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Complex Concurrent Engineering and the Design Structure Matrix Method

Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development (CTPID)

Dan Braha

Center for Innovation in Product Development (CIPD), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Concurrent engineering (CE) principles have considerably matured over the last decade. However, many companies still face enormous challenges when implementing and managing CE practices. This is due to the increased complexity of engineering products and processes, on one hand, and the lack of corresponding CE models and tools, on the other hand.

This paper focuses on four critical problems that challenge management while implementing CE in complex product development (PD) projects. We refer to these problems as: iteration, overlapping, decomposition and integration, and convergence problems. We describe these problems proposing a unified modeling and solution approach based on the design structure matrix (DSM) method, which is an information exchange model that allows managers to represent complex task relationships to better plan and manage CE initiatives.

Key Words: complex product development • concurrent engineering (CE) • design structure matrix (DSM) • partitioning • clustering • complex systems

Concurrent Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 3, 165-176 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/106329303034503


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