OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING

Operations Management and Accounting

Operations Management and Accounting

Operation Management

Question 2

According to the ICSID1 (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design), "Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life-cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange." I propose the use of this definition when discussing theories of design throughout this paper. It may be that concretely defining the process restricts the act of creation, but I suggest to the reader that this definition is a net used to catch all creativity. Not all creative acts are pertinent to product design, so product design must be defined in order to discuss those creative acts which do aid to its progress. In the early 19th century, craftsman made their wares by hand.

As demand increased however, it became evident that a method of production was required that had a higher throughput than traditional manual methods. Originally, the aesthetics of machine-made products were adapted to mimic their hand-made predecessors. German architect Walter Gropius broke from the standard in 1919 when he envisioned an aesthetic that incorporated forms which could only be produced by machine. While the hand-made aesthetic still exists today, the machine aesthetic surpassed it as the standard in the product design process. Interestingly, this aesthetic was a result of the technology used to make the products - and it therefore morphed with the ever-changing manufacturing technologies. In 1963, the SKETCHPAD system was released from MIT by Ivan Sutherland. This machine is considered the beginning of current day software used to design the elaborate shapes we see in today's products. This category of software is called computer aided design (CAD). With the advent of CAD, objects could be designed quickly and efficiently, as well as accurately and effectively. Any conceivable object can be accurately recreated on the computer, and subsequently physically reproduced in a matter or hours. The freedom of CAD, combined with amazing possibilities in today's manufacturing processes, grants product designers a new release from the old rules. These rules were hindrances to creativity that prevented some mechanisms and products from ever being created. While a brilliant mind might cope without the support of digital modeling software, the principal issue at this stage of design is the support of a team of creative minds.

Digital modeling allows an individual to clearly and efficiently disseminate their ideas to a group. Many people are involved in the transition from idea to object, all of whom need to completely understand the structure of the product in order to aid its creation. CAD allows those creative ideas that were once too complicated to describe to reach production. The message could finally exist as its native medium, as Marshall McLuhan2 would say. So here we are today - able to create just about anything we can conceive. With this hurdle lowered, the focus of industrial design can be ...