What is the future?

The design of future products and processes will only become harder as they inevitably become more complex - and the speed of this change is accelerating.  Advanced tools and techniques needed to support the R&D function are now a requirement rather than an option. The main trends are:

Increased complexity - advanced techniques such as BGP Methods (© Michael Hopkins 2007) will be required to deal with systems that are getting much more complex, in three fundamental ways:

• A larger number of design variables that define system performance
• A larger number of more challenging performance targets that need to be satisfied
• The increasingly non-linear and interactive ways that these complex systems behave

Tougher performance targets and constraints - strongly conflicting pressures from legislation, costs, customer requirements and available resources mean that producing a 'satisfactory design' is becoming increasingly difficult.  

Reduced time-to-market - the amount of time available for a new product/process to be brought to market will continue to fall.

More computer simulation - reducing costs for computing power will lead to more simulation. Computer Experiments will increasingly dominate as accurate simulations of complex systems become feasible.  This is already happening in many fields e.g. engineering, financial, medical, biological and geographical systems.

Product/process ‘robustness’ more important - customers will become more demanding in terms of the performance and reliability of products and processes that they use.  This leads to Robust Design becoming an essential part of the design process.