Implications of Alternative Multilevel Design Methods for Design Process Management

Multilevel design problems are typically decomposed into a hierarchy of distributed and strongly coupled sub-problems, each solved by design teams with specialized knowledge and tools. There are two contrasting approaches to formulating and solving such collaborative design problems: (1) highly iterative exchanges of single design solutions, as in point-based optimization approaches, and (2) minimally iterative exchanges of multiple solutions, as in set-based approaches. In this paper, the effects of these alternative approaches on the overall lead time of a design process are explored. A discrete event simulation is developed to evaluate the lead times of highly iterative and minimally iterative multilevel design strategies and the sensitivity of those lead times to the level of noise in the design environment for a range of designer work loads. Designer work loads include not only the multilevel design task of interest, but also secondary design jobs that consume designer time. Nois...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: CERA
• Authors: David Shahan, Carolyn Seepersad Seepersad
• Keywords: CERA 2010, Design, Lead Times, Multilevel Design