
33Engineering Design
large region. When using heuristic techniques, a smaller feasible set is even
more critical for nding optimal solutions.
There are some well-known exceptions, though. The multitool Swiss army
knife is an example of a product with many functionalities. The essential thing
to note is that the different functionalities of the knife do not conict. The dif-
ferent elements can all be considered tools, and they do not have very different
operating requirements. Adding many functionalities adds new constraints to
the design problem, and one tends to lose optimality in one functionality. For
example, a large knife will outperform ...