Concurrent Engineering

BACKGROUND There is an increasing awareness that 'time to market' is the key competitive issue in the manufacturing industry today. The global markets are demanding products that are well designed, are of high quality and are at low prices with ever decreasing lead times. Hence manufacturers are forced to utilize the best methods of technology with efficient control and management accompanied by suitably enabling organizational structures. Concurrent engineering (CE) is widely seen to be the methodology that can help satisfy these strenuous demands and keep the profitability and viability of product developers, manufacturers and suppliers high. There have been many reported successes of CE in practice. Rover were able to launch Land Rover Discovery in 18 months as compared with 48-63 months for similar products in Europe. Because of its early introduction to the market it became the best selling product in its class. AT&T report part counts down to one ninth of their previous levels and quality one hundred times (in surface defects) for VLSI (very improvements of large scale integration) circuits as a result of using the CE approach. WHO SHOULD READ THIS TEXT? This book will aim to provide a sound basis for the very diverse subject known as concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering is recognized by an increasingly large proportion of the manufacturing industry as a necessity in order to compete in today's markets. This recognition has created the demand for information, awareness and training in good concurrent engineering practice.

Presents a top-down approach to the design, development, testing and recyclability of products, components and systems across a wide range of industries. Starting with the desired result and working back through the details, it shows how to produce goods, taking into account the challenges of actual manufacture, what the reliability requirements should be, quality control, associated costs, customer needs and more. Additional features include case studies and team negotiating. Also well-illustrated with figures, photographs, charts and tables and includes an extensive bibliography.

Presenting the gradual evolution of the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE), and the technical, social methods and tools that have been developed, including the many theoretical and practical challenges that still exist, this book serves to summarize the achievements and current challenges of CE and will give readers a comprehensive picture of CE as researched and practiced in different regions of the world. Featuring in-depth analysis of complex real-life applications and experiences, this book demonstrates that Concurrent Engineering is used widely in many industries and that the same basic engineering principles can also be applied to new, emerging fields like sustainable mobility. Designed to serve as a valuable reference to industry experts, managers, students, researchers, and software developers, this book is intended to serve as both an introduction to development and as an analysis of the novel approaches and techniques of CE, as well as being a compact reference for more experienced readers.

This working guide shows how to put concurrent engineering principles into action, using actual case examples from large and small companies. The case study approach is augmented with detailed advice and techniques for measuring and analyzing product and process development data. A must-have reference for every designer and firm that plans or contemplates this efficient and profitable method.

This work offers a step-by-step approach to the overall concurrent engineering (CE) development process, presenting both fundamental principles and advanced concepts, while focusing on rapid product development and cost-effective designs. The book also provides an introduction to Cost Driven Design, with specific examples on how to minimize expenses by understanding the basis of product costs. The process of concurrent engineering is explained from initial planning to production start-up.

This volume features the proceedings of the 14th ISPE Conference on Concurrent Engineering, held in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, on the 16th – 20th of July 2007. It highlights the application of concurrent engineering to the development of complex systems.

A thorough, original guide to using Concurrent Engineering principles to develop products that meet customer needs -- and to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible.This book shows how CE encompasses manufacturing competitiveness, life-cycle management, process reengineering, cooperative workgroups, systems engineering, information modeling, and product, process and organization integration. This book also identifies, for the first time, 25 fundamental CE metrics and measures. These are categorized into four groups: simulations and analysis, product feasibility and quality assessment, design for X-ability assessment, and process quality assessment. The book describes the new process of Concurrent Function Deployment, which allows workgroups to work concurrently on conflicting values and compare notes and common checkpoints. Extensive exercises and illustrations are included throughout. Managers involved in any type of product development.