Approach to Evaluate Complexity in New Product Development Projects

Approach to Evaluate Complexity in New Product Development Projects

G. Schuh M. Riesener C. Mattern 

RWTH Aachen University, Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL), Germany

Page: 
573-583
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.2495/DNE-V11-N4-573-583
Received: 
N/A
| |
Accepted: 
N/A
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

Manufacturing companies respond to the customers’ demand for more individualized products and enhanced functionality by increasing product variety and integrating multiple technologies in their products. Consequently, complexity in new product development (NPD) projects increases as more and more interdependencies and framework conditions have to be considered. A systematic evaluation of the parameters that drive the complexity of an NPD project prior to project kick-off would enable project management to identify critical issues up-front and adjust the project setup accordingly. There are several recent studies that analyze project complexity and identify complexity drivers. However, there is still a lack of a holistic approach that helps project managers to analyze the complexity of NPD projects and at the same time derive specific measures in order to adjust project complexity.

This paper presents an approach for complexity evaluation of NPD projects during project preparation. The approach is based on complexity drivers that have been determined through literature research, classified according to their impact on the complexity of NPD projects and influenceability by project management as well as on the analysis in terms of their interdependencies. Through individual assessment of the complexity drivers and through portfolio analysis, the focal points of complexity in an NPD project can be identified. Measures to level complexity according to the company’s positioning can be derived from studying the portfolio of complexity drivers taking into account their impact on first order interactions between complexity drivers.

Keywords: 

complexity drivers, complexity evaluation, engineering, new product development, project management

  References

[1] Ulrich, H. & Probst, G.J., Anleitung zum ganzheitlichen Denken und Handeln, Bern: Paul haupt, 1988.

[2] Schuh, G., Produktkomplexität managen: Strategien-Methoden-Tools, München, Wien: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2005.

[3] Lorenz, M., Jentzsch, A., Andersen, M., Noack, B., Waffenschmidt, L., Schuh, G. & Rudolf, S., The Lean Advantage in Engineering. Developing Better Products Faster and More Efficiently, The Boston Consulting Group & WZL of RWTH Aachen, 2015.

[4] Kotha, S. & Srikanth, K., Managing a global partnership model: lessons from the boeing 787 ‘dreamliner’ program. Global Strategy Journal, 3(1), pp. 41–66, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2042-5805.2012.01050.x

[5] Kirchhof, R., Ganzheitliches Komplexitätsmanagement: Grundlagen und Methodik des Umgangs mit Komplexität im Unternehmen, Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitätsverlag, 2003.

[6] Ashby, W.R., An introduction to cybernetics, 1957.

[7] Berens, W. & Schmitting, W., Controllinginstrumente für das komplexitätsmanagement: potentiale des internen rechnungswesens. Komplexitätsmanagement, pp. 97–110, 1998.

[8] Baccarini, D., The concept of project complexity - a review. International Journal of Project Management, 14(4), pp. 201–204, 1996.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00093-3

[9] Williams, T., The need for new paradigms for complex projects. International Journal of Project Management, 17(5), pp. 269–273, 1999.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(98)00047-7

[10] Geraldi, J., Maylor, H. & Williams, T., Now, let’s make it really complex (complicated). International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 31(9), pp. 966–990, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443571111165848

[11] Karniel, A. & Reich, Y., Managing the Dynamics of New Product Development Processes: a New Product Lifecycle Management Paradigm, Springer-Verlag: London, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-570-5

[12] Bosch-Rekveldt, M., Jongkind, Y., Mooi, H., Bakker, H. & Verbraeck, A., Grasping project complexity in large engineering projects: the TOE framework. International Journal of Project Management, 29(6), pp. 728–739, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.07.008

[13] Backlund, A., The concept of complexity in organisations and information systems. Kybernetes, 31(1), pp. 30–43, 2002.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03684920210414907

[14] Daft, R.L., Organization Theory and Design, Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2010.

[15] Schlick, C.M., Duckwitz, S., Gärtner, T. & Schmidt, T., A complexity measure for concurrent engineering projects based on the DSM. DSM 2008: Proceedings of the 10th International DSM Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008.

[16] Nguyen, A.T., Nguyen, L.D., Le-Hoai, L. & Dang, C.N., Quantifying the complexity of transportation projects using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. International Journal of Project Management, 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.02.007

[17] Wang, Y., Chen, X.H. & He, X.W., The measurement of complexity of organization coordination network of MSTP. Advances in Information Sciences and Service Sciences, 4(23), pp. 

334–342, 2012.

http://dx.doi.org/10.4156/aiss.vol4.issue23.41

[18] Qureshi, S.M. & Kang, C., Analysing the organizational factors of project complexity using structural equation modelling. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp. 

165–176, 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.006

[19] Schuh, G., Potente, T., Varandani, R.M. & Schmitz, T., Methodology for the assessment of structural complexity in global production networks. Procedia CIRP, 7, pp. 67–72, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2013.05.012

[20] Schuh, G., Rudolf, S., Breunig, S. & Lukas, M., Evaluation of complexity in industrial services. Technovation, 2014.

[21] Sinha, K., Structural Complexity and its Implications for Design of Cyber-Physical Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, 2014.

[22] Bliss, C., Integriertes Komplexitätsmanagement: Ansätze und Lösungsmöglichkeiten: Wiss. Ges. für Marketing und Unternehmensführung, 1998.

[23] Ponn, J. & Lindemann, U., Konzeptentwicklung und Gestaltung technischer Produkte: Systematisch von Anforderungen zu Konzepten und Gestaltlösungen, 2nd edn., Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-20580-4

[24] Schuh, G., Gerlach, M. & Rudolf, S., Methodology for optimizing product differentiation in product ranges. In 2015 Proceedings of PICMET ‘15: Management of the Technology Age, ed. D.F. Kocaoglu, Portland, Oregon, pp. 1541–1548, 2015.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/picmet.2015.7273117

[25] Schuh, G., Arnoscht, J. & Rudolf, S., Integrated development of modular product platforms. 

Technology Management for Global Economic Growth (PICMET), 2010.

[26] Lindemann, U., Methodische Entwicklung technischer Produkte: Methoden flexibel und situationsgerecht anwenden, 3rd edn., Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, 2009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-01423-9

[27] Schuh, G, Rudolf, S. & Mattern, C., Conceptual framework for evaluation of complexity in new product development projects. In 2016 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT).

[28] Liso, N.D. & Leoncini, R., Internationalization, Technological Change and the Theory of the Firm, Routledge: New York, 2011.

[29] Patzak, G., Systemtechnik - Planung Komplexer Innovativer Systeme, Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 1982.

[30] Vester, F, Die Kunst vernetzt zu denken: Ideen und Werkzeuge für einen neuen Umgang mit Komplexität ; ein Bericht an den Club of Rome, 3rd edn., München: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 2003.

[31] Fink, A., Schlake, O. & Siebe, A., Erfolg durch Szenario-Management: Prinzip und Werkzeuge der strategischen Vorausschau, Campus-Verl: Frankfurt, 2001.