I am a second year grad student at MIT in the department of Mechanical Engineering.
I will graduate this summer with a master's degree.

  • Research interests

    Design methodology

    It's basically answering the following question:
    "how does a designer design a GOOD product?"

    A huge body of research to answer the above question has been conducted so far, but, the design research is still in the early phase of development as a science.

    I am working in the Axiomatic Design group at MIT. Axiomatic Design theory is one of the latest contribution in design research area. It was proposed by Nam P. Suh, my academic advisor, around late 1970s. It is based on the premise that there is a science base behind good design practice. Just as the laws of thermodynamics introduced a science to the fuzzy, ad-hoc practice of thermodynamics, I believe that the axiomatic approach to a design process makes a turning point toward a design-science in the area of engineering design.

    To learn more about Axiomatic Design or our research group, visit MIT Axiomatic Design Group.


    Manufacturing systems design

    Lean manufacturing system, a generic term of Toyota Production System (TPS), is a strong trend in today's manufacturing systems. It focuses on wide variaton of product portfolio, high quality, fast response to customers' requirements, etc.

    Simply put, lean manufacturing eliminates waste through continuous improvement measures and includes:

  • Physically rearranging manufacturing areas or cells to create a more efficient system of continuous-product flow.
  • Emphasizing one-piece or single product flow (small lot sizes), which reduces WIP inventories, saves capital associated with those inventories, identifies quality problems more readily, and improves yields.
  • Relying on just-in-time inventory methods, which lowers raw material and component inventories, frees capital, ushers in a system of build-to-order rather than build-to-forecast, and creates an organization that is better able to respond to customer demands.

  • Publication

  • Lee, T-S; 1999, The System Architecture Concept in Axiomatic Design Theory: Hypotheses Generation & Case-study Validation, S.M. Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
  • Oh, H.L; Lee, T-S; forthcoming, Sinchronizing wafer flow to Achieve quality in a single wafer cluster tool

  • Links on Engineering design