A MODEL-BASED FRAMEWORK TO OVERLAP PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

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.