Formalization of design chain management using environment-based design (EBD) theory

This paper aims to develop a formal conceptual model for the design chain management (DCM) from its informal definition by using the Environment-Based Design (EBD) theory. This effort is different from the existing approaches to developing conceptual models in that the model is derived step by step from a natural language description of the design chain management. The derived DCM model is called a wheel model since the model would evolve because of its internal conflicts. An industrial example is used to show how the proposed formalization can be used to solve a problem in the DCM.