Optimizing Product Development Projects Based on the Clustered Product Design Structure Matrix (DSM)

Abstract

In order to integrate the process structure with the product structure in product development (PD) projects, this paper proposes a quantitative model for measuring the dependency strength between activities based on the dependency relationship in the product Design Structure Matrix (DSM). Utilizing the quantitative model and the Multi-Domain Matrix (MDM) between process and product domain, the corresponding process DSM is obtained. Furthermore, this paper presents a sequencing optimization method for the process DSM based on rework probability DSM matrix and rework impact DSM matrix and a clustering method for the product DSM. An example is provided to illustrate the utility of the models. The optimization results yield several managerial insights, including: optimize product components and activities simultaneously, how product structure impact on PD process structure and its schedule.