On technique…
Needs, functions, yields: the designer’s thinking process
Needs, functions and yields is a thinking process that is a component of good permaculture design.
DOES anyone use needs/functions/yields analysis (NFY) anymore in permaculture design?
I was taught the use of NFY analysis way back when I did my permaculture design course with Robyn Francis in 1985 or thereabouts. Subsequently, Fiona Campbell and I taught it in the urban permaculture design course we ran through the 1990s.
I’ve used it outside of permaculture as well. I think it useful.
A thinking process
Needs/functions/yields is a thinking process which looks at components of design as part of a system. It is logical, relying on observation and research rather than notions, assumptions and unverified information. As such, it well-fits permaculture co-inventor, Bill Mollison’s dictum:
We permaculture teachers seek to empower any person by practical model-making and applied work, or data based on verifiable investigations.
…Bill Mollison, Travels in Dreams.
Bill clearly describes permaculture as an applied process rather than theoretical. He was big on drawing deductions from observation and designing according to the information obtained. NFY was a part of that design process.
A logical sequence: the input>processes>outputs stream
NFY enacts Bill’s proposal about using protracted thinking rather than thoughtless action. It adopts what those familiar with project management will recognise as the input>processes>outputs stream.
NEEDS (inputs into the design):
- what is needed to make the system work well over time?
- where and how can we obtain, or how can we produce those inputs?
FUNCTIONS (processes that occur within the system):
- what happens when we apply the inputs to some end?
- what effect does the operation of the processes have?
- do the processes produce unused materials or energy (which could conventionally be classified as waste), and can we use them?
- can we make use of the functions to the benefit of our design?
YIELDS (the products of our design):
- primary yields are what the design is intended to produce
- secondary yields might be minor outputs or impacts; they might not be visible until the design starts producing primary yields; are they desirable or undesirable? if undesirable they might require amelioration; if beneficial we might tweak the system to multiply them; this monitoring, adaptation and tweaking of the design is the Proactivity Principle in action; it is the opposite of the Precautionary Principle in which the belief that something might go wrong is used to prevent the design being implemented.
A chooky example
Let’s look at something many of us are familiar with to see how NFY works — the design of a poultry system.
Whether at domestic or commercial scale, the primary product of a poultry system is eggs for food and, possibly, meat. Secondary products might include feathers for use as insulation. These are the YIELDS of the design.
What about the FUNCTIONS of the design? What is it that chooks do that we can use in our design?
In this, we look at the natural behaviour of the birds. We know that chooks scratch in the soil in search of insects and for dust bathing. How can we use this behaviour? We can place the chooks where we intend to make garden beds. They will loosen the top few centimetres of the soil and clear most vegetation below shrub size. If the soil is loose we can plant directly into it or, where compacted, loosen it further and plant. The birds have done much of the clearing already and are busy turning weeds into eggs.
We can use the scavenging behaviour of chooks to reimagine our kitchen food waste as an input to feed the birds.
Chooks produce manure as a waste product. If we regularly clean out their pen we can add their wastes and used straw as a garden fertiliser or mulch, or put it into our compost.
That is using their behaviour and biological processes as functions. What inputs or NEEDS do we have to provide to support the functions and yields? A partial list would include food, water, shelter, soil to scratch in, shade, a sunny area, protection from predators and health care.
Does NFY analysis apply to non- biological components of design?
What of non-biological components of design? Is NFY analysis relevant here? Sure is.
If we live in an area poorly served by public transport we might require a motor vehicle. Its needs would include fuel, regular cleaning and care, regular maintenance and a possession of a drivers’ licence. Other than the side effect of consuming funds to satisfy the needs, identifying functions is a little more problematical. There is more of a direct link between needs and yields in technologies like motor vehicles. The primary yield would presumably be the provision of transport.
NFY is similar for bicycles as transport, however they have a more identifiable function in the form of increasing the rider’s physical fitness and the acquisition of knowledge to maintain the bike.
A useful thinking process
NFY analysis can be applied to the components of a design as well as to the complete design itself. It is part of that thoughtful observation and deduction process Bill taught as an antidote to the thoughtless action, to the ‘let’s just do it’ approach that results in problems and malfunctions down the timeline.
When we think in terms of the needs, functions and yields of our design, we take a systems thinking approach that ensures we think of most things and, so, increase the likelihood that our design will prove successful and productive.
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