Product design vs product engineering: what's the difference and which do you need?

Where does one stop and the other start?

In practice they overlap heavily. Design decisions about form constrain the engineering; engineering constraints reshape the form. Treating them as separate handoffs is exactly how you end up with a beautiful concept that cannot be moulded.

Which do you need?

If you have a concept, sketches or a rough physical prototype and no CAD, you need engineering to make it real. If you have a working mechanism that is ugly, awkward or expensive to assemble, you need design. If you have neither, you need both — and you should get them from a team that can hold both in view at the same time.

Keep reading

• What is CAE and why should manufacturers care about it before tooling?
• DFM basics: why your product design keeps failing in manufacturing