An overlapping process model to assess schedule risk for new product development

Faster time-to-market for new products is important for hi-tech corporations to gain premium pricing and higher sales volume. An activity overlapping strategy is a frequently used technique in practice for quicker product launch. However, complex interaction patterns between components and activities increase the chance of unanticipated iterations that may lead to late time-to-market. This paper presents an overlapping process model to analyze the impact of process structure on the lead-time of a complex development project. Information evolution and change sensitivity, which are two major factors for activity overlapping, are considered in the proposed model and a simulation algorithm is developed to analyze the impacts of process structure on the development lead-time. The example of a battle tank simulator project is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The computational experiment shows that the proposed approach allows project managers to design a better process structure to minimize the risk of being late-to-market.

[1]  E. McDonough,et al.  An investigation of the use of global, virtual, and colocated new product development teams , 2001 .

[2]  S. Vickery,et al.  The ability to minimize the timing of new product development and introduction: an examination of antecedent factors in the North American automobile supplier industry , 2000 .

[3]  Juite Wang,et al.  A STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF ACTIVITY OVERLAPPING ON DEVELOPMENT LEAD-TIME IN DESIGN CHAIN , 2005 .

[4]  Michael W. Grieves,et al.  Product Lifecycle Management: Driving the Next Generation of Lean Thinking , 2005 .

[5]  Preston G. Smith,et al.  Developing products in half the time: new rules, new tools 10 [Book Review] , 1997, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[6]  Ali A. Yassine,et al.  A decision analytic framework for evaluating concurrent engineering , 1999 .

[7]  D. Wilemon,et al.  A Survey of Major Approaches for Accelerating New Product Development , 1992 .

[8]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Accelerating Adaptive Processes: Product Innovation in the Global Computer Industry , 1995 .

[9]  S D Eppinger,et al.  Innovation at the speed of information. , 2001, Harvard business review.

[10]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Product development performance : strategy, organization, and management in the world auto industry / Kim B. Clark, Tahahiro Fujimoto , 1991 .

[11]  Robert P. Smith,et al.  A model-based method for organizing tasks in product development , 1994 .

[12]  Fred Langerak,et al.  The impact of new product development acceleration approaches on speed and profitability: lessons for pioneers and fast followers , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[13]  Christoph H. Loch,et al.  Measuring the Effectiveness of Overlapping Development Activities , 1999 .

[14]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  Supporting Collaborative Process Knowledge Management in New Product Development Teams , 1999, Decis. Support Syst..

[15]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Managing the new product development process , 1985 .

[16]  Steven D. Eppinger,et al.  A simulation-based process model for managing complex design projects , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.

[17]  D. V. Steward.  Partitioning and Tearing Systems of Equations , 1965 .

[18]  Tyson R. Browning,et al.  Modeling impacts of process architecture on cost and schedule risk in product development , 2002, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[19]  Reza H. Ahmadi,et al.  Time-Cost Trade-Offs in Overlapped Product Development , 2000, Oper. Res..

[20]  Pär Åhlström,et al.  The difficult path to lean product development , 1996 .

[21]  Roger Calantone,et al.  Performance and time to market: accelerating cycle time with overlapping stages , 2000, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[22]  Viswanathan V Krishnan,et al.  Managing the simultaneous execution of coupled phases in concurrent product development , 1996 .

[23]  Christoph H. Loch,et al.  Communication and Uncertainty in Concurrent Engineering , 1998 .

[24]  Robert P. Smith,et al.  A predictive model of sequential iteration in engineering design , 1997 .

[25]  Steven D. Eppinger,et al.  Special Issue on Design and Development: Sourcing By Design: Product Complexity and the Supply Chain , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[26]  Hong-Bae Jun,et al.  On identifying and estimating the cycle time of product development process , 2005, IEEE Trans. Engineering Management.

[27]  Steven D. Eppinger,et al.  A Model-Based Framework to Overlap Product Development Activities , 1997 .

[28]  Salah E. Elmaghraby,et al.  Activity nets: A guided tour through some recent developments , 1995 .