Design of Large Engineering Systems

One defining characteristic of twenty-first-century engineering challenges is the breadth of their scope. The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has identified 14 “game-changing goals.” At first glance, each of these aspirational engineering goals is so large and complex in its own right that it might seem entirely intractable. Fortunately, design science provides a continually advancing perspective built upon a meta-problem-solving skill set. This chapter introduces the design engineer to the world of large complex systems from an Axiomatic Design (AD) perspective. In particular, the chapter focuses on two critical “systems-thinking” design skills that help the designer manage the inherent and abstract complexity of large systems. They are (1) system decomposition and (2) the allocation of function to form. The chapter also practically demonstrates these design skills in several design stories and case studies. The chapter discusses why and how these design skills are used differently when the system has a fixed versus flexible structure. Finally, the chapter concludes with several avenues for further investigation.