The meaning and coherence of process, organisation and product in engineering design

Journal article (2005)

Authors

Udo Pulm University of Cambridge
P.J. Clarkson University of Cambridge
Affiliation
External organisation
Complex systems Product development Process and organisation System theory
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Published Date

2005

Language

English

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Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

Real design processes show a qualitative discrepancy to planned processes. There is also a large gap between processes and organisation structures. Understanding of product development as a complex social system, with a system theory background, gives insights into this issue. It seems that communication is more important than a controlled and transparent process. A dynamic organisa-tion with self-organising teams seems to be the more appropriate approach for process management in product development. Communication partly takes place via money. We will discuss why money cannot be used as a measure for process quality yet, but how it could be used. The paper also gives an impression how signposting and design structure matrices (DSMs) can contribute to this approach.