Design Thinking and Industrial Engineering

Do industrial engineers need design thinking?

Design Thinking for Managers
Design Thinking can do for organic growth and innovation what TQM did for quality.
http://nraombakc.blogspot.com/2013/08/design-thinking-for-managers.html


Industrial engineers redesign product and processes. Hence development in design process, design thinking is relevant for industrial engineers.

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is Ideo's approach for design which is human-centered. As a design company, Ideo tries to solve design problems starting with the user's requirements, feelings and difficulties in using or experiencing products. While tech-centered companies focus on their technical capabilities to design products, Ideo focuses on its behavioral research skills to understand the customers' pain points and pleasure points.

Ideo's research for product design is based on teams having persons from diverse disciplines spanning from business to behavior sciences (that includes engineers and scientists). The research team tries to observe consumers during their product evaluation and purchase decisions through videos and photographs apart from interviews. It uses photographs and videos persons in physical locations of the companies to observe how they feel and why they feel in the location. The insights gained are used to improve the facility. It forms of groups of consumers to help it in evaluating the experience in using products and encourages them to take pictures and videos and write descriptions regarding their feelings on various aspects of the products.

Frequent prototypes of are made of the proposed products so that consumers can give their evaluation more frequently about the proposed products. It encourages its employees and the employees of client companies to participate in the research project. One illustration of the benefit of this approach is an objection by Steve Jobs to the noise made the movement of a proposed mouse design. It was resolved by rubber coating the steel ball.

The principal focus of Ideo is on solving usability problem for consumers. It research is broad to cover many consumers and in depth to discuss issues with select group of consumers. The approach of Ideo now became a design excellence model like that of Toyota Production System for World Class Manufacturing.

(Source: Marketing Case Study in Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management, 15th Ed. P.160-161)

Today (4 May 2017), I came across an interesting article on design thinking.

NO PROCESS, JUST 4 TENETS OF DESIGN THINKING
Published on April 22, 2017 by Manoj Kothari, Director & Chief Design Strategist - Turian Labs on Linkedin.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/process-just-4-tenets-design-thinking-manoj-kothari

He emphasizes four points:  Empathic Inquiry, Abductive Reasoning, Visual Thinking or Creative Visualization and Iterative Prototyping.

Empathic inquiry is to go and stand in the posture of the users. Go and sit in the posture of the user. Understand the users' requirement from the their point of view. Go and use the item as they are using. Don't come with an ideal way of using it all the 8 hours or more a users uses an item. Understand why he does a thing the way he does it.

Aductive reasoning: Imagine various possibilities.

Visual thinking: Don't use only words to express. Use pictures and visuals.

Iterative prototyping - Once again don't limit yourself to picture or a design drawing. Convert it into prototype that can be seen as a 3D shape and handled.

I think industrial engineers have to accept all the four points and incorporate rate them into their design process.

Ud 28.9.2021

Pub. 4 May 2017