Why Chaos Matters in Mechanical Design
In 2014 Time Magazine published a cover story about a small team of coders who reworked and repaired the vitally important healthcare.gov website at a time when it was collapsing from the burden of numerous strains. At the time, they were heroes for the digital age because they fixed a product that was believed to be finished but was proven to be incomplete when seemingly random events were able to destroy the website's effectiveness.
I bring this up, of course, because it is a practical and drastic exhibition of chaos theory which, according to Fractal Foundation, "deals with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict and control." In other words, chaos theory examines the ways in which the randomness and interconnections of things impacts our lives. Practically, while designers and engineers are prudent to produce products that thrive under proven conditions, it is the random factors or unobserved links in a chain that often destroy a product and cause customer outrage.
Chaos theory is often considered through "the butterfly effect," which is the metaphorical illustration that the wind produced from a butterfly flapping its wings can have significant impacts as that wind traverses time and space. While this metaphor attempts to clarify the idiosyncratic nature of chaos theory, for mechanical engineers and others trying to harness this theory for the betterment of production, it may be beneficial to be more practical.
Therefore, by taking into consideration this 'link' between various aspects of a process or a product, mechanical engineers can best account for variables and produce the most capable machine possible under a more comprehensive set of circumstances. For example, Chaos Engineering recommends injecting as many hypothesized variables as possible into the mechanical development to best safeguard against the ‘destroy nature’ of chaos. Moreover, Principles of Chaos encourages engineers to vary the product test cycles by infusing real-world physical disrupters into the process to help account for the unknowns of chaos theory.
Regardless of strategy, engineers are stuck navigating the practical implications of chaos theory as they develop new products and new systems in an ever-complex world. While the coders on the cover of Time are considered heroes for their efforts, it's much more advantageous to account for disruptive factors, to appreciate the interconnections of seemingly unrelated components, and to plan for success through disruptive testing. Mechanical engineers who can encompass those factors into product development will forge their own legacy as they harness the disruption of chaos to produce order.
on Mechanical Design Optimization.
