Analyzing Multiple Product Development Projects Based On Information and Resource Constraints

摘要

Product development (PD) and engineering design processes are often characterized by theinformation flowing among activities. In PD, this flow forms a complex activity web—a processthat can be viewed as a complex system. Most literature on the subject of information flow inPD focuses on a single project, where precedence information constraints (based solely onnecessary information and possible assumptions) determine the execution sequence for theactivities and the resultant project lead-time. In this paper, we consider multiple PD projects thatshare a common set of design resources. Especially in this setting, precedence informationavailability is insufficient to assure that activities will execute on time. We extend theinformation flow modeling literature by including resource availability. We model several PDprojects as a portfolio, where activity execution is based on both information and resourceavailability. We demonstrate the effects of accounting for resource constraints on bothindividual projects’ and portfolio lead-time distributions.