Concurrent Engineering

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EST 200, Concurrent Engineering
MEC
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Contents

• Introduction.
• Definitions.
• Concepts in Concurrent Engineering.
• Concurrent Design.
• Challenges in Concurrent Design.
• Elements of Concurrent Design.
• Why Concurrent Engineering?

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Concurrent Engineering

• Beginning in the early 1990s.
• A work methodology emphasizing the
  parallelization of tasks.
• Performing tasks concurrently.
• Also called simultaneous engineering or
  Integrated Product Development (IPD).
• Uses an integrated product team approach.

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Concurrent Engineering

• Functions of design engineering, manufacturing
  engineering, and other functions integrated to
  reduce lead time of a new product.
• Has been implemented in a number of companies,
  organizations, universities and most notably in
  aerospace industry.
• Also adapted for use in information and content
  automation field.

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Concurrent Engineering

• Provides a basis for organization and management
  of projects outside the physical product
  development sector for which it was originally
  designed.
• Use of concurrent design to perform feasibility
  studies for future missions.

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Definition

• Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a systematic
  approach to integrated product development that
  emphasizes the response to customer expectations.
  It embodies team values of co-operation, trust
  and sharing in such a manner that decision making
  is by consensus, involving all perspectives in
  parallel, from the beginning of the product life
  cycle.
• - Concurrent Design
  Facility,
• European Space Agency.

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Definition

• Concurrent Engineering is a systematic
  approach to the integrated, concurrent design of
  products and their related processes, including,
  manufacturing and support. This approach is
  intended to cause the developers from the very
  outset to consider all elements of the product
  life cycle, from conception to disposal,
  including quality, cost, schedule, and user
  requirements.
• - Winner, et
  al., 1988.

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Concepts in Concurrent Engineering

• Basic premise for concurrent engineering revolves
  around two concepts.
• All elements of a product's life-cyclefrom
  functionality, production, assembly, testing,
  maintenance, environmental impact, and finally
  disposal and recyclingshould be taken into
  careful consideration in the early design phases.

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Concepts in Concurrent Engineering

• Design activities should all be occurring at the
  same time, i.e., concurrently.
• Concurrent nature of activities significantly
  increases productivity and product quality.
• Errors and redesigns to be discovered early in
  the design process when the project is still
  flexible.
• Locate and fix errors at the earliest.
• Redesign costs escalate during later stages.

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Concurrent Engineering

• Design team to avoid what often become costly
  errors as the project moves to more complicated
  computational models and eventually into the
  actual manufacturing of hardware.
• Design process to ensure that product's entire
  life cycle is taken into consideration.

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Concurrent Engineering

• Design teams to establish user requirements,
  propagate early conceptual designs, run
  computational models, create physical prototypes,
  and eventually manufacture the product.
• To take into full account funding, work force
  capability, and time requirements.

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Concurrent Engineering

• Correct implementation of concurrent design
  process can save a significant amount of money.
• Highly compatible with systems thinking and green
  engineering.
• Iterative or integrated development method.
• Concurrent engineering to replace the more
  traditional sequential design flow, or "Waterfall
  Model.

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Interactions

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Waterfall Model
Sequential Development Method
Step by Step No look back or forward
Moves in a linear fashion
Design scrapped or heavily altered if something
goes wrong. .
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Sequential Engineering
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Concurrent Engineering
Evolutionary approach to design
Prompt changes of tack
Iterative Development Method
All aspects of product life cycle considered
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Concurrent Engineering
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Concurrent Design

• Collaborative nature.
• Individual engineer is given much more say in the
  overall design process.
• Giving the designer ownership claimed to improve
  the productivity of the employee and quality of
  the product.
• People when given a sense of gratification and
  ownership over their work tend to work harder and
  design a more robust product.

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Challenges in Concurrent Design

• Implementation of early design reviews.
• Dependency on efficient communication between
  engineers and teams.
• Software compatibility.
• Opening up the design process.
• Design process usually requires that computer
  models (computer aided design, finite element
  analysis) are exchanged efficiently.

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Challenges in Concurrent Design

• Exchanges can be difficult in practice.
• Issues to be addressed properly for concurrent
  design to work effectively.
• Organizing and managing project teams to
  facilitate concurrent design can still yield
  significant benefits that come from the improved
  sharing of information.

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Challenges in Concurrent Design

• To train people how to perform concurrent design
  effectively.
• To provide necessary tools to enhance the
  communication between the team members.

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Key Elements of Concurrent Engineering

• PPT Framework or the Golden Triangle.

Tools, technologies and training needs
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Elements of Concurrent Design

• Cross-functional teams.
• - People from different area of workplace
  involved in a particular process, including
  manufacturing, hardware and software design,
  marketing, and so forth.
• Concurrent product realization.
• - Doing several things at once.
• - Designing various subsystems simultaneously
  critical to reducing design time.

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Elements of Concurrent Design

• Incremental information sharing.
• - As soon as new information becomes available,
  it is shared and integrated into the design.
• - Cross-functional teams are important to the
  effective sharing of information in a timely
  fashion.
• - To minimize the chance that concurrent product
  realization will lead to surprises.

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Elements of Concurrent Design

• Integrated project management.
• - Ensures that someone is responsible for
• the entire project.
• - Coordinating simultaneous design of
• various subsystems.

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Why Concurrent Engineering?

• Increasing global competitive pressure that
  results from the emerging concept of
  reengineering.
• Need for rapid response to fast-changing consumer
  demand.
• Need for shorter product life cycle.
• Developing numerous products at the same time.

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Why Concurrent Engineering?

• New and innovative technologies emerging at a
  very high rate.
• New product may become technological obsolete
  within a short period.
• Increasing product variety and technical
  complexity.
• Market share and profitability are the major
  determinants of the success.

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Why Concurrent Engineering?

• A vehicle for change in the way the products and
  processes are designed, manufactured, and
  distributed.
• To achieve the objectives of reduced cost, better
  quality, and improved delivery performance.

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Merits

• It encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration.
• Reduces product cycle time.
• Reduces cost.
• Increases quality by supporting the entire
  project cycle enhanced quality.
• Increases productivity by stopping mistakes in
  their tracks.
• Gives a competitive edge over the competitors.

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Drawbacks

• Complex to manage.
• Relies on everyone working together hence
  communication is critical.
• Room for mistakes is small as it impacts all the
  departments or disciplines involved.

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Comments

• Concurrent engineering is a systematic
  approach to the integrated, concurrent design of
  products and their related processes, including
  manufacture and support. This approach is
  intended to cause the developers from the outset,
  to consider all elements of the product life
  cycle from conception to disposal, including
  quality, cost, schedule, and user requirements.

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Concurrent?