Foundational investigation and development of the clustering approach for complexity issues in engineering design

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The process to design and develop engineered products tends to be more complex than ever due to the pressure to produce quality and reliable products. This proposed research program follows the research of design structure matrix (DSM) by considering complexity as a system of numerous and heterogeneous design entities (e.g., design functions, product components and design teams) that have intensive dependencies with each other. To tackle this type of design complexity, the scientific approach is to formally study the dependencies of design entities and develop the clustering approach for dependency and structuring analysis. The particular research objectives and scientific approaches can be described in three aspects: theory, application and implementation. The theory aspect focuses on the foundational development of dependency modeling and analysis using the clustering approach. Various types of matrices, dependencies and corresponding analysis techniques will be systematically investigated and categorized in order to build the taxonomy of various design structuring problems. Particularly, four types of design structuring problems are selected for the research of relevant engineering applications, and these applications are change management, product family design, design diagnosis and cellular manufacturing. Comparison studies with the optimization approach will also be conducted to investigate the nature of the clustering techniques in engineering design. To implement the technology to be developed, a software program will be developed to support the construction and analysis of the design dependency models. In addition, the software program will facilitate the selected engineering applications. Case studies will be conducted to investigate the engineering applicability of the research.