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This paper presents a quantifying and reordering method for new product development based on the concurrent engineering concept. We propose to establish a fuzzy design structure matrix (FDSM) by quantifying the information flow of activity factors of new product development and employing the fuzzy clustering method. Utilizing the proposed partition and tearing algorithm to reorder matrixes, we can realize deeply the inner hierarchy workings of concurrent engineering in the new product development process. The purpose of this paper is to develop a dynamic planning method that is innovative, efficient and flexible for new product development by using the concurrent design concept and FDSM analysis. It ultimately helpful to designers and managers to grasp the interactive information flow between each of the activity factors for planning an optimum design process in new product development. One case study is employed to illustrate this method and the result validates that it can reduce the iterations of design process and shorten the product development time.Key Words: new product development (NPD), concurrent engineering (CE), fuzzy design structure matrix (FDSM), dynamic planning method.

Abstract:Purpose: Consideration of consumer opinion is a key success factor when it comes to developing a new product. However, businesses may lack suitable methods for this, and designers may lack practical training, with both situations meaning that firms are unable to precisely adopt consumer opinions. Moreover, consumer cognitions for a product are widely regarded as changeable and abstract.It is worth studying how to determine consumers' opinions and transform them into references for prototype development. The purpose of this study is thus to create an Empathic Design Model which would be able to determine consumer cognitive orientation.Design/methodology/approach: This model includes observing related phenomena, laddering the cognition, connecting the elements of the Associations Matrix, producing the hierarchy of the following four items, attributes, functional consequences, psychosocial consequences and values, and then producing a prototype to help designers and consumers reach a consensus on the cognitive structure of products. Findings:As demonstrated in a case study of the design of an "electronic tour guide", the authors developed a prototype that can help a guide to perform their job on a group package tour. Consequently, the Empathic Design Model can be Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management -http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/jiem.408 -230 -operated and put into practice. By Mind Mapping, the prototype can be then imitated and reinvented by designers as needed. Originality/value:This model focuses on the early phase of the design process, providing the designing industry with a technique to forecast consumers' potential needs and develop a prototype effectively.

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New product development projects are often collectively executed by multidisciplinary members, and inherently the issue of cross-discipline management will arise. With investigations into the information related to knowledge creation, unified modeling language (UML) and Integrated New Product Development (iNPD), this study proposes the project management tool for integrating knowledge context and multidisciplinary responsibility, using an LCD TV multidisciplinary Research and Development (R&D) project as an example to explain the visual presentation of the said tool in different quadrants. This tool may authentically record the knowledge context and rearrange the project flow to reduce the execution duration, while offering a visualized knowledge context chart of the responsibility domain as reference for the project team to adapt promptly upon changes of external data.