AN APPROACH FOR ASSESSING DESIGN SYSTEMS Design System Simulation and Analysis for Performance Assessment

design process, ontology, multi-agent system, microelectronics Abstract: This position paper presents our work in assessing engineering design systems in the field of microelectronics with respect to their performance and, more specifically, to productivity. Current mainstream process assessment systems show deficiencies of the representation and analysis when dealing with dynamic, self-optimizing processes. To overcome this, a project called PRODUKTIV+ has been created with the goal to develop a new approach. This approach is to create a model of a design system and simulate the colaborative behavior of the involved engineers using a system of cooperating, intelligent software agents. The assessment of a design system is then done based on the detailed simulation results.

Modeling Dynamic Engineering Design Processes in PSI

One way to make engineering design effective and efficient is to make its processes flexible – i.e. self-adjusting, self-configuring, and self-optimizing at run time. The paper presents the descriptive part of the Dynamic Engineering Design Process (DEDP) modeling framework developed in PSI 1 project. The project aims to build a software tool assisting managers to analyze and enhance the productivity of the DEDPs through process simulations. The framework incorporates the models of teams and actors, tasks and activities, design artifacts as the major interrelated parts. DEDPs are modeled as weakly defined flows of tasks and atomic activities which may only “become apparent” at run time because of several presented dynamic factors. The processes are self-formed through the mechanisms of collaboration in the dynamic team of actors. These mechanisms are based on several types of contracting negotiations. DEDP productivity is assessed by the Units of Welfare collected by the multi-agent system which models the design team. The models of the framework are formalized in the family of DEDP ontologies

Agent-Based Framework for Simulation and Support of Dynamic Engineering

The paper reports on the first results of the Productivity Simulation Initiative (PSI) project of Cadence Design Systems GmbH. The project addresses the problem of fine-grained modeling and simulation of dynamic engineering design processes in order to attempt to assess and to enhance their productivity. The application domain of PSI is Semiconductor and Electronic Systems design. PSI uses multi-agent approach and models design processes as collaborative orchestrated activities of designers ’ teams. Rational collaboration and team formation is arranged through enhanced Contract Net negotiations. The paper outlines the modeling approach, reports on the methodology, and the rapid prototyping tool used for PSI Simulation Prototype implementation