CONCURRENT ENGINEERING: Research and Applications Enhancing Axiomatic Design with Design Structure Matrix

Abstract: Axiomatic design (AD) is a popular creative design method, which provides a systematic and scientific basis for making design solutions. The AD method is concentrated on how to find suitable design parameters to meet the needs of functional requirements, while certain system interaction factors and constraints (such as physical connectivity) are not catered directly. As a structured modeling method, more recently the design structure matrix (DSM) model has been regarded as a good roadmap of system interactions. DSM is a good tool representing interactions among design objectives and facilitating analysis of these interactions. Based on the complementarities between AD and DSM, it is proposed to enhance the AD method with DSM. The underlying logic is transforming the AD’s design matrix into corresponding DSM for system interaction evaluation, thereby improving the feasibility of AD result. A design example of friction drive conveyor is given to illustrate the proposed design method. Key Words: axiomatic design, design structure matrix, design theory. 1