Defining Sequential Engineering (SeqE), Simultaneous Engineering (SE), Concurrent Engineering (CE) and Collaborative Engineering (ColE): On similarities and differences

Abstract

A contribution to the definitions of Sequential Engineering (SeqE), Simultaneous Engineering (SE), Concurrent Engineering (CE), and Collaborative Engineering (ColE) is presented. The need for contribution to better clarification of the referred engineering and design concepts, and approaches, is because there are identified many problems in definitions found in the literature that generate misinterpretations about the underlying semantic contents presented. Among others, the most frequent problems are 1) keeping the same denominating term, or syntagm, for different semantic contents, implying different definitions, and 2) using different denominating term, or syntagm, for the same semantic contents, implying same definitions. At the end, the paper presents the table with the corresponded main, or global, “signature” attributes, along with the argumentation, distinguishing clearly all four engineering and design concepts SeqE, SE, CE, ColE.