Axiomatic Design

Axiomatic design is a method for structured design of systems. The basic principle of Axiomatic Design includes the structured search and assignment of appropriate solutions to previously specified requirements. The requirements and solutions are divided into four different domains: the customer domain, the functional and the physical domain and the process domain.

The design process extends over all domains. It begins in the customer domain and ends in the process domain. Each predecessor domain describes requirements, each sequence domain, the corresponding solutions. The assignment of requirements to corresponding solutions is imaged by means of matrices. An essential basis of the method are the so-called Independence and the information axiom. Both axioms - which the method gets its name - formulate guidelines for the design process. For designers, they are an important basis for the review and evaluation of the decisions made during the design process.

Axiomatic Design in the late 1970s by Nam Pyo Suh at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( Department of Mechanical Engineering ) was developed. It was originally developed and applied in mechanical engineering. Meanwhile, this method has been used successfully in many other areas, such as the design of systems or software. As part of the International Conference on Axiomatic Design ( ICAD ), which takes place every two years, the latest developments on the application and research of Axiomatic design are presented. The last conference was ICAD2011 30 -31. March 2011 in Daejeon, South Korea instead.