CONFLICT-MANAGEMENT IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY DESIGN ENVIRONMENT

It is now becoming increasingly common for products to be designed via an interdisciplinary approach, particularly when an engineering enterprise adopts the concurrent engineering approach. Essentially, this implies that several heterogeneous sources of knowledge are simultaneously involved during the design phase of the product. The benefits often cited as a result of such an approach are increased quality and innovation, decreased time-to-market, and lower manufacturing costs. However, the approach also accentuates the problem of how to handle and manage conflicts, which frequently arise due to several factors as discussed in this paper. This paper also de scribes a system called Schemebuilder, which is an integrated design workbench aimed at supporting the conceptual and embodiment phases of interdisciplinary systems design, and its mechanisms for handling and resolving conflicts.