Decision Graph and Matrix Visualization during Interdisciplinary Engineering Collaboration

Today's mechatronic systems are becoming more and more complex as the development and design processes require collaboration across multiple engineering disciplines. The high complexity between loosely connected models results in a disconnect between these inter-disciplinary models, which may cause delays and costly rework in the long run. There is a need for an effective method to show the dependencies and risks across models for various stakeholder groups. Currently, the discussion about such methods is limited. This paper proposes and evaluates a user-friendly Decision Graph and Matrix Visualization method that combines network-based and matrix-based techniques to assist stakeholders in tracking dependencies and risks across models. The method is applied and demonstrated with a design and engineering case of a lab-scale production system, whose usability was tested formatively with experts.     «

Today's mechatronic systems are becoming more and more complex as the development and design processes require collaboration across multiple engineering disciplines. The high complexity between loosely connected models results in a disconnect between these inter-disciplinary models, which may cause delays and costly rework in the long run. There is a need for an effective method to show the dependencies and risks across models for various stakeholder groups. Currently, the discussion about such...     »