Towards a methodology to support the development of flexible company-specific engineering design processes

Engineering design processes are complex systems resulting from complex tasks. While the definition and management of engineering design processes are important tasks, as evidenced by empirical studies, a number of unsolved research questions persists in literature. Within this paper, current research issues identified in a literature review are compared with results from empirical studies in order to triangulate the most pressing research issues. Currently, two interview studies have been conducted with small-to-medium sized enterprises and startups of varying sizes: a case study concerning process development within an engineering department of a global enterprise, and an observation of a workshop to define a new product development process in another global enterprise. As a result, two issues have been concretized: A lack of methodology concerning the development of company-specific standard engineering design processes and a lack of flexibility and adaptability of these standard processes in practice due to different project contexts. Consequently, a first draft for a methodology to support the development of flexible and adaptable engineering design processes has been developed. The methodology combines traditional process-development activities with a bottom-up analysis of project contexts and influencing factors. The methodology currently represents a work in progress and its constituent steps will guide further research activities.