted to modelling of the engineering design department, is then presented. The GRAI model supports the structuring of both the coordination decisions and design activity. Details are then given of the GRAI-engineering method which is a structured approach based on a collaborative and participative approach, in order to define a dedicated GRAI model which can be applied to the engineering design department.

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