Concurrent Engineering Best Practices
Concurrent engineering continues to be a preferred best practice among engineering managers who are working to improve their new product design. Industrial manufacturing companies producing engineered products on an engineer to order (ETO) in a concurrent engineering approach (i.e. Partners from various divisions in the organizations) have traditionally found business opportunities.
'Concurrent engineering' is a term that some people may recognize. When I first began to study the discipline back in the 80s, it was at a time in our company when we were releasing products in rapid succession in order to provide many options based upon a core product.
The product had four option areas that allowed for a broader spectrum of utility. Frequency, bit rate, power, and modulation formats could all be mixed and matched to create any number of products that were widely in demand across our business sector. The basic product was a digital microwave telecommunications radio that would option to anywhere from a single T1 (1.544Mbit/s) to 28 T1s (672 channels).
We also created the same product for overseas where the T1 formats were substituted for E1. We offered high-power versions for longer-range microwave transmissions, and, in order to cover various industry sector operational frequency allowances, the carrier bands covered a large spectrum from 2.7GHz to 38GHz. Because our core product had all of the basic circuitry for the higher-level optioned products, we used a lot of new parts and modulation schemes to obtain our comprehensive scope of options.
After the initial product release from engineering to manufacturing, we discovered that we had failed to properly prepare the manufacturing side of our business for matters concerning production, test, burn-in, quality, materials, and most other aspects required by manufacturing to produce the end product. Engineering often heard the accusation that we were 'throwing the product over the wall.' This just meant that manufacturing could not see what was coming and therefore had to scramble to determine what needed to be done to produce the product. If it sounds unfair, that's because it is unfair. More to the point, it was a horrible business practice. Enter concurrent engineering.
As a best-practice, concurrent engineering is an absolutely necessary requirement for preparation of new product introductions and engineering releases to manufacturing operations. Here is what concurrent engineering involves.
All products have a few things in common: materials, feature specifications, quality requirements, assembly processes, test procedures, artwork, mechanical and electrical specifications, and environmental operational performance minimums and maximums. Every item just listed has associated departments or individuals responsible to assure product availability and performance conformity.
When a product is thrown over the wall without regard to those who are on the receiving end, the company can expect a multitude of problems to arise. There will most definitely be serious delays in production and shipping requirements. But, if all engineering disciplines get all potentially impacted parties involved during the design and test process before the product is released, then the company has an excellent chance to produce a high-quality product that will ship on time.
Every design review during development should have key representatives from operations present. Purchasing needs a heads-up for long lead-time materials and new component requirements. If purchasing can begin volume negotiations early, then the extra negotiating time may serve the purpose of allowing identification and sourcing from multiple competitors that are offering the same components at different prices.
Manufacturing engineers can begin to build fixtures in anticipation of the new products. Test engineers can write software, and additional test equipment can be included in budget proposals. Programmers can prepare program stations. Materials planners can buy risk items and schedule production manpower in advance of the actual needs.
I could add to this list of practical outcomes easily, but for now, I wanted to communicate the advantages of an 'early warning system' for products coming from engineering to manufacturing. Dragon age inquisition torrent. The project or program manager, along with the engineering manager, should determine all who should be in attendance during both development schedule reviews and design reviews. During the actual release of the product to manufacturing, the individuals who attended the various development meetings should be in on the approval and routing for the release documentation.
The fewer surprises for the manufacturing people, the more efficient the transfer of the product and the more effective the production efforts. Concurrent engineering is a tremendous discipline that also ups the morale of the entire operation. Make a list of the people who will be involved or impacted by the product transfer and invite them to a design review that is not just technical in nature. I doubt that very many invitees would not want an early look at what will be their eventual responsibilities. Put a few large windows in the wall as soon as possible, and reap the benefits of a smooth and well executed transition.
Concurrent engineering (CE) is a work methodology emphasizing the parallelisation of tasks (i.e. performing tasks concurrently), which is sometimes called simultaneous engineering or integrated product development (IPD) using an integrated product team approach. It refers to an approach used in product development in which functions of design engineering, manufacturing engineering, and other functions are integrated to reduce the time required to bring a new product to market.[1]
- 1Introduction
- 2Elements
Introduction[edit]
A 2008 publication described concurrent engineering as a new design management system that has matured in recent years to become a well-defined systems approach to optimizing design and engineering cycles.[2] Concurrent engineering has been implemented in a number of companies, organizations, and universities, most notably in the aerospace industry. Beginning in the early 1990s, CE was also adapted for use in the information and content automation field, providing a basis for organization and management of projects outside the physical product development sector for which it was originally designed. Organizations such as the European Space Agency's Concurrent Design Facility make use of concurrent design to perform feasibility studies for future missions.
The basic premise for concurrent engineering revolves around two concepts. The first is the idea that all elements of a product's life-cycle—from functionality, production, assembly, testing, maintenance, environmental impact, and finally disposal and recycling—should be taken into careful consideration in the early design phases.[3]
Tamil movie hindi dubbed youtube. The second concept is that design activities should all be occurring at the same time, i.e., concurrently. The idea is that the concurrent nature of these activities significantly increases productivity and product quality.[4] This way, errors and redesigns can be discovered early in the design process when the project is still flexible. By locating and fixing these issues early, the design team can avoid what often become costly errors as the project moves to more complicated computational models and eventually into the actual manufacturing of hardware.[5]
As mentioned above, part of the design process is to ensure that the product's entire life cycle is taken into consideration. This includes establishing user requirements, propagating early conceptual designs, running computational models, creating physical prototypes, and eventually manufacturing the product. Included in this process is taking into full account funding, workforce capability, and time requirements. A 2006 study claimed that a correct implementation of the concurrent design process can save a significant amount of money, and that organizations have been moving to concurrent design for this reason.[4] It is also highly compatible with systems thinking and green engineering.
Concurrent engineering replaces the more traditional sequential design flow, or 'Waterfall Model'.[6][7] In Concurrent Engineering an iterative or integrated development method is used instead.[8] The Waterfall method moves in a linear fashion, starting with user requirements and sequentially moving forward to design and implementation, until you have a finished product. In this design system, a design team would not quickly look backward or forward from the step it is on to fix or anticipate problems. In the case that something does go wrong, the design usually must be scrapped or heavily altered. The concurrent or iterative design process encourages prompt changes of tack, so that all aspects of the life cycle of the product are taken into account, allowing for a more evolutionary approach to design.[9] The difference between the two design processes can be seen graphically in Figure 1.
Concurrent Engineering Examples
A significant part of the concurrent design method is that the individual engineer is given much more say in the overall design process due to the collaborative nature of concurrent engineering. Giving the designer ownership is claimed to improve the productivity of the employee and quality of the product, based on the assumption that people who are given a sense of gratification and ownership over their work tend to work harder and design a more robust product, as opposed to an employee that is assigned a task with little say in the general process.[5]
Challenges associated with concurrent design[edit]
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Concurrent design comes with a series of challenges, such as implementation of early design reviews, dependency on efficient communication between engineers and teams, software compatibility, and opening up the design process.[10] This design process usually requires that computer models (computer aided design, finite element analysis) are exchanged efficiently, something that can be difficult in practice. If such issues are not addressed properly, concurrent design may not work effectively.[11] It is important to note that although the nature of some project activities project imposes a degree of linearity—completion of software code, prototype development and testing, for example—organizing and managing project teams to facilitate concurrent design can still yield significant benefits that come from the improved sharing of information.
Service providers exist that specialize in this field, not only training people how to perform concurrent design effectively, but also providing the tools to enhance the communication between the team members.
Elements[edit]
Cross-functional teams[edit]
Cross-functional teams include people from different area of the workplace that are all involved in a particular process, including manufacturing, hardware and software design, marketing, and so forth.
Concurrent product realization[edit]
Doing several things at once, such as designing various subsystems simultaneously, is critical to reducing design time and is at the heart of concurrent engineering.
Incremental information sharing[edit]
Incremental information sharing helps minimize the chance that concurrent product realization will lead to surprises. 'Incremental' meaning that 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.
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Integrated project management[edit]
Integrated project management ensures that someone is responsible for the entire project, and that responsibility is not abdicated once one aspect of the work is done.
Definition[edit]
Several definitions of concurrent engineering are in use.
The first one is used by the Concurrent Design Facility (ESA):
“ | 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. | ” |
The second one is by Winner, et al., 1988:
“ | 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.[12] | ” |
Using C.E.[edit]
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Currently, several companies, agencies and universities use CE. Among them can be mentioned:
- European Space AgencyConcurrent Design Facility
- NASATeam X - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- NASAIntegrated Design Center (IDC), Mission Design Lab (MDL), and Instrument Design Lab (IDL) - Goddard Space Flight Center
- CNES – French Space Agency
- ASI – Italian Space Agency
- Boeing
- EADS Astrium – Satellite Design Office
- The Aerospace Corporation Concept Design Center
See also[edit]
- ESA's Concurrent Design Facility
References[edit]
- ^'The Principles of Integrated Product Development'. NPD Solutions. DRM Associates. 2016. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
- ^Ma, Y., Chen, G. & Thimm, G.; 'Paradigm Shift: Unified and Associative Feature-based Concurrent Engineering and Collaborative Engineering', Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, DOI 10.1007/s10845-008-0128-y
- ^Kusiak, Andrew; Concurrent Engineering: Automation, Tools and Techniques
- ^ abQuan, W. & Jianmin, H., A Study on Collaborative Mechanism for Product Design in Distributed Concurrent Engineering IEEE 2006. DOI: 10.1109/CAIDCD.2006.329445
- ^ abKusiak, Andrew, Concurrent Engineering: Automation, Tools and Techniques
- ^'The standard waterfall model for systems development', NASA Webpage, November 14, 2008
- ^Kock, N. and Nosek, J., 'Expanding the Boundaries of E-Collaboration', IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Vol 48 No 1, March 2005.
- ^Ma, Y., Chen, G., Thimm, G., 'Paradigm Shift: Unified and Associative Feature-based Concurrent Engineering and Collaborative Engineering', Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, DOI 10.1007/s10845-008-0128-y
- ^Royce, Winston, 'Managing the Development of Large Software Systems', Proceedings of IEEE WESCON 26 (August 1970): 1-9.
- ^Kusiak, Andrew, 'Concurrent Engineering: Automation, Tools and Techniques'
- ^Rosenblatt, A. and Watson, G. (1991). 'Concurrent Engineering', IEEE Spectrum, July, pp 22-37.
- ^Winner, Robert I., Pennell, James P., Bertrand, Harold E., and Slusarczuk, Marko M. G. (1991). 'The Role of Concurrent Engineering in Weapons System Acquisition', Institute for Defense Analyses Report R-338, December 1988, p v.