CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

Concurrent Engineering

Objectives

Explain what is Concurrent Engineering

Explain the importance of Concurrent Engineering

Define and explain the basics elements of Concurrent Engineering

Brief explanation of Concurrent Engineering evolution

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

With the latest development due to globalization, business unit may have the
capacity to deal with the increasing competition. This is possible only by drastic
organizational productivity improvement. One of the tools to achieve the
organizational productivity improvement is called Concurrent Engineering. If there is a
delay of three months in bringing a product to the market, it would cause an
enormous loss to the organization by way of reduced market share.
A systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of products and to
their related implementation, including operational aspects, whereby designers/
developers process simultaneously and since go ahead, all requirements of the product
life cycle, from concept through delivery, includingquality, cost, schedule and user
requirements.
Concurrent Engineering, also called parallel or simultaneous engineering, is a
new philosophy, viewed by most corporations as a means to competitive, world class
manufacturing. It strives to do the right job the first time. It results from the
synthesizing the two fundamental observations which are given below:
1. The changes become more costly , and these changes are incorporated in
the project later.
2. Performing different steps of a project in parallel, would complete the
project more quickly than executing the steps sequentially, one after the
another.
Therefore concurrent engineering can be defined as:

1) A philosophy of product development: Integrating multiple design issues

2) A method of product design: Integration of multidisciplinary folks into the
design team
3) A method to lead people: Design issues are represented in the people
4) It is not the “over the wall”

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TRADITIONAL ENGINEERING VS. CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

In traditional engineering a relatively short time is spent defining the product. A

relatively long time is spent designing the product and a surprisingly long time is often
spent redesigning the product. The key to shortening the overall design time is to
better the product and better document the design process.
Traditionally, the development of a product had been seen as a cycle of
plan...do...check...act...(adjust). Concurrent engineering is a process in which
appropriate disciplines are committed to work interactively to conceive, approve,
develop, and implement product programs that meet pre-determined objectives define

Example of design changes as a function of time for an American and Japanese automobile.
Source: Engineering Modeling and Design, Chapman, Bahill & Wymore (see reference 1.A).

This is the relatively recent term which is applied to the engineering design
philosophy of cross-functional cooperation in order to create products which are
better, cheaper, and more quickly brought to market. This new trend reunites
technical and non technical disciplines such as engineering, marketing and
accounting. Always focusing on satisfying the customer, these representatives work
together in defining the product to be manufactured.
Various organizations follow a plethora of product and process development
cycle. Characterizing the phases of the product development cycle helps to put in
perspective some of the organizational issues involved. The phases are:

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1. Mission statement: it is also known as design brief or charter. I should
contain a general description of the product, target market segments,
and the customer categories and specify business goals so as to
market share, profit margins and the product’s projected life cycle.
2. Market and concept definition: Consumers demands are identified
by various market survey techniques; benchmark studies are
conducted, the functional technical design requirement are identified,
design and manufacturing feasibility is determined and cost estimates
are projected.
3. System level concept generation and selection: various design
concepts that satisfy the functional design requirements are generated.
Design satisfying these requirements in terms of quality, cost and
delivery is selected and the product architecture is determined.

Mission statement

Market & concept

Definition

System level Concept

generation & Selection

Detail Product Design

Prototype testing &

refinement

Process & Production Planning

& Control

Production
Ramp-up
Development time

Start Date Launch Date

4. Detailed product design: Detailed specification of product

dimensions , materials and tolerances are made. Special and standard
components are identified & make or buy decisions are made.

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5. Prototype testing and refinement: prototypes of the selected design
are tested for functionality, manufacturing and assembly feasibility,
reliability & cost.
6. Process planning , Production planning and Control: Actual
production processes of the final deign are planned. Production
control and quality assurance plans are drawn up.
7. Production Ramp-up and Refinement: in this final phase a pilot
production is run is carried out with the purpose of familiarizing and the
training the workforce, discovering the correcting production problems
before full production level s are reached. Subsequently, the product is
launched.

Importance of Concurrent Engineering

The goal of Concurrent Engineering is the interactive work of different disciplines

that affect a product to make it better.

1. Minimize the product life cycle - eliminate the redesign procedure.

2. Decrease production cost - results from the minimization of the
product life cycle.
3. Maximize product quality - By spending more time and money
initially in the design cycle and ensuring that the concept selection is
optimized, the company can increase the prospect of delivering a
quality product to the customer.
4. Team Work - Human Resources are working together for a common
product.

♦ Product Design Methods

1) Design For Manufacturing (DFM) - DFM seeks to minimize
manufacturing information content of a product design to the fullest extent
possible within constraints imposed by functionality and performance.
The purpose of DFM cost estimating analysis is to enables design
teams to weigh alternative design and various production processes, quantify
manufacturing cost and make the necessary trade off decisions between the

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parts consolidation and the material/manufacturing costs. The benefits of
design for manufacturing for design are listed below:

• Minimize the total number of parts

• Simplify the design to ensure that the remaining parts are
easy to fabricate, assemble, handle and service
• Standardize where possible to facilitate desirable
productibility characteristics such as interchangeability,
interoperability, simplified interfaces, effective consolidation
of parts and function, availability of components and so
forth

2) Design for quality - It can be implemented in the system design step by

intentionally designing the product and process to be tolerant of variation.
Design engineer can convert costumer need into engineering specifications
using quality functions. It helps the translating customer needs even before
finalizing concept specifications. The conceptual definition of the product is
done in a better way by quality function, so, quality function translates the
preference of customer into products features and also establishes quality
based on fitness for use.

3) Design for Assembly (DFA) - Seeks to minimize cost of assembly within

constraint simposed by other design requirements. DFA has been the
starting point for development of a corporate DFM philosophy and the
culture change that accompanies it.

4) Design for Environment (DFE) - The designer must develop the habit of
constantly evaluating the design for safety, considering not only the
design itself but the personnel involved in fabricating the product, using the
procedure, and in maintaining and repairing the product or system as well
as the end user or purchaser. This evaluates:

• A given range of operating conditions

• A specific environmental condition
• A prescribed economic survival time

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5) Design for Environment (DFE) – It is one of the most efficient

approachesto the realisation of Concurrent Engineering. It targets at limited
number, substantial elements at once. This makes it possible to make best
use of the available resources.
DFA , DFM , DFE , DFS ….

• Key Elements
The Concurrent Engineering approach is based on the following key elements:
• The system engineering process
• A multidisciplinary, product oriented team
• An information distribution and control environment
• Supporting tools and facilities
The approach may be evolved into an Integrated Product Development (IPD) based
on cross functional Product/Process Teams for all products and services, plus a
System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Team to cover the system issues, balance
requirements between Product Teams and integrate the Teams.

SYSTEM COORDINATION - TEAM ORGANIZATION

Strict relationship between the structure of the team, the Product Tree
Team composition:
• cross functional Product/Process Development Teams (PDTs) for all products
and services,
• System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) team to cover the system issues,
balance requirements between product teams and integrate the teams.

A collaborative approach is implemented between the SE&I Team, PDTs and the
Supporting functions (Configuration Control, Data Management System, Cost
Engineering and Cost and Schedule Control).
Since engineering represents the balance point between the customer needs and
the program costs, the PDTs shall be given the means to make cost-effective
decisions.

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Need for Integrating Design with other Functions

Product designs have existed for as long as mass production has existed.
Early on, there arose a division of intellectual labor whereby the designer was
responsible for producing the design and the manufacturer was responsible for
making the actual product. A design which is thrown over the proverbial wall is
generally difficult and costly to produce, and does not necessarily conform to the
desires of the market. This functional separation and its resulting adverse effect on
the resulting product design may be repeated with other functions (such as marketing,
maintenance, or others). The remedy for this situation is to have the designer become
more aware of other's concerns within and the need to reduce development lead
time. All of these justifications for pushing concurrent engineering ideas have deep
historical antecedents. These justifications are discussed below.

6) Increased Competition

1) One justification given for the need for increased cooperation in the product
development process is an increased level of competition. There have been
claims that the level of competition has increase 'recently' at times which we
no longer consider recent.

2) For example in the claim is made that the level of competition has increased
since the beginning of the nineteenth century, and modern firms can not afford
to ignore design-manufacturing interaction issues. Similarly, in the claim is
made that the high level of competition in the 1950's requires that design and
manufacturing personnel cooperate on new product development. Economic
competition is now, and has always been, fierce. This is not a new effect.

7) New Production Methods

1) As new production methods come into service it becomes important for

knowledge about the new production processes to affect the resulting
product design to take advantage of and respond to the limitations of the
new processes. Knowledge about these processes must be made

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available to the product designer. This knowledge is often resident in the
production engineer.
1) The situation where new production processes are used will often be an
important area for ensuring that design engineers work closely with
production engineers. Among new manufacturing processes, the
development of automatic assembly techniques has been frequently cited
as requiring a higher level of integration between design and
manufacturing

8) Lead Time
1) One of the prime motivations for a concurrent engineering approach
to product development is a desire to shorten the total time that it
takes to bring a product to the marketplace. The notion that the
length of the development cycle is an important competitive
advantage and that addressing all aspects of the design problem
simultaneously might lead to a shortened development cycle is a
long-standing precept. In summary, the claimed reasons for the need
of integration of economic competition, new production processes,
and a shortening lead time are not new.

2) The notion that the length of the development cycle is an important

competitive advantage, and that addressing all aspects of the design
problem simultaneously might lead to a shortened development cycle
is a long-standing precept.

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