About this issue

IN AN ABSTRACT WAY, Brooks´ discussion of composite efficiency of multistage projects is related to Rosenthal´s discussion of product assurance and reliability. In both instances, there are many people involved in the various stages of a project, either sequentially or in parallel. The “efficiency” or “reliability” of the end product depends very much on the individual stages, but also depends heavily on their interdependence. A multistage project can fail or be inefficient as a consequence of both poor performance at any stage and lack of adequate integration of stages. In a sense, this implies the necessity for some group to be responsible for overall integration in the R, D, and E phases, as well as further down stream in purchasing, tooling, production, etc.