A structure-based workflow planning method for new product development management

Abstract

Workflow planning is a critical stage in new product development (NPD). Information model is a useful tool in analyzing and improving complex design workflow. It can facilitate to rebuild the process through visualizing information flow. Based on graph theory and design structure matrix (DSM), this paper presents a systematic workflow planning method for optimizing new product development from an informational structure perspective. Focused on coupling and decoupling theses in concurrent engineering (CE), the workflow planning was divided into two phases of activities identification and activities planning. In activities identification phase, coupled activities are recognized by algebraic operation of binary Boolean matrix. In activities planning phase, global planning result can be achieved by deleting the redundant relationships of compression matrix, and local planning result can be obtained by comparing the correlation strength of fuzzy design structure matrix (FDSM). An advantage of the proposed method is that the mapping from design structure matrix to hierarchical workflow graph can be automatically realized, which greatly improves the efficiency of workflow planning for new product development. Eventually, one case study is employed to illustrate the method and the result validates that it can shorten the product development time and reduce the iterations of design process.