Title: Person-centred simulation of product development processes

Authors: Torsten Licht, Ludger Schmidt, Christopher M. Schlick, Lothar Dohmen, Holger Luczak

Addresses: Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen University, Bergdriesch 27, 52062 Aachen, Germany. ' Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE), Neuenahrer Strasse 20, 53343 Wachtberg, Germany. ' Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen University, Bergdriesch 27, 52062 Aachen, Germany. ' Bayer Business Services GmbH, 51368 Leverkusen, Germany. ' Institute of Industrial Engineering and Ergonomics, RWTH Aachen University, Bergdriesch 27, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Abstract: In enterprises with multiple projects, product developers often fail to act according to project plans, even though the plans have been developed very thoroughly. The proposed person-centred simulation model can simulate more realistic courses of development projects. A major difference to existing models is the bounded rational decision making of the simulated product developers. The model was formally described by Timed Stochastic Coloured Petri Nets and was systematically verified using an analysis of variance. The results of a case study in a medium-sized enterprise show that the simulated project durations do not significantly differ from the historical data.

Keywords: multiple project management; product development; scheduling risk; decision support systems; DSS; bounded rational behaviour; Petri nets; person-centred simulation; ANOVA; project planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2007.016311

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2007 Vol.3 No.4, pp.204 - 218

Published online: 16 Dec 2007 *

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