Structure-based analysis of dynamic engineering process behavior

The dynamic behavior of complex systems is a well-known challenge within engineering. The major drawback of dependency modeling approaches for system analysis such as the Design Structure Matrix is that they depict a static view on the system and therefore only allow very limited statements about the dynamic behavior of systems even though the structure mainly defines the system´s behavior. Approaches to model the dynamic behavior of complex systems such as System Dynamics, do not offer the possibilities of dependency modeling, as static aspects such as the underlying structure of the system cannot be easily described. This paper proposes a framework for a structure-based analysis of the dynamic behavior of systems and combines dependency modeling approaches and System Dynamics. The framework can be used as an approach to generate dynamic system understanding, decision support through simulation experiments and benchmark different process structures by analyzing the relationship between underlying structure and dynamic behavior of the system. This allows for a projection of the performance of the system over time, based on its structure. The paper gives an overview of the framework, including the initial structural Multiple Domain Matrix model, the dynamizing and customizing of the model, model verification, the simulation of different variants of the underlying system structure and the analysis of the system structure based on the simulation results. The framework is applied within an exemplary case study where two different system structures of a design process are analyzed.