Title: Design structure matrix-based Engineering Change management for product development

Authors: Dunbing Tang, Ronghua Xu, Jicheng Tang, Rui He

Addresses: College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China. ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China. ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China. ' College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China

Abstract: Product development involves massive Engineering Changes (ECs). The aim of EC management is to actively predict the impact of changes on the product, process and organisation, so that time, cost, and resources can be allocated rationally. Design Structure Matrix (DSM), a structured method that has advantages on representing dependency relations, is proposed to analyse the ECs. DSM is used to capture the comprehensive issues of ECs, including the dependency relations between items, dependency strengths, types of ECs, as well as levels of ECs. A DSM-based EC management system has been developed, which could enable more effective product development.

Keywords: DSM; design structure matrix; engineering change; change propagation; dependency relations; product development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2008.021196

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2008 Vol.1 No.3, pp.231 - 245

Published online: 09 Nov 2008 *

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