A methodological approach for the optimisation of the product development process by the application of design automation

A short lead time of the Product Development Process (PDP) is an important competitive advantage for companies. Design automation solutions provide a means to reduce the lead time and improve quality, but their development requires some investment. Before a company can commit to the development of an automation initiative, it requires an estimation of the expected costs and benefits. The objective of this research is the development of a decision support system, based on multi objective optimization techniques and Discrete Event Simulation, to evaluate the effect of introducing automation solutions in a given PDP. The system is able to generate Pareto fronts showing optimum combinations of lead time reductions versus investment cost for automation. For each of the solutions on the Pareto front, the system provides the suggested list of PDP activities to be automated and their level of automation. The system functionality has been successfully demonstrated by means of a use case concerning the PDP of an aircraft component.