Performance Analysis of New Product Development Process through Timed Coloured Petri Nets

摘要

This paper examines the preliminary performance analysis outcomes of the New Product Devolpment (NPD) process drawing attention to the human behavioural factors. It aims at evaluating a possible solution to improve the NPD process focusing the attention on the team combination. Timed Coloured Petri Nets (TCPNs) have been used to model the NPD process because, thanks to the possibility of using colours, it is possible to investigate profoundly different situations and compare different solutions. Two categories of colours have been defined to manage the TCPN model: “Operational” (OPg), referred to the traditional activities information, and “Behavioural” (BHg), connected to the personal skills of the operators. The results highlight that, if the human behavioural factors are considered during the process evolution, jointly to engineering approaches, it is possible to improve the system performance considerably and, referring to the Team Leaders personality, they need to manifest an extroverted and perceiving personality in conjunction with mastering project management discipline. The analysed outcomes derive from the simulated evolution of the NPD process considering several involved companies. They represent the starting point for a results validation on real NPD execution to define, according to specific professionals, an efficient and efficacy policy in the NPD team forming. A model, simulating human activity, cannot conform with a real case because the interaction among human resources is well different from, for instance, among raw materials and machinery, a relationship that could be automated and regulated by a well-precise model.