Sequencing of design tasks based on the degree of permissible concurrency

Rapid product design and development are crucial factors to maintaining a competitive advantage in today's intense market. Time-consuming iterative design cycles cause critical delays within the design development process. One widely applied method to identify such iterations is the design structure matrix (DSM). Due to its distinctive ability in consistently rearranging factors of a complex problem using subjective measures, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was requisitely applied to quantify DSM binary relations. Despite its advantages, AHP becomes intractable for large design problems, where substantial pairwise comparisons take place. The core contribution of this paper is overcome this drawback, thus facilitate faster sequencing of design tasks within a quantified DSM while utilising the benefits of AHP. This will lead to reducing time spent in iterating within design subcycles and eventually reduce time-to-market. The developed methodology is illustrated on a design of a low emission vehicle (LEV).