‘Optimisation’ is about selecting the best option from a range of possible choices. It is natural to consider this when designing a new product. As the old saying goes, ‘A job worth doing is worth doing well’. Why not produce a design that is the best in its class, if you have the means to do so? It may not cost any more in time and money to design and produce; and it may cost less. The customers for your product will be more please with it. Everyone will be happier, except your competitors.

But how to make the selection, that is the question. Maybe in practise, you would settle for something that is some way short of ‘optimal’. Perhaps you would be happy with a significant improvement o an existing design. It amounts to a very similar problem; how to search for better designs, in a systematic, practical and affordable way.

In looking at design optimisation, we need to address some fundamental issues:

• What are our objectives in designing a product? 
• How ‘well defined’ does a design have to be in order to be optimisable?
• Give that a design evolves in a series of phases, where does optimisation fit in? 
• Can it address the important high-value design decisions? 
• What are the industrial process issues and benefits associated with putting design optimisation into practise? 
• What are the benefits to the product?
  

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