Exploring integration of four information-based product development tools

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out on the applications of four information-based product development tools supported by the MIT Center of Innovation in Product Development (CIPD). The names of these tools are Assembly Designer, Distributed Object-based Modeling Environment (DOME), Design Structure Matrix (DSM) and KCTool. Sample applications of these currently independent software programs were constructed based on data from a product development case provided jointly by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems. Possible tool interactions were investigated and potential integration opportunities were explored utilizing an integration framework commonly employed in the software development industry. The result of the study suggests that the tools can be integrated according to four relationships: Presentation, Data, Control, and Process. Some of the proposed integration opportunities include the implementation of a common user interface and a service exchange system through DOME, the consolidation of data format between Assembly Designer and KCTool, and the support of a program execution order starts with DSM, DOME, Assembly Designer, and ends with KCTool. Future opportunities in this tool integration research include the exploration of tool capabilities with different sets of industrial data and the addition of other tools into the research, such as portfolio management and customer data collection tools.