Simulation Based Planning of the Fuzzy Front End Stage of a Project

Modern design processes present numerous challenges for organizations that deal with system development. The pace of system growth is high and is expressed in the complexity of the systems and products involved, and integration of new advanced technologies that influence system evolution. Traditionally, the decision early on in the project life cycle is based on documents and not on model-based analysis. The initial stages of New Product Development (NPD) projects are known as the “fuzzy front end”; this is the messy “getting started” period of the new product development process. It is in the front end where the organization formulates a concept of the product to be developed and decides whether or not to invest resources in further development of an idea. The Fuzzy Front End begins with the initial search for new opportunities, through the formation of a germ of an idea to the development of a precise concept. The Fuzzy Front End ends when an organization approves and begins formal development of the concept. The early but critical design decisions that need to be made are part of the funneling process performed during the Fuzzy Front End of the life cycle.The funneling process is aimed at selecting the suitable design concept for a new product out of the many alternatives that exist. Modern systems exhibit a high degree of interdependency and thus the change of a single design parameter may affect the whole system, due to the interdependency trade off studies that are an increasingly difficult task.trade off studies are an increasingly difficult task. Neither the contemporary document-centric design process nor the human mind can handle such an information explosion and thus new methodologies are required.In this paper, we present a new approach for the Fuzzy Front End of the funneling process that includes a methodology and tools that provide an enhancement of the decision making process when the design of a new product is considered. We describe two specific technologies: one deals with the project management aspects while the second deals with the system architecture aspects; we show how the integration between these tools improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the funneling process. The highlight of the methodology is a workshop, based on an innovative decision support system, used to obtain immediate feedback regarding the effectiveness of various tradespace alternatives.