Aircraft design projects - part 10 ppt

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334 Aircraft Design Projects

Aircraft type specification

Project brief Problem definition

Aircraft datafile

Information retrieval

Specific design issues

Aircraft requirements

Design concept(s)

Candidate concept(s)

Initial sizing

Initial estimates

Constraint analysis

Refined baseline

Parametric and trade studies

Project assessment

Project group formation

Specialist tasks

Fig. 11.1 Student’s checklist

teamworking results in a better design and provides the student with more relevant

industrial experience.

There are many advantages to the team approach to design:

• Teaming brings together the strengths of a diverse group of people.

• Team consensus usually results in a better product.

• Everyone on the team has a backup person to check his or her work.

• Sharing the task makes the job easier and more fun.

• Teaming allows each member to use his or her talents in a more focused way.

Teaming also has disadvantages:

• The success of the team may be limited by its weakest members.

• Some members may tend to procrastinate, delaying the work of the entire team.

• Teaming makes it easier to blame problems on the least liked or least productive

member of the team.

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Design organisation and presentation 335

• Personalities can get in the way of progress.

• The most energetic team members usually do more than their fair share of the work.

The first challenge faced in a team design environment is the selection of team members.

Students often enter a design course with a desire to be a part of a team of students that

they have chosen, a team composed of long-standing friends. However, this is not a good

simulation of industrial team formation. In practice, those selected for membership on a

design or product development team may have never met before. Indeed, many modern

industry teams are multinational in membership and members may never meet except

through Internet, telephone, and teleconference communication.

Forming a team from a group of friends is often a recipe for disaster. Team members

are likely to find that the social skills and personality interactions which made them

friends do not necessarily serve them well in accomplishing the goals of a design team.

The laid back personality which makes a person fun to be with on Saturday nights at a

bar may prove exasperating when one is expecting that friend to finish his or her critical

part of the design analysis. Consequently, it is common for ‘self-selected’ design teams

to have serious problems as members fail to measure up to the expectations of others

on the team. Both long-standing friendships and teamwork suffer.

Many experienced design course instructors prefer to form teams by randomly select￾ing members from class rolls rather than letting them ‘self-select’. This often results in

fewer teamwork problems since members bring fewer expectations of their teammates

to the group and often work a little harder to create a team environment.

Some experts recommend using various versions of personality profile testing in

selecting team members. Alternatively, they suggest personal profiling of existing team

members to enable them to work together optimally. This recognises that each team

member has unique capabilities to bring to the work of the team. It is meant to encour￾age members to interact in such a way as to make the best use of their individual talents.

While it might be interesting to analyse student design teams in this way, if only to study

team interactions and dynamics, it is a luxury and distraction, which time schedules

on most university design classes do not permit.

11.2.1 Team development

It is important for team members to understand that building a good team takes an

effort by all team members and that conflict along the way is inevitable. Most teaming

experts recognise several distinct stages in the team development process.

When a team begins its work, interactions among team members are tentative and

polite as they struggle to find their own place on the team and to identify the strengths

and weaknesses of other members. These formative stages of teamwork involve build￾ing team interdependencies through an initial exchange of information, through task

exploration and identification of common goals.

The second stage of team interaction usually involves some conflict as members

begin to disagree over procedures and direction. There is a tendency of team members

to criticise each other’s ideas as they strive to assert their own approaches to the solution

of the problem. Team members often respond to criticism emotionally and hostility

may develop between members. Coalitions begin to form within the team and team

polarisation is often the result. It is in this stage of team formation that poor meeting

attendance or lack of participation in team discussions by some team members can

lead to hostile reactions from others. These problems are a normal part of the team

formation process and they must be recognised as such if the team is to progress further.

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336 Aircraft Design Projects

The period of potential conflict is usually followed by a growth of cohesiveness and

unity as team members begin to establish their roles and relationships. An agreement

on team working relationships, standards, and procedures can result in a realisation

that the group is beginning to think and work as a unit.

Following the establishment of team cohesiveness, the group is ready to proceed in

a spirit of mutual co-operation to make the needed design decisions and to solve the

assigned problem. This brings an increased sense of task orientation with an emphasis

on team performance and achievement. With a little luck and a lot of patience and

perseverance, this stage of team performance will be reached before the end of the

academic term and the deadline for project completion.

11.2.2 Team member responsibilities

Many books and articles have been written on the traits needed for successful team￾ing and for being an effective team member. All agree on certain rules of teamwork

requiring that each team member:

• is equally responsible for the progress and success of the team,

• must attend all meetings and be there on time,

• must carry out assigned tasks on schedule,

• must listen to and show respect for the views of others,

• can criticise ideas but not team members,

• needs to give, and expect to receive, constructive feedback,

• needs to resolve conflicts constructively,

• should always strive for ‘win/win’ resolution of conflicts,

• must pay attention in team meetings and refrain from wasting time in mindless

discussion of irrelevant matters,

• needs to ask questions when clarification of what is happening is required.

11.2.3 Team leadership requirements

Selection of a team leader is one of the most important tasks facing a design team. Team

leaders are often chosen for the wrong reasons. Personal popularity or past academic

success is not necessarily the best basis for selection of a leader. Effective leadership

embodies many traits beyond being the life of the party or the class valedictorian.

A good team leader will be able to:

• motivate and encourage the team,

• keep the team organised and on schedule,

• keep team meetings on the agenda,

• make sure everyone’s ideas are heard and evaluated,

• keep all team members on their assigned tasks,

• encourage and maintain effective individual and team communication,

• keep team information resources up to date,

• utilise the talents of individual team members effectively,

• do his or her share of the team’s work while helping others when needed to keep the

team on schedule.

It is often wise to take a little time to observe the team members in action before

selecting a team leader. Where time and the number of team members permit, it may

be useful to begin the design process by dividing the group into two or three subgroups.

Each subgroup is asked to propose one or more candidate design concepts. Working