Concurrent engineering’s roots in the World War II era

Abstract

A review of the literature reveals that little or nothing was written about ‘concurrent engineering’ or ‘simultaneous engineering’ before 1980. It would appear that concurrent engineering, as well as its subsets, design for manufacture (DFM) and design for assembly (DFA), are recent concepts in both management and engineering. Yet, few would doubt that these ideas have been a part of US engineering design philosophy for many decades. In the present rush to emphasize concurrent engineering, DFM, and DFA, there has been a strong tendency to reinvent practices that were common during World War II and earlier. Neglecting the lessons of history has two major disadvantages: time is wasted in developing procedures and methods that are a matter of record and effort is wasted in selling these concepts on the basis of their anticipated benefits when overwhelming historic evidence of their worth exists.