An application of simulation based process design

Abstract

One critical issue in process management is that managers can only rely on their experience when they make decisions in designing their business processes. To provide effective decision-making support, a simulation based approach (PMT:Process Management Tool) has been developed to quantitatively predict the performance of designed processes. In this paper, two types of automotive design processes, one product based and the other function based, were examined by applying the simulation based process design. The PMT analysis revealed the fragility of product based process and the tolerance of function based process to overload. In addition, effective human resource allocations were identified. © 2010 Springer-Verlag London Limited.