Agent-Based Simulation New Product Development Processes

New Product Development Processes (NPDP) involve a series of functional teams who work in a complex information communication network. Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) comprises a set of autonomous agents that act and interact complying with simulation specifications within a simulation world. This paper analyzes key features of both new product development processes and agent-based simulation. A simulation mapping is introduced to highlight mirror relationships between key elements of new product development processes and key concepts that underpin agent-based simulation. We introduce a new product development process case study arising from a large UK-based manufacturing company, and an agent-based simulation model to represent the new product development process. Simulation results show that agent-based simulation is a promising method to study and explore complex socio-technical systems such as new product development processes.