- Occam’s razor
In general, Occam's Razor states that the simplest explanation is usually true. In engineering, using Occam's Razor means to do something in the simplest manner possible.
- Lateral thinking
It is a mental process of generating ideas and solving problems not directly, with a frontal attack, but by evaluation of a situation and approaching problem from a non-standard direction.
- Engineering design practice
Engineering design practice depends on two factors:
- Background of the designer;
- Available technology.
- Units and measurements
In general, engineers in the North America use English system, and in Europe - metric.
- Off-the-shelf components in design
From the Occam’s razor we know that design should be as simple as possible. Therefore, a good practice is to find as many off-the-shelf parts as possible.
- Modular design
The principle of modular design allows end user to customize, repair and reuse products by simple replacement of a faulty component.
- Freezes
In engineering design freezes mark the end points of various development stages.
- Accuracy, repeatability, and resolution
Accuracy – indicates how close a measured value is to the real quantity of what is being measured.
Repeatability – describes how well a system can reproduce an unchanged outcome.
Resolution – is the smallest variation the system can display.
- Reference features
In engineering drawing, a reference is a relation with the datum from which the measurements are made on the part.