[Stoves] How to thnk about complex engineering solutions

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Richard

 

>Really, where are you going with this approach ? 

 

I deal daily with two groups of people trying to serve a third group. They
are (1) the funders, programme writes who want to spend money helpfully and
effectively and responsibly; (2) the technicians and inventors and lab
people who look deep into the science of measuring things, and what is
inside those things and how they affect the general public. Group (3) are
the users, misusers, developers and casual improvers and destroyers of the
technologies and techniques that inevitably occur when people use cooking
technologies (including the software).

 

The interactions between these three groups makes stoves and cooking and
heating a very complex world. There other ways to divide the whole group
(the participating universe) but let's say there are three.

 

They have quite different (and shifting) objectives. 

 

There are two groups who are largely and notably missing from the stove
community: professional marketing organisations doing what they normally do,
and social scientists like social anthropologists. Professional product
developers (industrial designers) were notably missing for decades and that
is not the case anymore. There are at least some involved.

 

The professionalization of the stove community creates stresses with the old
enthusiast guard but that is to be expected. When stovers start to
understand how to codify and explain the interactions between these major
groups, we will start to get more systematic progress and, all things
considered, better products.

 

The feedbacks that dominate 'normal' product development and manufacturing
will change the scene a great deal. Prof Prasad (Eindhoven) wrote about this
process - one of the earliest to set out what he felt was a stove
development process. Simplified versions of this are also available as
people tried to mediate between the universities and the enthusiasts.

 

The article linked looks at the whole set of interactions as a single
process and is one way to think about the way multiple, complex sets of
interactions can be managed or perhaps it is better to say, observed and
handled.

 

Usually, upon realising how complex stoves, cooking, product development and
roll-out programmes actually are, the three groups circle the wagons and one
of them takes control of the whole project. Well, OK..it is an option.but it
is not really how to deal with complex interactions.

 

To it indicates why PhD's in Engineering are doctors of philosophy.

 

Regards

Crispin

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