Steps Toward Development of a Comprehensive Set-Based Design Process Model: A Case Study

Abstract

Design processes for large-scale and complex projects inevitably involve balancing competing requirements within the solution space. Set-based design has emerged as a method that enables concurrent engineering practices. However, there are few documented cases of its performance at scale. This paper presents a case study of one instance in which a U.S. Navy design team is implementing set-based methods at the system-of-systems scale for the design of an entire large ship. The researchers used participatory action research approaches to explore and document aspects of the undertaking deemed relevant to the design community and to further our understanding of set-based design. This paper describes a number of conceptual structures used to inform the set-based process and provides an overview of the ship design program’s organizational arrangements. The mechanisms by which each engineering team ruled out design options are summarized, along with the ways that teams coordinated to determine preferred system-level options. A special case of point-based design, employed within the set-based process, is shown to work as a virtual prototype for both purposes of experimentation and of communication. The challenge of reasoning and making decisions about design representations at varying abstraction levels is identified as an area of particular difficulty as design teams working in parallel look for agreement. Finally, the paper offers lessons learned and lays out opportunities for future research to inform our understanding of the set-based design process.