DECODE (Decision Environment for COmplex DEsigns )

组织越来越努力地交付大型系统，以满足合同的交付时间、预算和性能目标。最近，航空航天和国防（A&D）项目遇到困难的突出例子包括空客A380，洛克希德马丁联合攻击战斗机（JSF），空客A400m，波音787，普拉特和惠特尼PW6000。类似的问题也存在于需要实现大型系统的所有其他领域。可以说，在许多部门，产品复杂性的增长速度比组织能力的增长速度更快，航空航天方案的失败日益普遍就是明证。越来越大的商业压力要求提供以几十年为单位的性能保证，以及日益增长的解决环境影响的需求，使情况变得更加复杂。A&D制造商现在将他们的服务和支持流程视为竞争生存的核心。例如，劳斯莱斯60亿美元的年销售额中有一半以上来自服务。因此，即使在非常早期的概念阶段，系统设计过程能够提供生命周期视角也是至关重要的。A&D系统的设计决策过程已经发展了很多年。在过去，总工程师会从许多学科中吸收信息，并利用经验、直觉和判断来做出自上而下的决策，以寻求良好的权衡。当前A&D系统的规模、广度和复杂性已不再允许单个人单独解决设计问题。因此，总工程师的角色现在在很大程度上与管理专家委员会联系在一起，在非常大型和冗长的设计审查会议上审查和批准共识驱动/下放的决策。DECODE项目将通过在系统层面提供设计探索和优化支持的决策制定，为该领域提供突破性的能力。它将展示一种目前尚不存在的方法，允许组织分析、搜索和理解复杂系统的能力、成本和寿命之间的最佳权衡。在DECODE中，用户将能够提出模拟环境的权衡问题，并收到关于选择影响的可靠、定量的回应。这种反馈将由本体支持的数据挖掘和基于大规模网格计算的灵活几何方案的耦合相结合来提供。要做到这一点，将使用一个专注于价值度量的创新设计决策支持环境。实际上，将研究和开发用于设计决策制定的价值驱动任务控制能力。这将支持一系列基于现实航空航天设计挑战的研究。它将把早期概念设计探索与全分辨率、几何支持的设计计算以及详细的制造和运营模型结合起来。在DECODE下进行的研究将使设计决策能力能够在系统层面上提供整体优化，以最大限度地满足与系统相关的所有利益相关者。这项工作将与利兹（克里斯克莱格教授）和巴斯（安迪格雷夫斯教授）进行松散的合作，他们将在设计的组织方面进行相关和互补的研究。

Organizations increasingly struggle to deliver large systems against contracted lead-times, budgets and performance targets. Recent, prominent examples of Aerospace and Defence (A&D) programmes that have experienced difficulties include the Airbus A380, Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), Airbus A400m, Boeing 787, Pratt and Whitney PW6000. Similar problems typify all other sectors where large systems of systems need to be realised. In many sectors, product complexity is arguably increasing at a greater rate than organizational competence as evidenced by increasingly commonplace aerospace programme failures.The picture is further complicated by rising commercial pressure to offer performance guarantees measured in decades and the ever increasing need to address environmental impact. A&D manufacturers now regard their service and support processes as central to competitive survival. As an example, more than half of Rolls-Royce's 6 billion annual sales now come from services. Hence even at the very early concept stage it is now crucial that the system design process is able to provide a life-cycle perspective.The design decision making process for A&D systems has evolved over many years. In the past a chief engineer would assimilate information from a number of disciplines and use experience, intuition and judgement to make top-down decisions in seeking good trade-offs. The sheer scale, breadth and complexity of current A&D systems no longer permits the design problem to be assimilated by a single individual. Hence the chief engineer role is now largely associated with managing committees of specialists to review and sanction consensus driven / devolved decisions at very large and lengthy design review meetings. The DECODE project will provide breakthrough capbilities in this area by providing design exploration and optimisation supported decision making at a systems level. It will demonstrate an approach that does not currently exist to allow organisations to analyse, search for and understand the optimum trade-offs between capability, cost and life for a complex system. In DECODE users will be able to pose trade-off questions of the simulation environment and receive reliable, quantitative responses on the impact of choices. This feed-back will be provided by a combination of onotology suported data mining and the coupling of flexible geoemtry schemes to large scale grid based computing.To do this an innovative design decision support environment that focuses on value metrics will be used. In effect a Value-Driven mission control capability for design decision making will be researched and developed. This will underpin a series of studies based on a realistic aerospace design challenge. It will integrate early concept design exploration with full resolution, geometry backed design computations and detailed manufacturing and operations models. The research undertaken under DECODE will enable design decision making capabilities that provide holistic optimisation at a system level to maximise satisfaction of all the stakeholders associated with the system. It is intended that this work will take place with loose collaboration with Leeds (Professor Chris Clegg) and Bath (Professor Andy Graves) who will be pursuing related and complementary research in the organisational aspects of design.