The Statistical Mechanics of Complex Product Development: Empirical and Analytical Results

Abstract

In recent years, understanding the structure and function of complex networks has become the foundation for explaining many different real-world complex biological, technological, and informal social phenomena. Techniques from statistical physics have been successfully applied to the analysis of these networks, and have uncovered surprising statistical structural properties that have also been shown to have a major effect on their functionality, dynamics, robustness, and fragility. This paper examines, for the first time, the statistical properties of strategically important organizational networks--networks of people engaged in distributed product development (PD)--and discusses the significance of these properties in providing insight into ways of improving the strategic and operational decision making of the organization. We show that the structure of information flow networks that are at the heart of large-scale product development efforts have properties that are similar to those displayed by other social, biological, and technological networks. In this context, we also identify novel properties that may be characteristic of other information-carrying networks. We further present a detailed model and analysis of PD dynamics on complex networks, and show how the underlying network topologies provide direct information about the characteristics of these dynamics. We believe that our new analysis methodology and empirical results are also relevant to other organizational information-carrying networks.organizational studies, social networks, large-scale product development, sociotechnical systems, complex engineering systems

Dealing with project complexity by matrix-based propagation modelling for project risk analysis

“…The uncertainties of estimated inputs on risks and risk interactions will be modelled and their propagation in the risk network should be calculated, e.g., though a sensitivity analysis. The concept of robustness, e.g., the traditional static robustness and the dynamic robustness raised in Bar-Yam 2004a, Braha andBar-Yam 2007), will also be investigated in terms of the project risk network.…”

“…Some network centrality measures have been applied, for the first time, to large-scale engineering design and product development networks by Braha and Bar-Yam in (Braha and Bar-Yam 2004b, Braha and Bar-Yam 2004a, Braha et al 2006, Braha and Bar-Yam 2007. These works have provided two interesting results.…”

Process models in design and development

“…They use their model to show that this situation arises because teams that work concurrently on interdependent problems only coordinate periodically and thus often make design decisions based on outdated information. Braha and Bar-Yam (2007) focus on structural characteristics of the information flow network among tasks being worked concurrently. They develop a model considering that when any task is solved, it is possible that this will cause any interdependent tasks to require iteration.…”

“…These include insights on the interrelationships between the design process, the properties of the emerging design, and the context into which that design will be delivered (e.g., Gero and Kannengiesser 2004); insights on the information flows that emerge between participants as they coordinate their response to inevitable unplanned events (e.g., Cohen 1992); insights on the impact of structural complexity in task networks on design iteration and convergence (e.g., Braha and Bar-Yam 2007); and insights on the dynamic complexity caused by multiple intertwined influence loops as participants guide a project towards desirable outcomes (e.g., Lyneis and Ford 2007). As well as generating insights, models can help to manage DDP complexity by presenting selected issues in a simplified way.…”

Using Network Science to Support Design Research: From Counting to Connecting

“…Batallas and Yassine 2006;Parraguez et al 2015a); or to analyse the propagation of changes and errors in the design process (e.g. Braha and Bar-Yam 2007;Giffin et al 2009;Wynn et al 2014). While this recent body of research has advanced our theoretical understanding and analytical methods to analyse networks in a design context, it has also highlighted the need for a more cohesive, systematic, and reflective revision of the many network features that have been and can be analysed, as well as the methodological steps followed in their analysis and their consequences.…”