Title: Development of a design structure matrix partitioning method towards effective design collaboration

Authors: Zhixin Yang; Jie Zhou; Chao Deng; Xin-yu Shao

Addresses: Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau SAR 00853, China. ' Department of Electromechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macau SAR 00853, China. ' School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074 China. ' School of Mechanical Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Digital Manufacturing Equipment and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 430074 China

Abstract: The difficulties in design collaboration stem from the managerial complexity in terms of the interactions and interdependencies among the respective development activities. This paper introduces a simple structural partitioning algorithm of design structure matrix, basing on dependency relationships among tasks via tracing the input tasks chain. The algorithm is composed of four modules, which are used to organise and transform design tasks into input model, cycle model, group model and execution ordering model correspondingly. Cycle matrix is created to partition the task set into individual groups that are with different interdependency levels. Coupled and unordered individual task set could be converted into uncoupled, ordered task clusters. The illustrative case studies on automotive industry has verified the efficiency of the proposed algorithm, which could partition the development processes into different execution clusters to improve the concurrence and collaboration of product development tasks.

Keywords: design structure matrix; DSM; partitioning algorithms; process management; design collaboration; collaborative design; dependency relationships; automotive doors; car doors; automobile industry; vehicle design; product development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2012.048705

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2012 Vol.25 No.4, pp.177 - 190

Published online: 26 Nov 2014 *

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