Analysis and modeling of concurrency, cycle time, and productivity in aerospace development projects

Engineering development projects are a key element of continued economic growth and profitability for companies that produce durable goods based on evolving technology. Today's world economy and the rapid pace of technology development necessitate a minimum development project cycle time to maximize the economic value of new products. Concurrent engineering and Integrated Product-Process Development (IPPD) evolved as an industry-wide strategy in the late 1980's and early 1990's to address the need for rapid product development and improved product quality.; Rapid development of computer-based tools for communications and engineering has occurred in parallel with the emergence of concurrent engineering strategies. The combination of new computer tools and concurrent engineering practices has rendered many project management tools less effective or obsolete. New methods are needed for tracking progress and benchmarking projects employing concurrent engineering.; Concurrent engineering and the resulting concurrency between specific activities within development projects has been associated with both positive and negative effects on project performance. This research applies empirical data analysis and computer simulation to evaluate these relationships using new metrics designed specifically for concurrent engineering analysis. By looking within the project at concurrency between specific activities, new insights have been gained into the nature and progress of concurrent engineering implementation. These relationships are useful tools in developing project plans with greater probability of success.; A new metric for measuring concurrency is applied that uses the timing of information transactions between project activities and yields different conclusions than those related to time-based metrics. The research also applies a new methodology for comparison of project performance across product lines within aerospace. By using productivity rates and a new work content metric, the industry benchmarking base is widened for greater understanding of concurrent engineering's effect on project performance.; A discrete system simulation of IPPD was developed and used to further understand the findings of the empirical data analysis. The simulation uses the interaction of product architecture, personnel availability, work assignment strategy, and rework to recreate the effects of concurrent engineering on project performance.