The objective of this research is to develop methods and tools for analyzing the information flow between engineering tasks in order to plan and manage design strategies. The work is based on the concept of a Design Structure Matrix that allows for explicit representation of predecessor-successor relations between design tasks. This effort extends work on "tearing methods", or the elimination of circuits in Design Structure Matrices, to allow for configuration control as well as design planning. These concepts are expected to play a significant role in the development of concurrent design methodologies and their extension to industrial environment.
