Knowledge-Intensive Collaborative Decision Support for Design Processes: A Hybrid Decision Support Model and Agent

Published

September 10, 2008

Author(s)

XuanFang Zha, Ram D. Sriram, M Fernandez, F Mistree

Abstract

This paper proposes a hybrid decision support model within a multi-agent framework to facilitate integration and collaboration for design decisions in decision-based design. The hybrid decision model integrates the compromise decision support problem technique (cDSP) and the fuzzy synthetic decision model (FSD) to quantitatively incorporate qualitative design knowledge and preferences of designers for multiple, conflicting attributes stored in a knowledge repository so that a better understanding of the consequences of design decisions can be achieved from a more comprehensive perspective. The focus of this work is on the provision of a hybrid decision model and framework for improved cooperative design decision support. The novelty of the work is in combination of different models for making collaborative design decisions in both objective and subjective nature, in particular the fuzzy negotiation mechanism using the hybrid decision model. The developed hybrid decision model and framework are generic and flexible enough to be used in a variety of decision problems. Finally, the proposed hybrid decision model and framework are illustrated with applications in collaborative concept evaluation and selection in product family design for mass customization.

Citation

Computers in Industry

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Decision-based design, design decision support, hybrid, decision model, collaborative decisionmaking mechanism, fuzzy negotiation, autonomous decision agent, and multi-agent framework

Citation

Zha, X. , Sriram, R. , Fernandez, M. and Mistree, F. (2008), Knowledge-Intensive Collaborative Decision Support for Design Processes: A Hybrid Decision Support Model and Agent, Computers in Industry, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=824714 (Accessed October 27, 2025)