Engineering design processes that are dependent on Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) tools commonly involve complex patterns of tasks, including concurrency and intertwined iterations. There are often inefficiencies and improvement opportunities in such processes, but it can be difficult to identify and evaluate them—partly because of the complex iteration patterns, and partly because process knowledge is usually tacit and often distributed among process participants so that it is difficult to appreciate the causes and effects of iteration in an integrated way. The Applied Signposting Model (ASM) was developed to address these issues during more than a decade of research and case studies in the aerospace sector. This article describes an evolved version of the ASM, called ASM2.0, alongside a detailed case to demonstrate its application to improve CAE-driven, iteration-intensive engineering design processes. A review of applications is also provided. A differentiating feature of ASM2.0 is that it integrates visually-familiar flowchart mapping with quantitative analysis of process performance, to enable the modelling of complex iteration patterns that are typical of engineering design practice.

Engineering design and development projects involve a multitude of plans in various formats. Such documents are created, used and updated throughout a project. We argue that the interactions among plan documents, their content, their stakeholders and the planning processes can be usefully perceived as a planning system. The planning system is instrumental in coordinating a design and development project and thus strongly influences how it unfolds. In this article, a survey tool is developed to assess a planning system from its stakeholders’ perspective. Results from the survey are analysed using Multiple-Domain Matrix (MDM) methodology to derive insights and suggestions for improvement. The approach is developed and demonstrated through a case study in a company that develops advanced electronic scientific instruments.