Modelling an ongoing design process utilizing top-down and bottom-up design strategies

Abstract

The product design process plays a central role in ensuring that new products are realized with improved quality, in a short lead-time and with costs kept to a minimum. It is identified that making decisions dynamically on how the design process should proceed is not trivial. A computational environment that aids dynamic decision making on the design process would be useful in ensuring successful design of new products. A key component of analysing and making decisions on the progression of the design process is a model that captures an ongoing design process. In this paper, an approach to modelling an ongoing design process is proposed based on the use of design nodes. The approach allows an ongoing design process to be modelled that facilitates dynamic decision making on how the design process should progress and accounts for the state of the design problem. The approach allows top-down and bottom-up design strategies to be modelled.