Real-time task scheduling behavior in agent-based product development process simulation

In order to model the designer's autonomous real-time task scheduling behavior and use it in the agent-based product development process simulation, this paper constructed an agent's benefit function in which task urgency, task importance, agent individual preference, and recovery time are considered. To validate and show applications of the benefit function in agent-based product development process simulation, some comparative simulation experiments are carried out in a case study. The result shows that the simulation analysis based on the benefit function can help an organization identify reasonable scheduling behaviors in the collaborative and complex product development process.