Systematic module and interface definition using component design structure matrix

Modular product architectures can offer many benefits, but require carefully chosen interfaces as early as possible in the development process to exploit their full potential. Late or erroneous definition of modules and interfaces results in excessive design iterations and consequently causes unanticipated delays and cost overruns in product development. In this article, an improved method for product architecting (i.e. the identification and definition of modules and their interfaces) using clustering of component-based Design Structure Matrices (DSMs) is presented and demonstrated. Various researchers contributed to the improvement of clustering techniques in the past. However, the approaches used are mostly unsatisfactory with respect to the definition of modules for products resulting in suboptimal or even wrong definitions. In lieu of investigating single steps of DSM clustering, a comprehensive approach is presented in this article, covering all relevant aspects, from data acquisition, and handling of multiple perspectives in DSM clustering, to a post-processing phase, where results are corrected with respect to technical feasibility. By discussing various topics neglected in previous literature, many deficiencies are also revealed and solutions to these problems are proposed, resulting in a systematic and practical procedure for product architecting based on DSM clustering.