A Model-Based Approach to Improve Planning Practice in Collaborative Aerospace Design

The research reported in this paper complements previous work in the modeling and analysis of product development processes to reduce process risk and lead time. Such methods have found a receptive audience in industry, as evidenced by many academic case studies and the initiation of similar process improvement initiatives by the companies themselves. Given the ongoing ‘pull’ from a number of companies, we are interested to understand why such model-based methods have not yet impacted upon wider operational planning in industry. In this paper, based on an extended research study at a large UK aerospace company, we describe the application of the Signposting process modeling approach to the problem of developing a pragmatic method to support planning practice. The research described in the paper focuses on the elicitation, representation and manipulation of process information in a form which can inform planning and scheduling; during the study, addressing these issues was key to gaining support of the approach within the company.