A dynamic planning method for new product development management

This article presents a quantifying and reordering method for new product development (NPD) based on concurrent engineering (CE). Herein, we propose to establish a fuzzy design structure matrix (FDSM) which combines fuzzy set theory (FST) and a design structure matrix (DSM). The FDSM can quantify the dependency strength between design activities and reschedule the design process. Utilizing the improved partitioning and tearing algorithms to reorder a FDSM, we can recognize clearly the interdependent relationship within the design activities in the NPD process. The objective of this article is to develop a systematic scheduling method which is efficient and yet flexible for NPD from an informational structure perspective. The FDSM can provide managers with a powerful tool for presenting the structure for the design process. This proposed method can enhance the performance of NPD management including decreasing the activity iterations and reducing the product development time through re-engineering the design process. Eventually, one case study is employed to illustrate the method and the result shows that it can shorten the time and can guarantee the quality and function of the design process.