Engineering succeeds and fails because of the black box.
A black box is a conceptual container for the knowledge, processes, and working assumptions of an.engineering specialty. On multidisciplinary design teams, the output of one discipline's black box serves as the input for the black boxes of one or more other disciplines. The designer of a fuel system, for example, works within a "fuel system black box" that produces an output for the engine designer; the engine designers' blacks box output to the automatic transmission designer, and so on.
Design solution don't emerge linearly, however, and design teams work in interconnected webs of relationships. Hence, the black box model works best when employed as a momentary ideal that is adjusted and redefined throughout the design process as constraints become evident, opportunities emerge, prototypes are tested, and goals are clarified. It fails when expected to be permanent and orderly.
Excerpt from "101 things I learned in engineering school" by John Kuprenas with Matthew Frederick
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