Usability of the design structure matrix for automotive design engineering

In this thesis the author discusses the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) as a best practice. The DSM provides project management structure, develop and modularises the systems level design of products, performs project scheduling, tasks interdependency, resource allocation, dependent tasks planning, and provides proper communication and coordination structure. The DSM tool is applied to two case studies of the design of a gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle power train and one case study of assembly design, with concentrated emphasis on the recommendations on how the specific cases in this thesis can benefit. A novel analytic feature Relative Significance Summation Clustering (RSSC) of the DSM is also identified, which appears to be otherwise unreported in the literature. The case studies analysis demonstrates that the DSM tool can be used to develop a deeper understanding of the system level design, project management, and assembly design. The DSM tool was successful at providing a representation of many of the issues and insights identified in the case study analysis.