Discrete decision model and multi-agent simulation of the Liang Zong two-chain hierarchical organization in a complex project

doi:10.21629/JSEE.2018.02.12

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2018, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (2): 311-320.doi: 10.21629/JSEE.2018.02.12

• Systems Engineering • Previous Articles Next Articles

Discrete decision model and multi-agent simulation of the Liang Zong two-chain hierarchical organization in a complex project

Qiang MAI^1,*(), Yueqiang ZHAO^1,²(), Shi AN¹()

¹ School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
² Defense Technology Academy, China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation, Beijing 100854, China

Received:2017-03-23 Online:2018-04-26 Published:2018-04-27
Contact: Qiang MAI E-mail:maiqiang@hit.edu.cn;zhyqng@hotmail.com;anshi@hit.edu.cn
About author:MAI Qiang was born in 1977. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in management from Harbin University of Science and Technology in 2000 and 2003, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in management science and engineering from Harbin Institute and Technology in 2006. Currently, he is working as an associate professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He is the author or coauthor of more than 20 refereed journals and conference publications. His research interests are system engineering, complexity theory, and system simulation and optimization. E-mail: maiqiang@hit.edu.cn|ZHAO Yueqiang was born in 1970. He is now a Ph.D. candidate in management science and engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology. He is also a professor in the Defense Technology Academy of the China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation Limited. His research interests are space system engineering and project management. E-mail: zhyqng@hotmail.com|AN Shi was born in 1968. He received his Ph.D. degree in management science and engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in 2000. He is currently a professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology. His research interest is space system engineering. E-mail: anshi@hit.edu.cn
Supported by:
the National Natural Science Foundation of China(71571057);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(71571057);the Key Lab for Public Engineering Audit of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Audit University(GGSS2016-08);This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71571057; 71390522) and the Key Lab for Public Engineering Audit of Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Audit University (GGSS2016-08)

Abstract

Abstract:

Different from the organization structure of complex projects in Western countries, the Liang Zong hierarchical organization structure of complex projects in China has two different chains, the chief-engineer chain and the general-director chain, to handle the trade-off between technical and management decisions. However, previous works on organization search have mainly focused on the single-chain hierarchical organization in which all decisions are regarded as homogeneous. The heterogeneity and the interdependency between technical decisions and management decisions have been neglected. A two-chain hierarchical organization structure mapped from a real complex project is constructed. Then, a discrete decision model for a Liang Zong two-chain hierarchical organization in an NK model framework is proposed. This model proves that this kind of organization structure can reduce the search space by a large amount and that the search process should reach a final stable state more quickly. For a more complicated decision mechanism, a multi-agent simulation based on the above NK model is used to explore the effect of the two-chain organization structure on the speed, stability, and performance of the search process. The results provide three insights into how, compared with the single-chain hierarchical organization, the two-chain organization can improve the search process: it can reduce the number of iterations efficiently; the search is more stable because the search space is a smoother hill-like fitness landscape; in general, the search performance can be improved. However, when the organization structure is very complicated, the performance of a two-chain organization is inferior to that of a single-chain organization. These findings about the efficiency of the unique Chinese-style organization structure can be used to guide organization design for complex projects.

Key words: complex project, two-chain hierarchical organization, discrete decision model, multi-agent simulation

Qiang MAI, Yueqiang ZHAO, Shi AN. Discrete decision model and multi-agent simulation of the Liang Zong two-chain hierarchical organization in a complex project[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2018, 29(2): 311-320.

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Number	Organization structure	Distribution type	Mean	Standard deviation
1	2×2 single-chain	Log normal	13.987 6	15.665 7
1	2×2 two-chain	Log normal	11.049 7	15.338 0
2	2×3 single-chain	Log normal	49.718 8	64.649 5
2	2×3 two-chain	Log normal	29.347 0	40.873 0
3	2×4single-chain	Log normal	216.608 8	428.998 3
3	2×4 two-chain	Log normal	65.786 2	102.333 3
4	3×2 single-chain	Log normal	86.345 9	86.345 9
4	3×2 two-chain	Log normal	36.353 1	42.645 2
5	3×3 single-chain	Log normal	6 444.2	17 820
5	3×3 two-chain	Log normal	462.043 4	844.146 2
6	4×2 single-chain	Log normal	650.654 8	1 852.4
6	4×2 two-chain	Log normal	211.070 5	364.977 4

Number	Organization structure	Distribution type	Mean	Standard deviation
1	2×3 single-chain	Log normal	0.681 9	0.075 5
1	2×3 two-chain	Log normal	0.691 3	0.068 5
2	2×4 single-chain	Log normal	0.675 8	0.077 1
2	2×4 two-chain	Log normal	0.689 7	0.064 6
3	3×2 single-chain	Normal	0.674 1	0.077 1
3	3×2 two-chain	Normal	0.690 4	0.05
4	3×3 single-chain	Normal	0.675 3	0.039 6
4	3×3 two-chain	Normal	0.668 9	0.023 8

Discrete decision model and multi-agent simulation of the Liang Zong two-chain hierarchical organization in a complex project

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