Optimal Allocation of Worker Hours to Competing Design Projects to Meet Value Growth Targets

Value creation is the motivating principle of lean product development processes. Set-based concurrent engineering has been proposed to improve product development efficiency and stimulate innovation. However, this approach can lead to inefficient resource utilization because it promotes the development of competitive designs, and effective worker time allocation is a real need in complex design projects. This paper looks at one aspect of resource allocation: optimally assigning limited manpower to competing design projects using a project value growth model that characterizes the translation of work-hours into developed value. While resource allocation methodologies have been proposed before, this paper adds to these efforts by including the lean principle of value together with worker capability when delivering project work and formulates the solution as a predictive control problem. The optimized allocation solution can give guidance to project managers if it is necessary to add overtime or change scheduled completion dates if target value growth is missed because of scarce resources.