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ESD
Dissertation Defense – Mark
Avnet
Socio-Cognitive
Analysis of Engineering Systems Design:
Shared Knowledge, Process, and Product
Abstract:
This research is based
on the well-known but seldom stated
premise that the design of complex
engineered systems is done by people
– each with their own knowledge,
thoughts, and views about the system
being designed. To understand the
implications of this social dimension,
the Integrated Concurrent Engineering
(ICE) environment, a real-world setting
for conceptual space mission design,
is examined from technical and social
perspectives. An integrated analysis
demonstrates a relationship among
shared knowledge, process, and product.
The
design process is analyzed using a
parameter-based Design Structure Matrix
(DSM). This model, consisting of 682
dependencies among 172 parameters,
is partitioned (reordered) to reveal
a tightly coupled design process.
Further analysis shows that making
starting assumptions about design
budgets leads to a straightforward
process of well-defined and sequentiallyexecuted
design iterations.
To
analyze the social aspects, a network-based
model of shared knowledge is proposed.
By quantifying team members’
common views of design drivers, a
network of shared mental models is
built to reveal the structure of shared
knowledge at a snapshot in time. A
structural comparison of pre-session
and post-session networks is used
to compute a metric of change in shared
knowledge. Based on survey data from
12 design sessions, a correlation
is found between change in shared
knowledge and each of several system
attributes, including technological
maturity, development time, mass,
and cost.
Integrated
analysis of design process and shared
knowledge yields three interdisciplinary
insights. First, certain features
of the system serve a central role
in the design process and in the development
of shared knowledge. Second, change
in shared knowledge (a measure of
team learning) increases with system
complexity. Finally, team learning
and team coordination (agreement between
expected and reported interactions)
are positively correlated.
The
thesis contributes to the literature
on product development, human factors
engineering, and organizational and
social psychology. It proposes a rigorous
means of incorporating the sociocognitive
aspects of design into the practice
of systems engineering. Finally, the
thesis offers a set of recommendations
for the formation and management of
ICE design facilities and discusses
the applicability of the proposed
methodology to the full-scale development
of complex engineered systems.
Supervisor:
Annalisa Weigel
Committee members:
Christopher Magee, John Carroll, Richard
Binzel
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