1. Decision-making approach to design

1.1 Socio-technical-economic environment

The company is the organization in charge, in particular, of product design and production. A product is defined as "that which is (or will be) supplied to a user to meet his or her needs". Initially, design can be defined as a creative activity which, starting from the needs expressed by the market and existing knowledge, leads to the definition of a product which satisfies these needs and is industrially feasible. The organization of the company imposes a role and a mode of operation on design, which is strongly influenced by the environment in which it operates, and whose progress depends on the human and technical resources made available by the company. This environment can be observed from an economic (the market), technical (the product)...