Title: The effect of uncertainty and resource constraints on concurrent engineering projects

Authors: Sami Kara, Berman Kayis

Addresses: Department of Industrial Technology and Management, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia. ' Department of Industrial Technology and Management, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, Australia

Abstract: Concurrent Engineering (CE) requires careful planning and analysis due to the uncertainties caused by the parallel execution of activities. In this paper, a probabilistic mathematical model fitted to precedence relations is proposed to estimate the project completion time under uncertainty and resource constraints. A computer program was prepared in C++ to simulate the randomness in the process. The major benefits of the model developed are two-fold. Firstly, it allows users to consider uncertainty and resource constraints before CE implementation. Secondly, trade-off analysis between resources available vs. project completion time can be carried out in advance to allocate resources accordingly.

Keywords: concurrent engineering; CE; simultaneous engineering; project scheduling; resource constraints; simulation; uncertainty; resource allocation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2007.015237

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2007 Vol.3 No.3, pp.127 - 133

Published online: 28 Sep 2007 *

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