Support of design engineering activity for a systematic improvement of products

Design research in the past few years has revealed several lacks of the "classical" design methodologies. The predominantly systematic-analytic, on deductive procedure based design methodologies are still basis for research and education but are judged to be little applicable in a real designing environment [4, 5]. Hence, the trend of design research has put the engineer in the middle of focus as a problem-solving individual. This paper introduces an approach for a successful proceeding in solving complex engineering problems based on the established Contact and Channel Model (C&CM). The problem solving process begins with a C&CM system analysis providing the information needed for understanding the relations between form and function on the adequate level of abstraction. Through a widespread understanding, a basis for creative, intuitive filling of the gaps in the problem ground is created.