Intense competition in many industries forces manufacturing firms to d
evelop new, higher quality products at an increasingly rapid pace. Ove
rlapping product development activities is an important component of c
oncurrent product development that can help firms develop products fas
ter. However, since product development activities may be coupled in c
omplex ways, overlapping interrelated activities can present many diff
iculties. Without careful management of the overlapped product develop
ment process, the development effort and cost may increase, and produc
t quality may worsen. This paper goes beyond the common recommendation
to simply overlap activities as much as possible. We present a model-
based framework to manage the overlapping of coupled product developme
nt activities. The model and framework identify conditions under which
various types of overlapping are appropriate for a pair of coupled ac
tivities. We illustrate the model and framework with industrial applic
ations involving the development of electronic pagers and automobile d
oors.