Effective design and manufacturing, both of which are necessary to produce high-quality products, are closely related. However, effective design is a prerequisite for effective manufacturing. This new book explores the status of engineering design practice, education, and research in the United States and recommends ways to improve design to increase U.S. industry's competitiveness in world markets.

Michael Marti presents a complexity management model that is based on the reasoning that product architecture determines to a considerable extent how external complexity is translated into physical products. The model demonstrates a procedure to optimize a product’s architecture and is applied to several industrial products.