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Using Everyday Examples in Engineering (E3)
Engineering Design: Organizing Brainstorming Results
Laura Bottomley
North Carolina State University
Engage
Ask students how many of them have ever shopped in a grocery store. This is, of course, a
laughable question, and they may laugh. Ask them to think about a time that they went into a
grocery store to quickly pick up some specific items for a meal and had to run through the entire
store to get only a few required items.
Explore
Ask students to brainstorm a list of categories of items found in a grocery store. They should do
this in groups of three, either self-selected or assigned. You might ask some groups to share
some of the categories that they have listed. Try to ensure that the groups have as complete a list
as possible.
Now ask students to make a simple sketch of a grocery store layout, either from memory or from
exploring the Internet. If possible, students could visit a grocery store as homework and make a
more detailed sketch. (The advisability of this depends on the location of your campus and the
accessibility of a fairly standard grocery store.)
Explain
Explain that the engineering design process frequently involves an idea-generation step,
sometimes accomplished through brainstorming, which can result in many diverse ideas, almost
like the list of diverse items found in a grocery store. In fact, designing the layout of a grocery
store is an industrial engineering problem. Engineers frequently have a need for schemes to
organize quantities of diverse information. One tool for doing so is called a concept map. A
concept map allows information to be grouped and placed in a hierarchy. In addition, creating a
concept map for a set of information (like concepts taught in an undergraduate class) can help
you monitor your understanding of the material and prepare for tests.
Concept maps for a given situation are not unique, and iteration is frequently required to improve
on an initial attempt. One way to approach a concept map is to identify first the question that is
being addressed. In the case of our example, the question is how to organize a grocery store.
The next step is to define broad groups or categories of information or related items.
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These are called concepts. If brainstorming has been done using Post-it Notes©, the broad
concepts can be identified and placed on a wall or board. If the concept map is to be used as a
part of the brainstorming process, the group can consider the question and first make a list of
general concepts surrounding the question. Then sub-concepts are added as linkages from the
broader concepts. Relationships between the concepts and the central question and/or between
concepts and sub-concepts may be added as verbs written on the linkages. An example concept
map is given below.
Figure 1: Example affinity diagram for design of improved digital camera1
Elaborate
Discuss examples of engineering design that would benefit from the application of a concept
map. Stress that every design situation may not be enhanced by using this tool. Consider asking
students to generate ideas of where it would be useful. (Examples to consider include:
designing a new model car, a digital camera, or a new candy, improving a cell phone or a shoe,
etc.)
Evaluate
1-Ask students to return to their lists of grocery store items. Ask them, in their groups, to draw a
concept map that would lead to the design of the layout of a grocery store.
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Crow,
Kenneth,
DRM
Associates,
http://www.npd‐solutions.com/affinitydiagram.html,
©2006
DRM
Associates
All
rights
reserved.
May
be
used
with
attribution.
All
other
use
prohibited.
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2-Have them sketch a potential layout from their concept map. Ask them to consider layouts that
vary from the standard, and then to analyze their results in comparison with a standard layout in
terms of
a. potential shopping efficiencies,
b. cost (e.g. how many different cold storage units are required? Are they located away
from the door which might affect their operation? ),
c. overall aesthetic appeal,
d. other criteria that you or they identify.
3-Ask students to draw a network or graph linking the items on the following grocery list, and to
calculate the length of the graph or network for their layout and for a traditional layout, using
imaginary units.
Grocery list:
• Tortillas
•
Salsa
•
Cheese
•
Ground beef
•
Taco seasoning
•
Lettuce
•
Tomatoes
Extend
If students seem interested, this activity can be extended by talking about graph theory or
networking. A simple network routing algorithm could be explained (like the Bellman-Ford
algorithm for evaluating ‘”shortest path” networking, and the algorithm could be used to
calculate shortest routes through a grocery store.
© 2010 Laura Bottomley. All rights reserved. Copies may be downloaded from www.EngageEngineering.org. This material may be reproduced
for educational purposes.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 083306.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s)
and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.
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