6.3 Suspended Ceiling Design Process - Bilkent University

contracts. In current practice for example, a delay is often attributed to one
or more participants being morally deficient. However, lean design theory
claims that such delays may be due to the combined effects of
dependence and variation in a long period (Howell, 1999).
Lean design groups advocate the use of design structure matrix based
methods, because they suit well the aims of lean philosophy. Like the lean
design approach, the design structure matrix method aims to understand
the underlying dependence structure in processes and to ultimately
eliminate waste (or non-value adding components) from the process.
5.2 Expected Benefits
Browning (1998) explains that DSMs are especially useful when several
participants must coordinate actions and/or information, because they
provide a medium whereby the groups can visualize and explore how they
must function together to achieve overall goals. Such is the condition in the
collaboration of architects and engineers in building design.
The author of this dissertation believes that the main power of the
parameter-based DSM lies in its capability to be used both as a system
analysis and a project management tool. Most of the process modeling
methods used in building design have been borrowed from the
manufacturing industry and these models tend to view design process as
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