An Activity-Based Model of Concurrent Engineering System

Abstract

The Concurrent Engineering (CE) concept is an advanced organizational concept based on idea of parallel/simultaneous and concurrent processing of the requirements of different business/enterprise’s functions such as marketing, CAD, CAM, PPC, manufacturing, etc. which application leads to radical shortening of the total production process time as well as quality improvement. The CE based organization is oriented to product and, further, it is characterized by the much higher organizational dynamics than the traditional organizational models due to frequent products change. To support this dynamics effectively, and efficiently, it is necessary to develop corresponded models of the CE process that would serve as the base for the CE based organization design. The paper presents an activity-based model of CE System, using IDEFO diagrams as the representation class, covering the concrete CE system’s life cycle, that is composed of two basic global processes: the CE system design and the CE system operation. The model refers, as well, the CE tools and control (management) processes for the CE processes presented.KeywordsProduct Life CycleVirtual EnterpriseConcurrent EngineerTraditional EnterpriseModel ofCEThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.