The Design Process - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 43

Figure 3.16
Getting stuck in a loop.
Now consider the power drill described in previous chapters. If a company were to design
this from the start then the serial model suggests that only one team works on the project
from beginning to end. Concurrent design recognizes that this is not the case and that there
may be more than one team working on the overall design. Indeed these teams may well be
highly specialized. So, for example, one team may be designing the chuck, another may be
designing the drive unit, another the battery pack, and a final team the casing. This makes
four teams. It is possible for one team to wait for another to finish (as in the serial model), but
concurrent design suggests that they can work at the same time. Figure 3.17 illustrates this.
Using the relay race analogy presented earlier, it is like giving all four runners a baton and
setting them all off at once - the race clearly finishes in a quarter of the time. While in the
Olympics this would be frowned upon, in design management it is a blatantly obvious model
to use.
For the model presented in Figure 3.17 to work, there needs to be a strong overall project
management role. Also, each task needs to be responsible and managed correctly. There needs
to be good communication between the individual tasks. If any of these are missing then it
is almost certain that the system will revert to a serial model and any concurrency is wasted.
Concurrent models still rely on reaction to an issue. Project managers can build in regular
meetings to facilitate communication but, in practice, it is still reactionary.