{"id":13362,"date":"2018-09-14T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/news-7129\/"},"modified":"2018-09-14T11:00:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-14T19:00:03","slug":"news-7129","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2018\/09\/14\/news-7129\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Work Together Collaborative Design and Engineering in an AI World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Asha Devasia| Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2018 14:53:58 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a common notion that most writers, philosophers or artists create their great works in isolation. We imagine the act of creativity as a solitary act by some person in some dusty study, an off-grid mountainside cabin or isolated research lab.<\/p>\n

For the rest of us, especially in technology and engineering fields, our work, our progress and success depend on collaborating with many \u2013 possibly hundreds — of people working together. We all have a practical, and even emotional, need to engage with colleagues to reach collective goals, generate ideas and share resources. Together, we learn from both success and failure. In short, collaboration is both a human need and business imperative.<\/p>\n

It is that human value of \u201csharing,\u201d intersecting with an onslaught new highly networked data and AI-driven collaboration and design tools, that promises to change the role of — and business models for — electrical system designers, specifiers and engineers in future.<\/p>\n

A Global 24-Hour Connected \u201cKnowledge Factory\u201d
<\/strong>Even middle-market \u201cregional\u201d companies operate in a global economy, connecting employees, partners and suppliers across broad distances and multiple time zones.\u00a0 Employees, fulltime or freelancers who make up the new \u201cgig\u201d economy, need new ways to connect and collaborate. \u00a0Instead of data in the cloud, we hear the term, the \u201chuman cloud\u201d for these disparate but connected workers that by some estimates number 30 million people worldwide.<\/p>\n

And while yesterday business \u201ccollaboration\u201d used to mean face-to-face meeting or teleconference with eye-straining PowerPoints, spreadsheets and critical path diagrams \u2013 today\u2019s workers connect via social media-inspired apps or large-scale enterprise project management systems.<\/p>\n

These business collaboration (or \u201cgroupware\u201d) apps, and even powerful engineering CAD, 3D modeling<\/a> and automated design management system are widely used. \u00a0There are literally hundreds of small business to corporate enterprise groupware programs, and large-scale design and project management systems for software development to AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) applications.<\/p>\n

Yet most are still just digital, networked versions of linear processes that connect people and ideas, store and share data, set critical work paths, and monitor progress.\u00a0 On the horizon are new and transformative AI-based, hyper-connected and highly automated tools that will change how we collaborate and create.<\/p>\n

From Concurrent Engineering to Computer Supported Collaborative Design (CSCD)
<\/strong>The concept of concurrent design and engineering has been around for some time.\u00a0 The premise is to replace siloed and linear sequential steps, with a more inclusive and circular process of input, design and modification among all players. Design, engineering, manufacturing and other functions are integrated under unified project management systems to reduce the time required to bring new products or concepts to market.<\/p>\n

The most notable example of this was the development of the Boeing 777 aircraft in 1995. The first computer-designed aircraft, Boeing applied early collaboration, highly networked design and production systems to do all sub-assemblies. They accelerated this engineering model with new integrated collaboration and visualization and modeling tools for it 787 Dreamliner.<\/p>\n

Today we\u2019re seeing the emergence of BIM (Building Information Modelling\/Management) tools that are changing project workflow models between designers, engineers and construction managers \u2013 and among mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) teams.<\/p>\n

Advance concurrent engineering tools that provide full and simultaneous visibility on projects, realized in tools such as BIM, are today laying the groundwork for the next generation of Computer Supported Collaborative Design (CSCD)<\/a> tools. It\u2019s based on the concept of synchronous sharing of information and interaction with ideas, in an AI-driven, data-intensive environment where problem solving, data and service \u201cagents\u201d support, or replace, labor intensive work and possibly the human traits of intuition and decision making.<\/p>\n

Shared, Distributed, Crowd Sourced Collaboration<\/strong>
Today\u2019s collaborative design tools are evolving from intra-company work and design-flow applications to new \u201cdistributed\u201d tools that connect third parties such as consulting specifying engineers, engineering management firms and even customers.<\/p>\n

But take a page from consumer companies that encourage direct consumer participation, via crowdsourcing systems, to shape their products.\u00a0 Threadless, a multi-million-dollar T-shirt company solicits ideas from designers on the web and then uses customer crowdsourcing to select final products \u2013 all before a single stitch is sown.<\/p>\n

If that example seems too consumer focused for industrial applications, think about DARPA who uses internal crowdsourcing tools to aggregate lists of potential terrorist threat targets. \u00a0Or Drupal, a CMS web API used for 7.2 million websites where a \u201ccommunity\u201d of volunteers support and update the shared resource.<\/p>\n

Role of Human Capital<\/strong>
These emerging collaboration tools \u2013 fueled by machine learning, AI and massively connected data sets \u2013 raise the question of just where human interaction and intervention will fit into a design and create process. \u00a0Gartner considered that question in its \u201cHow We Will Work in 2018<\/a>\u201d study, concluding three things: robots and AI are suited for precision and \u201cbrute force\u201d work; human and AI synthesized collaboration can multiply human work value; but, human-to-human interaction and innovation<\/a> \u2013 collaboration \u2013 and ingenuity still require \u201chuman\u201d contributions.<\/p>\n

All of which raises interesting ideas, considerations and look-ahead questions for professionals, and their businesses, projecting out 15 or 20 years.<\/p>\n