Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Research in Engineering Design https://doi.org/10.1007/s00163-019-00318-4 ORIGINAL PAPER Fuzzy cognitive modeling with users for design system analysis Victoria Townsend 1  · Jill Urbanic 2 Received: 18 September 2016 / Revised: 18 February 2019 / Accepted: 14 May 2019 © Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract This paper outlines a fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) approach for engaging users in constructing a model for engineer- ing design system analysis. The model’s scope is drawn in reference to a socio-technical system and demonstrated with an assembly production system (a socio-technical system archetype). In particular, this paper focuses on modeling an existing assembly production system that needs to be re-designed, then analyzing the system models to inform the re-design task. The modeling approach engages users as participants (18 in this research) in observation and interviews, and these data are coded into adjacency matrices and fuzzy cognitive maps separately then integrated. The ability to model multiple users and technical entities together in breadth and detail, qualitatively and quantitatively, enables designers to zoom in to see the detail and zoom out to see a holistic perspective. The models are analyzed for overall cause, efect, and central variables. Through the FCM analysis of these variables, the elements of the existing design solution are made explicit, including inputs, external and boundary constraints, design principles, outcomes and outputs, function, and operations and structure. This is particularly useful in re-design, as demonstrated in the industrial re-design project here, where the FCM models make the current system design explicit and their analyses inform re-design intent by being synthesized into re-design foci and tasks. Keywords System analysis · User design · Socio-technical systems · Fuzzy cognitive mapping 1 Introduction Modeling is critical to engineering design because the information that models ofer may be needed at any point in the engineering design process (Pahl et al. 2007). Specif- cally in the system analysis phase, models are commonly used to examine the behavior of solution variants so that a solution can be selected. System analysis can also be per- formed on an existing system to make the current design solution and its behavior explicit. In the latter use, these models provide insight to refne a design solution and, more deeply, can inform the intent for re-design, where whole or part of a previous design solution is re-worked to generate a new design (Dixon and Colton 2000). This paper outlines a modeling approach for system analysis with an industrial re-design project: making a current design solution and its behavior explicit, then harnessing this analysis as feedback to defne new re-design tasks. This purpose makes this mod- eling approach valuable to design engineers who seek to learn from, and improve upon, a previous design. In addition to its purpose, a good model must clarify what it represents and how it represents it; the former refers to the model’s scope and contents, the latter its mode of commu- nication. The former is addressed here in this introduction, generally then specifcally in the context of the research pre- sented. The latter, the fuzzy cognitive modeling approach, is addressed in Sect. 2. In engineering design, a model generally represents an abstraction of reality that serves as a cognitive tool (Goel and Helms 2013). The model’s boundary can be drawn at various degrees of scope, impacting what the model’s con- tents will include. When modeling a design and its behavior in system analysis, where the line of scope is drawn can posi- tion users within or outside of the model. At a micro level, the model could include a rack and pinion inside a machine * Victoria Townsend townsenv@gmail.com Jill Urbanic jurbanic@uwindsor.ca 1 Department of Applied Research and Development, St. Clair College, 2000 Talbot Rd. W., Windsor, ON N9A 6S4, Canada 2 Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada