Set-Based Design Techniques for Early Design Decisions
Author ORCID Identifier:
Date of Graduation
5-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering (PhD)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Industrial Engineering
Advisor/Mentor
Parnell, Gregory
Committee Member
Edward Pohl
Second Committee Member
Kim Needy
Third Committee Member
Simon Goerger
Keywords
Decision Analysis; Early Design; Modeling; Set-Based Design; Systems Design
Abstract
Over the last several years, I have researched various methods to improve complex system design. I started researching engineered resilient systems and tradespace exploration with funding from the United States Army Engineering Research and Development Center. My resilience research directed me to the concept of set-based design. Set-Based Design (SBD) is an alternative to Point-Based Design (PBD) and used by Toyota in the automotive industry and several United States Military branches, Department of Defense (DoD) organizations, and researchers. For example, in 2008 the then Commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command sent a memo entitled “Ship Design and Analysis Tool Goals” that required the use of SBD and the need of new tools for trade-off analysis. In 2018, the United States Air force updated their Capability Development Guidance and mandated, “Development planners should use a set-based design modeling, simulation, and analysis approach, which supports the thorough exploration of alternative solutions while maintaining maximum design trade space.” SBD develops sets of design solutions that span the design space, evaluates the design sets, delays design decisions to eliminate sets until adequate information is available, and documents the rationale for eliminating sets. This dissertation combines three papers that I wrote on set-based design with trade-off analytics in the early system design phase. The first paper, published by the Naval Engineers Journal, provides a literature review of published SBD research, and then focuses on developing trade-off analytics to support SBD decision-making to define value, evaluate sets, incorporate new information, and eliminate sets. The second paper, published by Systems, provides a SBD implementation methodology with an example. The final paper builds upon the first two articles by introducing a team-based SBD implementation methodology and demonstrating how this SBD methodology informs requirement analysis and assesses design decisions. This paper is under review by Systems Engineering.
Citation
Specking, E. (2020). Set-Based Design Techniques for Early Design Decisions. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/5818
