Better product design through a simple square chart
Suppose you were asked to streamline the process of real estate development. Or to better organize the offices of an international manufacturer. Or to explain how the parts of a digital printer interact. The complexities of all these tasks would likely seem daunting. Now suppose someone said you could accomplish these assignments by drawing a simple square chart on a piece of graph paper. No need for buggy software systems, labyrinthine flow charts or bloated Venn diagrams. Sound appealing?Welcome to the world of Design Structure Matrix (DSM) modeling, a management exercise that forms one branch of MIT’s long-running institutional fascination with the analysis of complex systems. A DSM chart is a way of simplifying complex engineering tasks — say, the design of computer hardware or engines — in order to make them more efficient. Specifically, DSM analysis helps firms turn product design into a productive routine, rather than an ad-hoc...