4. Design methodology: from functional to organic

4.1 Specifications

Customer needs, competition, regulations, new products from suppliers, scientific advances... these are the main forces driving innovation and the design of a mechanical system to achieve the desired performance.

Performance is taken in a broad sense. It may involve improving a technical parameter (speed, noise, size, weight, reliability, maintainability, etc.), reducing cost, meeting the requirements of standards or regulations (for example, reducing the product's environmental impact), or enhancing the product's functions to meet a latent or expressed customer need.

Of course, this improvement in performance requires creativity, but above all it requires new techniques to achieve the required performance. In other...