Aligning multiple domains of design processes

Concurrent engineering processes are, in reality, a network of interlinked elements belonging to different domains such as process steps, information objects, organizational units, IT-resources, milestones, durations, decisions, and more. When trying to understand such a complex system, e.g. in business process reengineering projects, common approaches often regard only a single domain and therefore neglect other interdependencies that often turn out to be just as crucial. Using examples from a current project with a major German automotive manufacturer, an approach using design structure matrices as well as domain mapping matrices (combining them to obtain a Multiple Domain Matrix (MDM)) is shown to represent the existing multitude of process elements in a common model. The multiple domains can then be reduced to a single-domain view, which allows further examination of indirect process-structures (e.g. misalignment between indirect and real organizational structures). Examples for possible types of misalignment are given by comparing the as-is situation with the obtained results from MDM analysis in a case study.     «

Concurrent engineering processes are, in reality, a network of interlinked elements belonging to different domains such as process steps, information objects, organizational units, IT-resources, milestones, durations, decisions, and more. When trying to understand such a complex system, e.g. in business process reengineering projects, common approaches often regard only a single domain and therefore neglect other interdependencies that often turn out to be just as crucial. Using examples from a...     »