Title: Simulating change propagation between product architecture and development organisation

Authors: Eric Bonjour, Ghassen Harmel, Jean-Pierre Micaelli, Maryvonne Dulmet

Addresses: Automatic Control and Micro-Mechatronic Systems Department, UMR CNRS 6174 – UFC/ENSMM/UTBM, FEMTO-ST Institute, 24, rue Alain Savary, 25000 Besancon, France. ' Automatic Control and Micro-Mechatronic Systems Department, UMR CNRS 6174 – UFC/ENSMM/UTBM, FEMTO-ST Institute, 24, rue Alain Savary, 25000 Besancon, France ' STOICA Center, INSA de Lyon, 1, rue des Humanites, 69621 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. ' Automatic Control and Micro-Mechatronic Systems Department, UMR CNRS 6174 – UFC/ENSMM/UTBM, FEMTO-ST Institute, 24, rue Alain Savary, 25000 Besancon, France

Abstract: In order to limit the effects of technological change on product design, concepts such as product architecture and modularity have been introduced, in order to support complex product development. In engineering design, numerous works have studied this central issue but change propagation within product architecture has hardly been addressed. Concerning organisational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to a new organisation design but hardly any to an incremental evolution of project organisation. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that product architecture and development organisation were strongly interrelated. However, few research works have studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of product and organisation co-evolution remains. This paper aims to present a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between product architecture and development organisation. This method uses a |management by uncertainty| approach and a mathematical model in order to propagate change. An industrial case study illustrates it in case of component changes.

Keywords: change propagation; design structure matrix; DSM; organisational structure; teams; product architecture; uncertainty management; technological change; product design; development organisation; product development; component changes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMASSC.2010.036800

International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2010 Vol.3 No.3, pp.288 - 310

Published online: 09 Nov 2010 *

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