Conflict resolution in collaborative facility design
Abstract
To increase design quality and to reduce design process development time, a computer-supported collaborative approach to facility design is mandatory. In computer-supported collaborative facility design, however, conflict situations, which result naturally from the interaction of cooperating designers, must be resolved. This research introduces a new method to resolve conflict situations that typically occur in collaborative facility design: (1) layout design, (2) equipment selection, (3) automation plan, and (4) material flow. The method encompasses rational execution of pre-ordered conflict resolution approaches (direct negotiation, third-party mediation, incorporation of additional parties, persuasion, and arbitration) successfully used in social sciences to resolve human disputes. It incorporates principles for prevention of conflict perpetuation and escalation to improve performance, and computer-based learning to improve usefulness. To incorporate principles for prevention of conflict perpetuation and escalation, the last stage of the method (i.e., arbitration) is sequentially organized in three phases: (1) conflict modeling and analysis, (2) confrontation of conflicting parties, and (3) conflict resolution. The graph model for conflict resolution, a social sciences methodology used for modeling and analysis of conflict situations, is used for the first time in computer-supported collaborative design to facilitate the conflict modeling and analysis phase. A neural-fuzzy inference system is developed to support the confrontation phase of conflicting parties and the development of computer-based learning. CAE tools such as dependency analysis and product flow analysis are used to facilitate the conflict resolution phase. The performance and usefulness of the new method have been validated by incorporating its conflict resolution capabilities in the Facility Description Language (FDL), developed earlier in our School for collaborative facility design, and by applying FDL-CR, the resulting version of FDL, to resolve the four typical aforementioned conflict situations. The results of this research are: (1) Incorporation of principles for prevention of conflict perpetuation and escalation improved the performance of the method; (2) Implementation of computer-based learning increased the usefulness of the method; and (3) Integration of conflict detection and resolution resulted in an increased effectiveness of the facility design process. Six design recommendations derived from this research are also presented.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Nof, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Industrial engineering
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