Modelling effective Product Development systems as Network-of-Networks

Abstract

Whilst Product Development is the basis of engineering, increasingly complex products have a tendency to also increase the complexity of the Product Development process, and in many cases the process is not truly understood. There are many tools that have been developed for managing complexity, but few that are specific to Product Development and fewer still that provide pragmatic analyzes that can be used by decision-makers. This paper develops a methodology to apply a Network-of-Networks approach to data collected from a Product Development organization and provides an accompanying pragmatic analytical framework that can be used by decision-makers on all levels. It then uses an Agent-Based modelling approach to represent the knowledge diffusion within Product Development. This allows a microscopic analysis to complement the macroscopic analysis of the Network-ofNetworks approach. This will allow an organization to analyze its current practices on both macro and micro scales, model dynamic changes to the structure of the organization and understand its internal dynamics, with respect to development teams and the design process. This will illuminate the complex system dynamics in Product Development that would otherwise be viewed of as unexpected consequences to a system intervention. This understanding will give greater ability to make suitable, risk-mitigating decisions.

Agent-Based Modelling: Parallel and Distributed Simulation of Product Development Team

“…Hultin et al [27] modelled product development systems as Network-of-Networks with a focus on knowledge diffusion to help organizations in riskmitigating decisions.…”

Complex networks in advanced manufacturing systems

“…Fu et al point out the modeling and performance analysis of product development process networks [33]. Hultin et al propose a model of network-of-networks to manage the complexity of product development [34]. Due to the tight connections among complex products, the dynamic behaviors are also important.…”

“…Finding: There are 6% of selected papers (9 papers) [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] on this topic. The complex product structure and many design activities make the network topology of product development process more obvious but complex, especially the network topology with the dynamic behaviors in the product design and development process.…”