Lead time modeling and acceleration of product design and development

Abstract

Lead time is an important performance metric for a product development organization. Lead time models for product development organizations that involve multiple, concurrent projects with contention for human/technical resources are developed. The objective is to explore how the lead times can be reduced using efficient scheduling, input control, load balancing, and variability reduction. The models presented are sufficiently generic and conceptual, and will be much of value in project planning and management in product design organizations and also more generally in product development organizations.