Simulating change propagation between product architecture and development organisation

Abstract

In order to limit the effects of technological change on product design, concepts like 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 been hardly addressed. Concerning organizational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to new organization design but hardly to an incremental evolution of project organization. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that product architecture and development organization were strongly interrelated. However, little research has studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of product and organization co-evolution remains. This paper aims at presenting a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between product architecture and development organization. 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.

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