Use of Design Stucture Matrix in Solving Complex Problems

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a method of design structure matrix application in aerospace industry. Based on classifying the interdependency relationship between different design activities and describing the definition & types of DSM (design structure matrix), the design flow diagram is illustrated by the matrix of DSM Then a new DSM is gained by analysing and partitioning the original DSM; at the same time a new information flow and design flow diagram of reducing the coupled activities is proposed. Finally, the conclusions for the application of DSM in aerospace industry.

II. Introduction

The DSM is a powerful approach for defining, recording, and examining system dependencies, be it at the program-level, project-level or at an individual task-level. It is based on the premise that success in business requires an efficient sharing of information. The DSM provides a disciplined approach and a powerful methodology for managing projects via identification of intrinsic system dependencies during both development and operational phases.

Companies are increasingly under pressure to reduce cycle-time and cost of product development, which leaves very little room for error. Firms that do not have a structured product development process will experience difficulty responding to their customers. Product development in the unmanned space flight business is spread across flight project organizations, organizational directorates and their hierarchical lower levels as well as their support processes, - on down to the working level.

Successful system integration depends upon effectiveness of team communications. Team performance is a key factor in product development. Contemporary advances in information technology allow geographically dispersed communities to communicate instantly. However, in product development. team communications and the structure for such communication need to be planned upfront. The communication must be selective and must be optimized based on intrinsic information flows, which me derivable from the product architecture. Omissions in identifying critical connections in team technical communication can lead to catastrophic failures. Essential technical communications must therefore be identified u p front as part of development planning. Further, these communication channels must be formalized. All developmental activities are inherently iterative. Iteration is a fundamental issue in any development. It is essential to gain a detailed understanding of the information flow of development processes and the effects of intemal coupling that are inherent to all development activity. Not everything need be soncwent in concurrent engineering. However, all sounled activities must be camed out in a concurrent environment in order to converge to a solution in the least amount of time. Concurrent engineering is resource intensive.