The design process of new military vessels can be hampered by human imposed aspects such as traditional thinking, risk avoidance, or limiting factors like available budget or the unwillingness to change present organisational structures. Especially traditional thinking and risk avoidance can prevent design teams to explore the edges of innovation, while budget constraints on the other hand do form a challenge. The unwillingness to change organisational structures is a real problem for designers, because it imposes limits to the creative thinking process, consequently leading to sub optimal solutions. The question is how to cope with these constraints and how to create an integrated way of thinking allowing the designers to be creative while exploring the question 'how effective operation of a warship with minimum manning and increased automation is achieved'. In this paper the author discusses above mentioned aspects and evaluates the model he used in his study 'An operating concept for future frigates' as presented at the INEC 96 and during the design of the unmanned minesweeper drone as presented at the INEC 98. This simple model is the result of several sessions of creative thinking and is based on the structure of the human being. It triggers designers for conceptual discussions and when used properly it will help to maintain an integrated view on the design principles.
展开▼
