ABSTRACT
Design optimization has been practiced by humankind, in some form or other, for millennia, although the designers may not have recognized their efforts as such. Many would have said that
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they were simply looking for improvements in their canoe paddle or electric motor to enhance performance. Many would not have said that they were trying to obtain the best possible design to maximize the performance of their sailboat. In fact, even today, management does not often allow the design engineer to find the absolute best possible design to maximize performance. They want to sell intermediate designs that work well relative to competitors, the actual objective being to maximize sales. This is not a bad thing. Design optimization can be employed to find improved designs, which may be the best designs one can find, given the time and resources allocated to the problem. However, the authors believe that if the principles discussed below are applied, design engineers can find much better designs for given resources than would be found using traditional methods.
