What Happened to Roth’s Design Catalogues? - A Review of Usage and Future Research

In 1971, Roth and his group first proposed an algorithmic selection procedure for the design of mechanical systems using catalogues. Core element were Design Catalogues that provide established solution elements, models and operations for different engineering tasks. In different books and guidelines, the theory of Design Catalogues was promoted and comprehensive catalogues were elaborated. These works highlight the basic character as structured information bases, with knowledge and access criteria tailored to the needs of engineering tasks. An essential characteristic is the consequent classification of solutions, objects, and operations and thus a complete exploration of the area of interest. In science and industrial practice, Design Catalogues were recognized as tools to structure knowledge and improve reuse of solutions, operations or objects that are frequently used in the design process. This contribution analyses the use and evolution of Design Catalogues in the past 50 years. Main objective is to point out how Design Catalogues and underlying principles and tools to structure design knowledge were used in different fields of application. Moreover, future fields of research to classify knowledge elements and identify suitable access criteria to build up Design Catalogues will be pointed out.