Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The fourth edition of The Mechanical Design Process combines a practical overview of the design process with case material and real-life engineering insights. Ullman's work as an innovative designer comes through consistently, and has made this book a favorite with readers.

This book conveys the "flavor" of design, addressing both traditional engineering topics as well as real-world issues like creative thinking, synthesis of ideas, visualization, teamwork, sense of customer needs and product success factors, and the financial aspects of design alternatives, in a practical and motivating manner. New in this edition are examples from industry and over twenty online templates that help students prepare complete and consistent assignments while learnign the material.

This text is appropriate primarily for the Senior Design course taken by mechanical engineering students, though it can also be used in design courses offered earlier in the curriculum. Working engineers also find it to be a readable, practical overview of the modern design process.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. xi)
• chapter 1 Why Study the Design Process? (p. 1)
• 1.1 Introduction (p. 1)
• 1.2 Measuring the Design Process with Product Cost, Quality, and Time to Market (p. 3)
• 1.3 The History of the Design Process (p. 8)
• 1.4 The Life of a Product (p. 10)
• 1.5 The Many Solutions for Design Problems (p. 15)
• 1.6 The Basic Actions of Problem Solving (p. 17)
• 1.7 Knowledge and Learning During Design (p. 19)
• 1.8 Design for Sustainability (p. 20)
• 1.9 Summary (p. 21)
• 1.10 Sources (p. 22)
• 1.11 Exercises (p. 22)
• Chapter 2 Understanding Mechanical Design (p. 25)
• 2.1 Introduction (p. 25)
• 2.2 Importance of Product Function, Behavior, and Performance (p. 28)
• 2.3 Mechanical Design Languages and Abstraction (p. 30)
• 2.4 Different Types of Mechanical Design Problems (p. 33)
• 2.5 Constraints, Goals, and Design Decisions (p. 40)
• 2.6 Product Decomposition (p. 41)
• 2.7 Summary (p. 44)
• 2.8 Sources (p. 44)
• 2.9 Exercises (p. 45)
• 2.10 On the Web (p. 45)
• Chapter 3 Designers and Design Teams (p. 47)
• 3.1 Introduction (p. 47)
• 3.2 The Individual Designer: A Model of Human Information Processing (p. 48)
• 3.3 Mental Processes That Occur During Design (p. 56)
• 3.4 Characteristics of Creators (p. 64)
• 3.5 The Structure of Design Teams (p. 66)
• 3.6 Building Design Team Performance (p. 72)
• 3.7 Summary (p. 78)
• 3.8 Sources (p. 78)
• 3.9 Exercises (p. 79)
• 3.10 On the Web (p. 80)
• Chapter 4 The Design Process and Product Discovery (p. 81)
• 4.1 Introduction (p. 81)
• 4.2 Overview of the Design Process (p. 81)
• 4.3 Designing Quality into Products (p. 92)
• 4.4 Product Discovery (p. 95)
• 4.5 Choosing a Project (p. 101)
• 4.6 Summary (p. 109)
• 4.7 Sources (p. 110)
• 4.8 Exercises (p. 110)
• 4.9 On the Web (p. 110)
• Chapter 5 Planning for Design (p. 111)
• 5.1 Introduction (p. 111)
• 5.2 Types of Project Plans (p. 113)
• 5.3 Planning for Deliverables The Development of Information (p. 117)
• 5.4 Building a Plan (p. 126)
• 5.5 Design Plan Examples (p. 134)
• 5.6 Communication During the Design Process (p. 137)
• 5.7 Summary (p. 141)
• 5.8 Sources (p. 141)
• 5.9 Exercises (p. 142)
• 5.10 On the Web (p. 142)
• Chapter 6 Understanding the Problem and the Development of Engineering Specifications (p. 143)
• 6.1 Introduction (p. 143)
• 6.2 Step 1: Identify the Customers: WhoAreThey? (p. 151)
• 6.3 Step 1: Determine the Customers' Requirements: What Do the Customers Want? (p. 151)
• 6.4 Step 3: Determine Relative Importance of the Requirements: Who Versus What (p. 155)
• 6.5 Step 4: Identify and Evaluate the Competition: How Satisfied Are the Customers Now 7 (p. 157)
• 6.6 Step 5: Generate Engineering Specifications: How Will the Customers' Requirement Be Met? (p. 158)
• 6.7 Step 6: Relate Customers' Requirements to Engineering Specifications: How to Measure What? (p. 163)
• 6.8 Step 7: Set Engineering Specification Targets and Importance: How Much Is Good Enough? (p. 164)
• 6-9 Step 8: Identify Relationships Between Engineering Specifications: How Are the Hows Dependent on Each Other? (p. 166)
• 6.10 Further Comments on QFD (p. 168)
• 6.11 Summary (p. 169)
• 6.12 Sources (p. 169)
• 6.13 Exercises (p. 169)
• 6.14 On the Web (p. 170)
• Chapter 7 Concept Generation (p. 171)
• 7.1 Introduction (p. 171)
• 7.2 Understanding the Function of Existing Devices (p. 176)
• 7.3 A Technique for Designing with Function (p. 181)
• 7.4 Basic Methods of Generating Concepts (p. 189)
• 7.5 Patents as a Source of Ideas (p. 194)
• 7.6 Using Contradictions to Generate Ideas (p. 197)
• 7.7 The Theory of Inventive Machines, TRIZ (p. 201)
• 7.8 Building a Morphology (p. 204)
• 7.9 Other Important Concerns During Concept Generation (p. 208)
• 7.10 Summary (p. 209)
• 7.11 Sources (p. 209)
• 7.12 Exercises (p. 211)
• 7.13 On the Web (p. 211)
• Chapter 8 Concept Evaluation and Selection (p. 213)
• 8.1 Introduction (p. 213)
• 8.2 Concept Evaluation Information (p. 215)
• 8.3 Feasibility Evaluations (p. 218)
• 8.4 Technology Readiness (p. 219)
• 8.5 The Decision Matrix-Pugh's Method (p. 221)
• 8.6 Product, Project, and Decision Risk (p. 226)
• 8.7 Robust Decision Making (p. 233)
• 8.8 Summary (p. 239)
• 8.9 Sources (p. 239)
• 8.10 Exercises (p. 240)
• 8.11 On the Web (p. 240)
• Chapter 9 Product Generation (p. 241)
• 9.1 Introduction (p. 241)
• 9.2 BOMs (p. 245)
• 9.3 Form Generation (p. 246)
• 9.4 Materials and Process Selection (p. 264)
• 9.5 Vendor Development (p. 266)
• 9.6 Generating a Suspension Design for the Marin 2008 Mount Vision Pro Bicycle (p. 269)
• 9.7 Summary (p. 276)
• 9.8 Sources (p. 276)
• 9.9 Exercises (p. 277)
• 9.10 On the Web (p. 278)
• Chapter 10 Product Evaluation for Performance and the Effects of Variation (p. 279)
• 10.1 Introduction (p. 279)
• 10.2 Monitoring Functional Change (p. 280)
• 10.3 The Goals of Performance Evaluation (p. 281)
• 10.4 Trade-Off Management (p. 284)
• 10.5 Accuracy, Variation, and Noise (p. 286)
• 10.6 Modeling for Performance Evaluation (p. 292)
• 10.7 Tolerance Analysis (p. 296)
• 10.8 Sensitivity Analysis (p. 302)
• 10.9 Robust Design by Analysis (p. 305)
• 10.10 Robust Design Through Testing (p. 308)
• 10.11 Summary (p. 313)
• 10.12 Sources (p. 313)
• 10.13 Exercises (p. 314)
• Chapter 11 Product Evaluation: Design For Cost, Manufacture, Assembly, and Other Measures (p. 315)
• 11.1 Introduction (p. 315)
• 11.2 DFC-Design For Cost (p. 315)
• 11.3 DFV-Design For Value (p. 325)
• 11.4 DFM-Design For Manufacture (p. 328)
• 11.5 DFA-Design-For-Assembly Evaluation (p. 329)
• 11.6 DFR-Design For Reliability (p. 350)
• 11.7 DFT and DFM-Design For Test and Maintenance (p. 357)
• 11.8 DFE-Design For the Environment (p. 358)
• 11.9 Summary (p. 360)
• 11.10 Sources (p. 361)
• 11.11 Exercises (p. 361)
• 11.12 On the Web (p. 362)
• Chapter 12 Wrapping Up the Design Process and Supporting the Product (p. 363)
• 12.1 Introduction (p. 363)
• 12.2 Design Documentation and Communication (p. 366)
• 12.3 Support (p. 368)
• 12.4 Engineering Changes (p. 370)
• 12.5 Patent Applications (p. 371)
• 12.6 Design for End of Life (p. 375)
• 12.7 Sources (p. 378)
• 12.8 On the Web (p. 378)
• Apendix A Properties of 25 Materials Most Commonly Used in Mechanical Design (p. 379)
• A.1 Introduction (p. 379)
• A.2 Properties of the Most Commonly used Materials (p. 380)
• A.3 Materials Used in Common Items (p. 393)
• A.4 Sources (p. 394)
• Appendix B Normal Probability (p. 397)
• B.1 Introduction (p. 397)
• B.2 Other Measures (p. 401)
• Appendix C The Factor of Safety as a Design Variable (p. 403)
• C.1 Introduction (p. 403)
• C.2 The Classical RuIe-of-Thumb Factor of Safety (p. 405)
• C.3 The Statistical, Reliability-Based, Factor of Safety (p. 406)
• C.4 Sources (p. 414)
• Appendix D Human Factors in Design (p. 415)
• D.l Introduction (p. 415)
• D.2 The Human in the Workspace (p. 416)
• D.3 The Human as Source of Power (p. 419)
• D.4 The Human as Sensor and Controller (p. 419)
• D.5 Sources (p. 426)
• Index (p. 427)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Ullman provides a modern overview of the mechanical design process that includes discussions on human factors, Taguchi's philosophy, quality function deployment, Pugh Selection, design for assembly, and concurrent design. In two sections (Background Topics and Techniques for the Mechanical Design Process), with three appendixes, including an especially useful one where the top 25 materials used in mechanical devices are identified along with pertinent material property data. The book is very readable and the material is presented at a level accessible to a wide range of reader interests and backgrounds. It provides a more current perspective on design theory and methodology than any of the following books. Ullman's treatment is less mathematical than in J. N. Siddall's Analytical Decision-making in Engineering Design (CH, Mar'73), or J. R. Dixon's Design Engineering: Inventiveness, Analysis, and Decision Making (1966), or B. Ostrofsky's Design, Planning, and Development Methodology (CH, Mar'77). It is written at a higher level than P. H. Hill's The Science of Engineering Design (1970). It is more complete than M. Asimow's Intoduction to Design (1962). All in all, unique in its particular organization and perspective; an excellent addition for collections serving students in virtually any engineering discipline. Highly recommended. G. E. Johnson; University of Michigan