抄録
Management of product design projects becomes increasingly difficult as the complexity of products increases. To better manage such projects, preliminary coordination of design processes is essential. This paper discusses coordination of the design process in two phases: 1) dividing the design work into smaller tasks and sequencing them, and 2) establishing management activities. To facilitate this coordination, an integrated model of a product, process, and organization is proposed. By analyzing the functional structure of the product, the division and sequencing of design tasks is computed. The proposed method utilizes rational prioritization of design parameters, which means identification of the parameters that must first be considered for changes. The resultant design processes can show where coordination among design tasks is still needed. This implies the necessity of management. Here, the importance of management and organizational structure prescribe the style of management that should be adopted for each part, as different styles of management are preferred to respective parts. 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.
