Product design knowledge management based on design structure matrix

To ensure efficient knowledge capture, tracing, sharing and reuse to support product design and development, it is important to find a structured way to organize the past experience and information. Design structure matrix (DSM), a structured method which has advantages on representing and analysing interaction relations between system elements (such as development tasks, design parameters, architecture concepts, and organizational teams), is proposed to be suitable means to define, capture and organize and distribute the system level knowledge during the product development process. The captured knowledge through DSM can improve understanding of the design routes and design history by linking designed items to rationales, decisions and assumptions behind them. Meanwhile, the knowledge captured through DSM could assist on predicting changes on existing solutions, reusing of the existing solutions in new projects, and educational process for inexperienced designers. How to capture, trace and manage the design knowledge through DSM is presented in detail, and a DSM-based knowledge management system has been developed.