RISK AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS


 

 

The 16th International DSM Conference is held in Paris, France, July 2-4, 2014

Dependency and Structure Modelling (DSM) techniques support the management of complexity by focusing attention on the elements of a complex system and how they are related to each other. DSM‐based techniques have proven to be very valuable in understanding, designing and optimising complex systems, including: product architectures, organizations and processes.The International DSM Conference provides a platform for practitioners, researchers, and developers of DSM‐related tools to exchange experiences, discuss trends and showcase results and tools. It also acts as a forum to develop new ideas regarding complexity management in all kinds of industries and from many different perspectives.

Complexity is perceived as an ever-present obstacle in almost every business. Especially in engineering design, the design of highly integrated systems, the management of densely interwoven process organizations, the adaptation of products and their variants to different markets, and the general management of dependencies that drive any system's behavior necessitate approaches that enable the smooth and efficient modeling, analysis and synthesis of appropriate solutions to working with such complexity.

On the other hand, complex systems can e.g. generate better functionalities, they can be made copy-proof, and they allow for innovations otherwise not possible. Therefore, if managed the right way, working with complex systems provides many opportunities to a business.

Dependency and Structure Modelling (DSM) originates from the methods that have come about from using the Design Structure Matrix and similar methods (matrix-based as well as graph based). These methods have proven very valuable in designing complex systems, optimizing technical systems and product architectures and organizations, densely networked processes and large market structures. With its ability to manage complexity by looking into the structure of a system, it has led to many other advances and methodologies nowadays.

The International Dependency and Structure Modelling (DSM) Conference is the annual forum to discuss, how complex systems can be managed by understanding, modeling and designing the dependencies in a complex system. During the conference, practitioners, academics and researchers, and software developers of DSM-related tools can exchange experiences, development results, trends, and develop new ideas to complexity management in all kinds of industries from different perspectives.

The following  three main  topics form the outline of the DSM Conference 2014:

 

Industrial Applications (Systems Engineering and Project Management)

  • Automotive
  • Architectural engineering and construction
  • Aerospace
  • Information technology / software
  • Manufactured and consumer goods
  • Plant Engineering
  • Other

 

Research Trends

  • DSM approaches and methodologies
  • DSM complementary approaches such as Domain Mapping Matrix (DMM)
  • Multiple-Domain Matrix (MDM) approaches
  • Systems Engineering, System Dynamics, General System Theory and others
  • Applications of Graph Theory in Engineering
  • Analyzing and Optimizing Processes
  • Project management
  • Organization design
  • Market modeling

 

DSM software tools

  • Prototypes and research projects
  • Commercially available tools

 

Please see the conference review of e.g. last year's conference for more details. For registered members, most papers from the past conferences are available on the community portal DSMweb.org.