Abstract
A draft on materials system design considered as synthesis is presented. Tow topics with respect to materials system design are discussed. One is concerned with the problem of definition of materials system design in the engineering design, another is concerned with the analogues between the materials system design and social system design. The former problem is discussed within the subjects such as process of engineering design, environment of engineering design, and object and mission of engineering design. In the discussions, it is suggested that the materials system design needs the synthesized function in the process of the design. The synthesized function stems from the combinations of various categories of design, i.e., material design and structural design which are of interest. However, it is a difficult problem to evaluate the effectiveness of synthesized function quantitatively.
To meet this problem, the latter topic is reviewed, which corresponds to the analogues between materials system design and social system design. If the analogues can be found, it is expected that the effectiveness of synthesized function in the process of materials system design will be evaluated quantitatively with the application of the decision making procedure in the social system.
