Modeling and performance analysis of product development process network

Product development process (PDP) is a complex system, in which design activities and design resources are connected to each other according to specific rules. Considering the elements of PDP (complex forms of design activities, interdisciplinary collaboration and multiform resources) and relationships between them, a product development process network (PDPN) is proposed and its performance is further analyzed and optimized. In order to establish the PDPN, design activities and resources used in the PDP are mapped into the nodes of the network. And the relationships among the nodes are mapped into the edges. Then, a level-based evaluation model is proposed to illustrate the forming procedure of establishing the PDPN. Then, some typical topological and physical characteristics of the PDPN are defined and analyzed based on the complex network theory. In order to balance the resource load, the PDPN is divided into different communities, wherein a Girvan–Newman (GN) algorithm together with improved measure criterion is applied. Finally, the design process of a steam turbine rotor is chosen as an example to illustrate the feasibility and availability of the proposed method.