AN APPLICATION OF THE DESIGN STRUCTURE MATRIX METHODOLOGY TO INTEGRATED CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

摘要

This paper integrates two distinct frameworks for managing complexity in the design and development of aerospace systems. In recent years, NASA, ESA, and the private sector have adopted the practice of Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) to increase the pace of conceptual design by bringing together all relevant personnel in the same room to conduct focused, collaborative one-week design studies. The Design Structure Matrix (DSM), on the other hand, is a project management tool used to optimize complex product development processes. Although the DSM methodology explicitly incorporates the concurrent aspects of engineering design, it has not been applied formally to an integrated, rapid design environment such as ICE. Indeed, the goal of the DSM is to decouple independent tasks and to identify those that are inherently coupled, whereas the purpose of the ICE environment is to foster continuous communication so that tasks do not need to be decoupled at all. Nevertheless, the ICE design process is characterized by complex information flow, constant feedback, and multiple design iterations. Therefore, its process is well suited to a DSM-based analysis. This paper demonstrates an application of the DSM framework and methodology to an ICE laboratory and provides recommendations based on the analysis.