Simulating Design Processes with self-iteration activities based on DSM planning

Design processes are fundamentally iterative. The increasing knowledge about the product, while designing, manifests in design changes of previously accomplished activities. Such iterations are considered as a major source of increased product development lead-time and cost; thus process planning and simulation are essential. The design structure matrix (DSM) is a known method for process planning. Since the DSM itself does not express all the relevant information that is required for defining process logic, process logic interpretation is required. "Business rules", being logic interpretation options that are applicable in different business cases, can guide automatic translation of the DSM to valid iterative process plans. This study focuses on implementing self activity iterations in process simulation. Notwithstanding their importance, they are overlooked in DSM literature. Using different business rules results in various run time processes that exhibit non-trivial behaviors, interpretation rules are fully validated for a test case.

1. Introduction

Product Development Processes (PDP) can be defined as collection of related activities targeted to converting a new concept (market opportunity) into a marketed product. Within PDP, the cyclic Design Process (DP) reflects the specific design requirements, objectives and constraints applicable to the product.