Efficient organizing of design activities

Concurrent design should result in reduction of the duration of a design project, cost reduction, and better quality of the final design; however, it may increase the complexity of the design process and make it more difficult to manage. In this paper, an algorithm is developed for organizing design activities in order to effectively produce an acceptable design. The relationship among design activities is represented with an incidence matrix and the correspondign directed graph. The design process is simplified by identifying and analysing design activities that are coupled. The algorithm presented in the paper generates a sequence of design activities such that the number of cycles is minimized, i.e. the product development time is reduced. The concepts presented are illustrated with examples.