Achieving enterprise integration through the formulation of design decisions: An example from the product design domain

In manufacturing organizations there are at least three distinct design are as: product design, manufacturing process design, and design of the organiz ation itself. Historically these activities have been carried out in relati ve isolation, by separate people on different timelines. What if they could all be brought together into a domain-independent design process? We captu re the heady nature of this prospect with the term enterprise design. In th is paper a method for achieving enterprise design is introduced, founded in the notion of formulating and solving Decision Support Problems (DSPs). Th is method for enterprise design grows from the foundation of the Robust Con cept Exploration Method (RCEM) and is illustrated through an example of the concurrent design of a Forward-Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) system, integ rating robust models of product performance, manufacturing cost, and design process duration into a multiobjective formulation.