Reengineering of the design process: An industrial case

In this article, a Business Process Reengineering (BPR) approach is applied to the design process of electric motors. The objective is to improve the quality, reduce costs and duration of the design process by bringing radical change to the process allowing breakthrough improvements rather than obtained by continuous improvement. For this purpose, the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) is used to represent and analyse the design process. This method is particularly adapted to capture the repetitive aspect of design tasks. Indeed, iterations, an inherent feature of the design process, represent a key factor in the determination of the design process duration and cost. In this study, the number of iterative tasks is reduced by 50%. The implementation of the reorganized process needs an organisational change in the design office but the expected benefits are worth the effort.