Coordination of Product Design Process in View of Product and Organizational Structures

Management of product design projects becomes increasingly difficult as the complexity of products increases. For better management of such projects, well-considered preliminary coordination of design processes is essential. This paper proposes a method for coordination in the design process, which comprises two phases: 1) division of the design work into smaller tasks and sequencing them and 2) establishment of management activities. To facilitate this coordination, an integrated model of a product, process, and organization is proposed. The division and sequencing of design tasks is based upon analysis of the product model. The method utilizes rational prioritization of design parameters, which means identification of parameters that must be first considered for changes. The resulting design processes can show where coordination among design tasks is needed. This, in turn, implies the necessity of management. It is preferable for a different style of management to be adopted for each part. Here, the importance of management and organizational structure prescribe the style of management that should be adopted. In this paper, two approaches to management are discussed: 1) the formation of a pre-agreement, and 2) integration and after-approval. Throughout the paper, the example of a solar boat design is used to explain how the proposed method works and to demonstrate its feasibility.