Application of Systems Engineering based Design Structure Matrix Methodology for Optimizing the Concept Design Process of Naval Ship

Naval ship design and related other activities can be characterized by the complexity of the interactions among products, activities, and disciplines. Such complexities often result in inferior designs, cost overrun, and late-delivery. Hence there exist tremendous interests in both improving the design process itself and optimizing the interactions among design activities. This paper looks at the complexity of designing naval ships thereby leading to the innovation of current ship design practices using design structure matrix. It can be used to induce the optimal ordering of design activities as well as identify sources of complexities. The method presented here identifies coupled design activities useful for reducing the complexity of naval ship design as well as optimally reordering design activities. This paper recommends the use of design structure matrix method suitable for numerically optimizing the concept design process of naval ship, and reducing cost and time required in designing naval ships by modeling and analyzing the design activities and engineering tasks, defined in systems engineering planning documents.