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

由于生产高质量和可靠产品的压力，设计和开发工程产品的过程往往比以往任何时候都更加复杂。在研究设计结构矩阵(DSM)的基础上，将设计结构矩阵(DSM)视为具有高度依赖关系的众多异质设计实体(如设计功能、产品部件和设计团队)组成的系统。针对这种类型的设计复杂性，科学的方法是形式化地研究设计实体的依赖关系，并开发用于依赖关系和结构化分析的聚类方法。具体的研究目标和科学方法可以从理论、应用和实施三个方面来描述。理论方面重点介绍了依赖关系建模和使用聚类方法进行分析的基础性发展。将对各种类型的矩阵、依赖关系和相应的分析技术进行系统的调查和分类，以建立各种设计结构问题的分类。特别是，选择了四类设计结构化问题进行相关工程应用的研究，这些应用分别是变更管理、产品族设计、设计诊断和单元化制造。还将进行与最优化方法的比较研究，以探讨工程设计中集群技术的性质。为了实施要开发的技术，将开发一个软件程序来支持设计依赖模型的构建和分析。此外，该软件程序将为选定的工程应用提供便利。将进行案例研究，以调查研究的工程适用性。

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.