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The development of an agent-based modeling framework for simulating engineering team work

The development of an agent-based modeling framework for simulating engineering team work
The development of an agent-based modeling framework for simulating engineering team work
Team working is becoming increasingly important in modern organizations due to its beneficial outcomes. A team’s performance levels are determined by complex interactions between the attributes of its individual members, the communication and dynamics between members, the working environment, and the team’s work tasks. As organizations evolve, so too does the nature of team working. During the past two decades, product development in engineering organizations has increasingly been undertaken by multi-disciplinary integrated product teams (IPTs). Such increasing complexity means that the nature of research methods for studying teams must also evolve. Accordingly, this paper proposes an agent-based modeling approach for simulating team working within an engineering environment, informed by research conducted in two engineering organizations. The model includes a number of variables at an individual-level (competency, motivation, availability, response rate), team-level (communication, shared mental models, trust), and task-level (difficulty, workflow), which jointly determine team performance (quality, time to complete the task, time spent working on the task). In addition to describing the model’s development, the paper also reports the results of various simulation runs that were conducted in response to realistic team working scenarios, together with its validation. Finally, the paper discusses the model’s practical applications as a tool for facilitating organizational decision making with respect to optimizing team working
1083-4427
1425-1439
Crowder, Richard M.
ddeb646d-cc9e-487b-bd84-e1726d3ac023
Robinson, Mark A.
24068c12-ba53-4b52-a109-01af659d5635
Hughes, Helen P.N.
7068d0d3-dd74-4ae1-a850-eb9c984e896a
Sim, Yee W.
644185f5-f755-4e76-b9d6-ba17e6bdf470
Crowder, Richard M.
ddeb646d-cc9e-487b-bd84-e1726d3ac023
Robinson, Mark A.
24068c12-ba53-4b52-a109-01af659d5635
Hughes, Helen P.N.
7068d0d3-dd74-4ae1-a850-eb9c984e896a
Sim, Yee W.
644185f5-f755-4e76-b9d6-ba17e6bdf470

Crowder, Richard M., Robinson, Mark A. and Hughes, Helen P.N. et al. (2012) The development of an agent-based modeling framework for simulating engineering team work. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part A: Systems and Humans, 42 (6), 1425-1439. (doi:10.1109/TSMCA.2012.2199304).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Team working is becoming increasingly important in modern organizations due to its beneficial outcomes. A team’s performance levels are determined by complex interactions between the attributes of its individual members, the communication and dynamics between members, the working environment, and the team’s work tasks. As organizations evolve, so too does the nature of team working. During the past two decades, product development in engineering organizations has increasingly been undertaken by multi-disciplinary integrated product teams (IPTs). Such increasing complexity means that the nature of research methods for studying teams must also evolve. Accordingly, this paper proposes an agent-based modeling approach for simulating team working within an engineering environment, informed by research conducted in two engineering organizations. The model includes a number of variables at an individual-level (competency, motivation, availability, response rate), team-level (communication, shared mental models, trust), and task-level (difficulty, workflow), which jointly determine team performance (quality, time to complete the task, time spent working on the task). In addition to describing the model’s development, the paper also reports the results of various simulation runs that were conducted in response to realistic team working scenarios, together with its validation. Finally, the paper discusses the model’s practical applications as a tool for facilitating organizational decision making with respect to optimizing team working

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e-pub ahead of print date: May 2012
Published date: October 2012
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 338331
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/338331
ISSN: 1083-4427
PURE UUID: 4878d198-53e6-4c9d-8b26-cb167c89a3be

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Date deposited: 14 May 2012 13:34
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:03

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Contributors

Author: Richard M. Crowder
Author: Mark A. Robinson
Author: Helen P.N. Hughes
Author: Yee W. Sim

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