Book excerpt: Over the past decade, with greater emphasis being placed upon shorter lead times, better quality products, reduced product costs, and greater customer satisfaction, the topic of Engineering Design has received increased interest from the industrial and ac ademic communities. Considerable effort has been directed at developing design process methodologies and building computer tools that focus upon relatively narrow aspects of design, but many key problems in Engineering Design research and practice remain unanswered. Resulting from the First International Engineering Design Debate held in Glasgow, UK in late 1996, this volume discusses the main issues concerning the improvement of design productivity. Covering design studies, design development, concurrent engineering and design knowledge and information, it attempts to derive a common understanding of the basic factors, problems and potential solutions involved.