A New Methodology for Modeling and Controlling Design Processes

Modeling of design processes is one of key issues of the management of complex product development because of its role in sustaining efficient and optimal execution of the design processes. This paper proposes a new methodology for modeling of design processes. The methodology includes two steps. The first step is to use an extended activity flowchart to perform predefinition of the design process. The second step is to transform the flowchart into an AND/OR tree structure. Based on the modeling, a new depth-first-search-based algorithm is presented for traversing the AND/OR tree structure, and performing real-time control of the design process. A special design process modeling and controlling tool is developed, and through running an example with the tool, the methodology is illustrated.