ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 introduces the concept of visible knowledge in contrast to conventional approaches to product development, and describes the potential uses and benefits to development teams who embrace the practice. The author traces the origin of the visible knowledge approach to the Wright brothers' development of the first self-propelling airplane, then describes how that approach was also used to develop the legendary P-51 fighter plane decades later. Numerous examples of trade-off curves and other forms of visible knowledge are presented, along with an extended illustrative example to demonstrate the efficiency gains of using this approach to solve an engineering design problem
