Design process modularization: Concept and algorithm

Abstract

The product design process is a complex set of integrated efforts, including generating ideas, developing concepts, modifying details, and evaluating proper solutions. The difficulties in designing complex products stem not only from their engineering complexity but also from the managerial complexity. First and foremost, what should be done to deal with the complexity problems is to capture all the constituent design activities and identify inter-dependency among respective activities. Further, once process modeling is done, it is required to structure the design process for better understanding of the process. This study presents a new approach to structuring the design process on the basis of modular synthesis. To do this, the concept of a module is newly proposed in the view point of a process. A module is defined as a group of activities which are divided by split or merge points in a process flow. The design structure matrix (DSM) is used to structure the process because it has a lot of advantages in process modeling and analysis. Two algorithms are developed: the restricted topological sorting (RTS) algorithm for ordering activities and the module finding (MF) algorithm for detecting modules in a process. Both of the algorithms are based on the DSM. Structuring the process in terms of a module, which is called as process modularization, allows a process manager to manage and analyze the process effectively. The overall process and detailed procedures of the suggested approach are presented and an illustrative example is addressed to show the practical operation of the approach.