6.3 Suspended Ceiling Design Process - Bilkent University

them) the flow of deliverables among them must be well-defined. In
existing tools, the modeling process starts at a high-level definition and it is
decomposed as needed. In these approaches, there is no way of going
backward i.e. using the deliverables as building blocks and integrating the
model in a bottom-up manner. Therefore, the accuracy of deliverable flows
is always questionable. A parameter-based DSM, however, can be used
as a bottom-up integrative tool. In the example below, parameter-based
DSM is used to integrate two activities modeled with IDEF0 (Taşlı Pektaş,
2003a).
In IDEF0 notation, deliverables are information pieces since the method
focuses on representing a process from the viewpoint of information within
it, rather than of its sub processes. Two activities of elevator design
process and the deliverables (parameter decisions) for each activity are
defined in the example below (Figure 5.1). The diagram shows that there is
a coupling between activities A214 and A215. However, the structure of
this cycle, namely which parameter decisions are dependent on each
other, is not clear (Figure 5.1a).
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