An Organizing Taxonomy of Procedures to Design and Manage Complex Systems for Uncertainty and Flexibility

This paper presents a five-phase taxonomy of procedures to support the design of complex engineering systems for uncertainty and flexibility. A review of major contributions was done to identify relevant procedures to support initial design generation, uncertainty recognition and modeling, concept generation and identification, design space exploration, and process management and representation. The taxonomy integrates contributions from surveys, articles, and books from the literature on engineering design, manufacturing, product development, and real options analysis obtained from professional e-index search engines. The organizing principles of the taxonomy were developed keeping in mind the intended user: the engineering designer. The taxonomy aims to provide guidance to designers in selecting appropriate tools at relevant design stages for both industry application and engineering education. It also aims to provide a framework to identify and organize ongoing research activities in this emerging research area.