Social Networking through Computer-Aided Design

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

In Serious Play, Michael Schrage, of the MIT Media Lab, examines how organizations use models, simulations, and prototypes to stimulate innovation.

I enjoyed this anecdote about the Boeing 777′s then-new computer-aided design program and how it was misused:

Boeing’s new digital design infrastructure was so clever that engineers got computer-generated e-mail alerting them to “interferences” created by design conflicts. If the avionics team and the hydraulics team developed systems that competed for the same physical space in the digital simulation, for instance, CATIA alerted both groups to the conflict. the purpose was to settle conflicts before design prototype.

Much to their surprise, the 777 project’s managers discovered that several engineers deliberately built conflicts with other systems into their proposed designs. Sabotage? Rebellion against the new technology? Engineering humor? Abuse of the prototyping medium? No, the interferences were generated so that engineers in one part of the company could figure out which of their counterparts they should meet with to discuss future design issues.

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