Post Conference Masters Thesis Defence

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"Ford, David"
Junior Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2002 3:39 am

Post Conference Masters Thesis Defence

Post by "Ford, David" »

Participants in the 2000 System Dynamics Conference,

The final event for students as part of the Master of Philosophy in System
Dynamics Program at the University of Bergen is a final examination that
includes a presentation of their thesis to a public audience. These
presentations are typically 20-30 minutes long and allow for questions and
discussion by the audience after the presentation. You are invited to Ingo
Notzons presentation of his masters thesis on Thursday, 17 August 2000 at
approximately 4:30pm at the Department of Information Science, University of
Bergen. The department is located on the third floor at 6 Hermann Fossgate,
Bergen. The abstract of the thesis is below. This work will not be presented
at the System Dynamics Conference. If you are interested in more information
about this work you can contact Ingo by email at
<
Ingo.Notzon@cottbus-plus.de>

David N. Ford, Associate Professor
Department of Information Science
University of Bergen

***************************
David N. Ford, Ph.D., P.E.
Department of Civil Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3136
Voice: (979) 845-3759
Fax: (979) 845-6554
Email: DavidFord@tamu.edu

************
Effective Design of Phase-overlapped Product Development
- a System Dynamics-based Analysis
by
Ingo Notzon

Submitted to the Department of Information Science in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in System Dynamics
at the University of Bergen



Abstract
Intense international competition force companies to develop higher quality
products faster, and more effectively. Overlapping product development
activities is an important element of concurrent engineering that can help
companies to achieve short time-to-market. To manage concurrent product
development successfully, managers must weight the gain from overlapping
product development activities against the extra time and cost caused by
downstream rework that results from proceeding in parallel based on
preliminary information. Without careful management of the overlapped
development process, the development effort and cost may increase, and
product quality may worsen.

Based on Krishnans framework for concurrency in case of sequentially
dependent activities, a system dynamics model was developed to analyze the
tradeoffs related to phase-overlapping and expand the understanding of the
dynamics of overlapped development processes. In Krishnans framework, two
concepts determine the most appropriate overlapping strategy: Evolution and
Sensitivity. Evolution describes the speed of uncertainty resolution,
indicated by changes in the exchanged information. Sensitivity is defined as
the duration of a downstream iteration to incorporate the change in
information. The model formalizes Krishnans theory, and simulations show
the behavior generated by the interaction of evolution, sensitivity, and the
policies used to manage the information. Analysis of the model behavior
revealed that the model closely replicates the behavior modes described by
Krishnan.

The model was applied to investigate the impact of different communication
policies on project completion time. Policy analysis revealed that the
completion time can be decreased by a high frequency of information
transmission and/or a problem-oriented information exchange, that is,
information should be transferred to the downstream activity directly after
a change in upstream information has occurred.

Simulation output shows the dynamics created through feedback, delays and
nonlinear relationships in the product development process, and indicate the
complexity in managing overlapped product development projects. To help in
finding the optimal overlapping strategy, sensitivity analysis was conducted
and opportunities for improved product development performance could be
identified.
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