6.3 Suspended Ceiling Design Process - Bilkent University

2. Importance ratings: A scale can be constructed to differentiate
between different importance levels of the X marks (For example
1: high importance, 2: medium importance 3: low importance). In
this approach, low importance marks are first torn and then the
medium and high in a process similar to the level numbers
method explained above.
3. Dependency Strength: This is a measure of dependency strength
on scale (For example, 1: minimum dependency, 2: medium
dependency, and 3: maximum dependency). The matrix is
partitioned by minimizing the sum of the dependency strengths
above the diagonal.
4. Volume of Information Transferred: An actual measure of the
volume of the information exchanged (measured in bits) may be
utilized in a DSM. Partitioning of such a DSM would require a
minimization of the cumulative volume of the feedback
information.
5. Variability of Information Exchanged: A variability measure can
be devised to reflect the uncertainty in the information exchanged
between system elements. This measure can be the statistical
variance of outputs for that task accumulated from previous
executions of the task (or a similar one). However, if there is a
lack of such historical data, a subjective measure can be devised
to reflect this variability in task outputs (Yassine et al., 1999).
6. Probability of Repetition: This number reflects the probability of
one activity causing rework in another. Upper-diagonal elements
60