ABSTRACT
This chapter describes research in progress whose goal is to synthesize design methodologies for rapid product development in multi-disciplinary design situations. The practices of multi-disciplinary design are based on ad-hoc strategies for handling the complexities that multiple points-of-view bring to the design process. The most common strategy to overcome the complexities of multi-disciplinary design is sequential design, in which different disciplines take part in the design process sequentially. The system simulates examples of multi-disciplinary design processes while applying integration principles to the problem. A large amount of very good research has been focused on Multi-disciplinary Design Optimization (MDO). The potential applications of this research are in multi-disciplinary design situations, such as those that occur throughout the automotive industries, where large gains can be achieved with integrated methodologies. New methodologies can be customized so that they are biased toward specific objectives such as manufacturability or being environmentally friendly.
