Actor-based signposting: A modeling tool to improve the socio-technical design processes

Socio-technical aspect of engineering design is an inter-disciplinary domain, an integrated organization of human- and non-human interactions. Modeling socio-technical design processes can therefore be influenced not only by the complexity of technical decisions, but also by that of social interactions. This paper is dealt with design process improvement through modeling and management of complexity and uncertainty, which is mainly associated with activities' and actors' behavior and multiple types of interactions among them. Hence, a modeling tool is proposed, by making a balance between detailed rigor nature of dynamic task models and the flexibility and abstraction of social networks models, so-called "Actor-Based Signposting" (ABS). We aim to come up designers and design managers with a guidance on not only the content of the work, but also on the way to carry it out, acting as an information mechanism to facilitate communication. A flexible and scalable simulation tool presented and exemplified in support of ABS system, which can be adapted to any kind of design processes