Human factor influences on effective computer aided design implementation.

Computer Aided Design (CAD) has the capability to influence a company's competitiveness in terms of quality, flexibility and cost effectiveness of design. Consequently, the opportunities provided by the efficient and effective use of CAD techniques are vital to a company's operational and business success.The aims of this research have been to; 1 Ascertain and identify the contribution and relevance of human factor and technological issues within a successful CAD implementation methodology. 2. Develop a human factor understanding which, when incorporated into an implementation methodology aids the introduction of CAD technology and increases the likelihood of realising opportunities. The initial research is based on a review of the literature on CAD and a pilot study of six companies employing CAD. This identifies the mix of issues involved during implementation as being, Technical, Organisational and Human. It also highlights the main problems experienced by companies as a function of the levels of Support, Direction and Communication. The above issues have been incorporated into a CAD introduction framework based on quality criteria. The results of this initial stage of the research have been substantiated by in-depth case studies of three companies, in various stages of CAD adoption and "Best Practice" activities have been identified for each area of the framework and related to the overall performance of the companies.To widen the scope of the investigation and provide more evidence, the framework was then employed in the in-depth analysis of six further case studies. These identified CAD support as playing a key role in maximising CAD potential.From this evidence a "Support Framework" has been proposed and validated via the results of a written postal questionnaire distributed to 1000 UK companies. Evidence from the 100 respondents of the postal survey strongly supports the proposition and suggests that companies are experiencing human problems, especially in the area of advanced 3D CAD. The problems are a result of inadequate internal support systems and can be overcome by the methods proposed by this research.