Metrics for Evaluation of the Product Design Process

9634768 Ullman这笔拨款为实践工程师和管理人员可用的度量标准的开发提供资金，以评估和改进产品开发过程。这些指标将度量当前的过程，指出潜在的过程低效，并帮助评估新的最佳实践。度量标准将基于描述产品开发过程中使用的信息演变和决策结构。设计过程稳健性的概念将被发展为这些措施的基础。当确定了非健壮过程时，在此研究期间制定的指导方针将提供改进的机会，并能够记录增加设计过程效率的潜力。以产品为基础的行业面临着持续的压力，需要在更短的时间和更少的资源下设计和生产新的、质量越来越高的产品。在这种压力下，认识到一个已知和管理的产品开发过程的重要性。许多大公司花费了大量的时间和精力来记录他们的开发过程。过程中集成了许多行业范围内的最佳实践（例如，质量功能部署、功能建模、实验设计、装配设计）。许多小公司才刚刚开始识别并试图控制决定其产品演变的过程。大公司和小公司都需要更好的工具来度量产品设计过程。标准，如ISO-9000，要求产品开发过程，但没有给出如何开发、度量和确保这样一个过程的有用性的指导。这项研究将产生可用于行业自我评估和指导的工具，以改进他们的产品设计过程。

9634768 Ullman This grant provides funding for the development of metrics usable by practicing engineers and managers to evaluate and improve the product development process. These metrics will measure the current process, point to potential process inefficiencies, and assist in the evaluation of new best practices. The metrics will be based on characterizing the information evolution and decision structure used during product development. The concept of design process robustness will be developed as a foundation for the measures. When non-robust processes are identified, guidelines developed during this research will provide opportunities for improvement and the ability to document the potential for increased design process efficiency. Product-based industries are under continuous pressure to design and produce new, and increasingly higher quality, products in less time and with fewer resources. With this pressure has come the realization of the importance of a known and managed product development process. Many large companies have spent considerable time and effort documenting their development process. Integrated within the process are many industry-wide best practices (for example, quality function deployment, functional modeling, design of experiments, design for assembly). Many small companies have only just begun to identify and attempt to control the processes that determine the evolution of their products. Both large and small companies need better tools for measuring the product design process Standards, like ISO-9000, require a product development process but give no guidance on how to develop, measure and ensure the usefulness of such a process. This research will result in tools usable by industry for self assessment and guidance to improve their product design process.