Modeling for design chain optimization based on information flow

As a special supply chain, design chain is the development trend for product research and development. Compared with supply chain, there is mainly product design and development information in design chain. In order to improve information sharing, modified method of IDEF0v, which is often used in construction design field, is applied to the design chain relationship modeling among design operations. In view of design chain´s characteristics, such as multi-tenant, multi-tasking, multi-product mix, and multi-parameter, four types DSM are integrated and design structure matrix set (DSMS) is proposed to construct information model of design chain. From optimizing information feedback, a mathematical model is presented to optimize the design operation order.