The reality of design

2003

Most companies struggle with the efficiency of their processes. One contributory factor is the lack of efficient process planning. This paper describes current planning practise in industry, which uses a multitude of different plans in parallel. The units of planning and their resulting plans roughly fall into product plans considering cost, bill of material and procurement considerations; process plans including different milestone, task and activity plans and quality plans. This paper maps out the ownership of these plans, and establishes that organisations work because individuals use more then one plan and have a tacit understanding of the relationships between these plans. The lack of effective plans affects the company through a lack of understanding of process connectivity and in consequence bad communication.

Research in Engineering Design, 2010

Efficient planning of design processes is of critical importance to meet tight deadlines and budgets; and the development of process planning tools is a lively research area. This paper describes current planning practice in industry and the challenges associated with it. In industry, a multitude of plans are used in parallel each focussing on a different aspect. The units of planning and their resulting plans roughly fall into product plans considering cost, bill of materials and procurement considerations; process plans including different milestone, lead-times, task and activity plans; and quality plans. Over the course of a project, the same plan can serve as a prescriptive plan defining steps in the process, a target plan against which process is measured, and a record of the process. This paper argues that organisations work because individuals use more than one plan and have a tacit understanding of the relationships between these plans. Variations between different companies are discussed before the paper concludes with a reflection on implication for planning support.

2010

Findings from industry interviews and an industry survey conducted by Cambridge University targeted toward industry employees with responsibilities related to design process, determined that most organisations create multiple plans when conducting a product design project. Over ninety percent of project actors surveyed suggested that they typically reference multiple plans with a significant number suggesting that they reference more than ten planning documents for a typical project.

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2000

In an integrated design framework, each actor of the design process must have his own view of the product to e$ciently participate and co-design. The product model used by the process planner is presented here: it is in fact extracted from the global product model of the whole design system by "ltering. The links of dependence among the di!erent entities of the model } links of availability, accessibility and quality } are particularly emphasised in this text. Their e$ciency has been tested in process planning and product designing.

2003

Abstract. Business processes are difficult to plan successfully, and become more so with increases in complexity. However, certain types of business process are known to be more difficult to plan than others. One example is the process of product design, as followed during the development of physical artefacts for production [2]. This form of process is highly complex, uncertain, and non-repeatable; effective methods for design process support must take these factors into account.

Caise, 2003

Business processes are difficult to plan successfully, and become more so with increases in complexity. However, certain types of business process are known to be more difficult to plan than others. One example is the process of product design, as followed during the development of physical artefacts for production [2]. This form of process is highly complex, uncertain, and non-repeatable; effective methods for design process support must take these factors into account.

2001

Connectivities between processes in product developments indicate both conflicts of resources and potential synergies. These represent constraints and potential opportunities in planning design Each product development comprises a network of processes. Similarity between processes is analysed by a layered classification ranging from common components to shared design knowledge. The connectivities between products arising from similarities among products are represented by a multidimensional network. Design planning is described by flows or 'traffic' on this network which represents a structural model of complexity. Comparison is made with information based measures of the complexity of designs and processes.

2002

This paper presents our evolving view of organizational p anning. We discuss lessons we are learning by studying examples of real-world organizational planning. Our approach to this topic is interdisciplinary and founded on a view of planning as a form of resource-constrained d cision making under uncertainty. We xamine how considerations of planning as a multi-agent process dictates extensions to our basic decision-theoretic perspective by examining some of the challenges of coordinating planning activities and attaining coherence in the contents of plans constructed by multiple, independent planners. We then consider the multiple uses that organizational plans seem to serve in human organizations. We conclude by summarizing some implications of our studies for the development of organizational planning technology.

Management and Production Engineering Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2014, ISSN: 2082-1344, pp. 78–87., 2014

The aim of the article is to answer two research questions concerning the influence of organizational factors and shape of project portfolio on the content and scope, as well as on the stakeholders engagement in project planning. The research strategy included a questionnairebased method. The respondents were representatives of the chosen companies located in Poland, from varied types of industries. The key research finding is that most frequently addressed areas of project planning are those of the iron-triangle of project constraints. There is still lack of understanding for communication, risk and quality planning in projects, which is consonant with recent studies of maturity in project management areas. There are significant differences between industries in terms of areas of project planning. Power engineering seems to be more mature in terms of more frequent practices of planning the project schedule, resources and risk. The research showed a number of significant correlations between components of project planning and both organizational and project portfolio factors, which justifies the statement that those factors can be seen as determinants of project planning practices.

Computers & chemical …, 1997

We suggest that designing design processes is an ill-posed problem which must be tackled with great care and in an evolutionary fashion. We argue it is an important activity, however, as companies today use a small percentage of the intellectual capital they own when designing, suggesting there is room for significant improvement. We discuss who in industry and academia are currently involved with designing design processes. Based on empirical studies we and others have carried out, we have based our approach to study and support design processes on managing the information they generate and use. We are learning how to carry out studies more effectively with industrial partners, what features we need for managing information to study and improve design processes. We are even learning some general observations about the effect of different behavior of the group on its success at designing.