Deciding between Sequential and Concurrent Tasks in Engineering Design

Abstract

It is generally desirable to complete design tasks concurrently in order to reduce the overall development time However, com pleting tasks concurrently may sometimes increase the total amount of rework that must be done, thereby increasing the total engineering effort, the development cost, and the lead time. The technique descnbed in this paper helps to decide between serial and concurrent sched uling of multiple tasks in a two-stage design process. Using information about task interdependencies, this method calculates the amount of time and the amount of effort (in engineer-weeks) required for any suggested assignment of tasks to the two stages. The paper suggests an approach for minimizing time, or effort, or both, by adjusting the schedule of which tasks should be completed at which time. The method is applied to data from a computer workstation design problem.