Implementation Of Concurrent Engineering Research Articles

Concurrent Engineering Model for the Implementation of New Products in the Textile Industry: A Case Study

Concurrent engineering (CE) aims to provide a collaborative environment in which all involved parties work simultaneously to optimize resources. However, some aspects can make it hard to implement in organizations. This study presents the development of a CE model and its implementation in a Mexican textile maquiladora. The information about the process was obtained using administrative and quality tools (brainstorming, Pareto and Ishikawa charts, flowcharts, spreadsheets). A CE model based on the management of new products was designed, in consideration of the enterprise culture. The workgroup evaluated the proposed model in two projects to verify the functionality. The time for the development and approval of prototypes was reduced from three months to one. Now the process has a robust design, having identified design problems, potential operator errors, and bottlenecks. Losses from raw material replacements and reworks decreased by 39.4%, and there was an additional cost saving of 22.86%. CE implementation is not easy; the firsts steps are to change the organizational culture and the training of employees to work collaboratively.

Evaluation of Implementation Preparation for CE based on BEACON model —Taking Construction Enterprises in Yemen as a Case of Illustration

After decades of civil war, Yemen is in a desperate situation, and the construction industry has been suffering from low productivity and poor performance. In order to improve the productivity for the Yemeni construction industry, Construction enterprises must adopt the best and new technologies, new management concepts and philosophies such as Total Quality Management (TQM) and concurrent engineering (CE) owing to achieve improvements in the process of product development. To ensure the successful implementation of CE in the Yemeni construction industry, it is necessary to assess the readiness of those companies to implement CE. In this paper, the BEACON model is used to assess the readiness of the Yemeni companies to implement the concept of CE, that assist in overcoming the construction industry's poor productivity and performance. A study assessing CE implementation readiness will help to promote successful CE implementation in the construction industry and enhance the efficiency of construction companies. The results show that most of the construction companies in the Yemen are not ready to implement CE. The main reason is that the enterprises rely heavily on traditional management methods, and need to improve the organization and management technology. The research results can provide theoretical support for construction companies, especially Yemen companies, to establish basis in implementing an appropriate CE approach for improving performance, and also help international construction companies entering the Yemen construction market to cooperate and implement CE.

Innovation in solar vehicles: From concept to prototype in less than 24 months

The present article describes the integrated path used for the conceptual, functional and constructive design of an exclusive multi-occupant solar-powered vehicle. The project was based on the massive implementation of concurrent engineering and quality tools, rarely used in such an integrated way, featuring a novel and attractive design, 3D CAD modelling, structural and fluid dynamics validations, in-scale rapid prototyping, functional tests, multi-objective optimization, parts manufacturing and assembly. Thanks to this approach, the solar car prototype presented high technological contents, especially in terms of materials, structures and processes. Furthermore, large CNC-machined multi-material molds and hybrid manufacturing solutions were adopted to speed up the production phase allowing to move from the initial concept to the final prototype within 24 months. Since June 2018, the solar vehicle is on the road transporting 4 people, weighing less than 300kg, reaching speeds of 120km/h and able to travel hundreds of kilometers with zero-emission and no fuel consumption.

Total Quality Management, Concurrent Engineering and Manufacturing Performance: An Empirical Investigation

The purpose of the research is to empirically investigate the relationships among the dimensions of total quality management, concurrent engineering, and manufacturing performance for a sample of 204 Indian manufacturing managers. Using the resource-based view, a theoretical framework is proposed. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships between the dependent and the independent variables. Our research empirically indicates, that the dimensions of total quality management and concurrent engineering have a positive impact on each other and on the manufacturing performance the firm. However, customer focus was not found to have a significant impact on cost performance. The results of the study may not be generalizable as the study was conducted only in India. As future research, the relationships may be explored in other countries and cross-country differences may be investigated. To the best of our knowledge, no study has previously investigated the linkages between the dimensions of total quality management, concurrent engineering, and manufacturing performance in a unified context. Such investigations are crucial as the results of the research may provide a concrete support for the simultaneous implementation of total quality management and concurrent engineering and motivate more organizations to engage in such practices. Understanding the interlinkages between dimensions of these practices and the performance outcomes will also provide a theoretical as well as a practical platform for organizations to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

A Statistical Comparison of the Implementation of Concurrent Engineering in Jordanian Industry

In this paper, a statistical comparative investigation of the implementation of Concurrent Engineering (CE) in Jordanian Industry is introduced, practices of CE are reviewed, then mapped into six statistical latent. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is developed for the implementation of CE, then the model is applied to the following Jordanian industrial sectors: chemical and cosmetics industries, engineering and electrical industries and information technology, wood and furniture industries, and construction industry. The implementation level for the six CE practices among the selected sectors is investigated; a statistical comparative analysis between the considered industrial sectors is conducted. Thereafter, a system dynamics model is developed to understand the true CE trade-offs, which is used as a validity measure to insure that the proposed statistical model and hypotheses are valid.

Concurrent Engineering for Uppers Stream Process of Stamping Dies

The new-product development process is very important to manufacturing companies in all the product being developed. The product being developed must meet all internal company processes, customer requirement and to be delivered at the planned time. The modern approach in new product development is concurrent engineering. This paper reviews the concurrent engineering development and practices in several countries and industry. An investigation on concurrent engineering approach to selected manufacturing companies were conducted and analyzed. Concurrent engineering implementation is moderate due to organizational, tools and communication barriers. Secondly, the use of digital tools such as Electronic Data Management/Computer Aided Engineering/Computer Integrated Manufacturing is low. To ensure the success of concurrent engineering for critical process in new product development such as stamping process, the stamped part accuracy and considerable processing timings are the key factors.

ANALYSIS OF A METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENT

This study presents an implementation of concurrent engineering (CE) and an analytical network process to form a new rating method as part of the manufacturing process and material analysis in the product development environment. The proposed procedure is referred to as a concurrent network (CN). It is planned for CN to carry out simultaneous analysis of all aspects of product elements by using CE strategy. Furthermore, CN enables interdependence and interrelationship analysis between product elements by implementing ANP. In this study, CN is utilized for the manufacturing process and material analysis of a metal matrix composites (MMCs) automotive component which is the brake disc. The results show that by using CN, all the product parameters can be analyzed comprehensively and the importance weights of the product parameters with regard to the MMCs brake disc performance are obtained. It is concluded that in the manufacturing process cluster the primary process parameter has the highest score, while in the material cluster the ranking is dominated by mechanical properties. This means that these sub-conceptual parameters are the most important ones to consider in order to achieve the required performance of the product.

Concurrent Engineering Implementation Assessment: A Case Study in an Indonesian Manufacturing Company

Concurrent Engineering or Simultaneous Engineering has been utilized by companies since 1980s as an approach to design a new product in integrative manner. It replaces traditional product development method which is a serial process with little coordination between different functions and lack of product life cycle perspectives. Concurrent Engineering (CE) offers opportunity for creating new products in short time while maintaining the highest quality at lowest cost which is considered to answer today's market demand. While benefit of CE is promising, implementing CE is not easy. There are a vast amount research that uncover difficulties during CE implementation. However, study of CE implementation in Indonesian company is only a few. One of them is conducted in 1998 at company X, one Indonesian high technology industry. Thus, this research aims to re-evaluate progress of CE implementation in company X today. In this research, CE implementation achievement level in company X is assessed by using Simultaneous Engineering Gap Analysis (SEGAPAN) and Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). The result shows that management's role, cultural change, and the cross functional team are three factors that have the least level of CE implementatation compliance. In other words, these three factors are the most difficult barrier to implement CE successfully in company X. Next, Five Whys method is utilized to investigate the root cause of these impediments and some recommendations are proposed to reduce or to eliminate these CE implementation impediments accordingly.

Enabling Lean Design Through Computer Aided Synthesis: The Injection Moulding Cooling Case

This paper explores the application of Computer Aided Synthesis (CAS) to support the implementation of Set-Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) and Just In Time Decision Making (JIT-DM), which are considered as two of the cornerstones of the Lean Design method. Computer Aided Synthesis refers to a next generation computational tools that automates the process of generating candidate solutions to ill-defined design problems. The design of injection moulding is used to demonstrate the rationales of the approach. This is a well-known complex and time-consuming industrial design process that generally involves rework time as a consequence of the design iteration loops performed between mould design and part design. The paper presents a tool to automate the design of cooling systems and shows how it supports the application of SBCE and JIT-DM to enable an increase in design process efficiency and effectiveness. The paper finishes with a general discussion on the enabling role that CAS tools have on the implementation of lean design practices.

The development of a generic framework for the implementation of concurrent engineering

Implementing CE successfully requires a huge cultural change in an organisation. This paper presents a generic concurrent engineering (CE) implementation support framework, how it was derived and why the PACE project consortium considers that it encapsulates the pertinent issues of change towards CE. PACE - a 'Practical Approach to Concurrent Engineering' - is an EC project consisting of a pan–European consortium. Its aim is to provide an holistic technology transfer infrastructure enabling the effective change and improvement of present engineering practices towards CE principles. The methodology behind it is generic, but designed to be adaptable to specific company needs. It is especially aimed at showing how to implement CE in an ordinary company i.e. not using a 'super–motivated' project team. It is based on the steps of change management in the specific context of CE and provides a structure for implementation, drawing on literature and experiences of the project's industrial partners.

A Blackboard-Based Architecture for Modular Product Design

A blackboard-based architecture is developed for modular product design for the implementation of concurrent engineering. This proposed approach adopts blackboard-based techniques including blackboard, knowledge sources, agents and control module. The Workflow Automation through Agent-Based Reflective Processes (WARP) approach is used to collect the requirements and to build this model for the product development. This WARP approach entails an agent-based architecture that supports the bottom-up configuration, reconfiguration, and workflow-based services of reusable distributed design for X. Furthermore, a prototype system is created on Java, Jess and Jade platform. A specific case of bicycle part design is studied through the use of prototype system to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of the model. The blackboard-based architecture shows to take lesser time and cost in evolutionary cooperative and concurrent product design. It will greatly enhance the capability of companies to satisfy the diverse customer requirements.

Manufacturing in a Concurrent Engineering Environment in Developing Nations: A tutorial review

This paper discusses the need for implementation of Concurrent Engineering (CE) in less industrialized nations with the situation in Zimbabwe being focused on. The CE environment in a global arena is being highlighted and its tools for success are discussed in detail. The paper explores the implementation of Concurrent Engineering as a new trend in engineering and Management in the less industrialized nations, which addresses three main areas: people, process, and technology. The expectations of engineering graduates which will continue to change significantly in light of the popularity of CE philosophy are also discussed. The paper also focuses on major hindrances to the implementation of CE. Lessons for Companies in less industrialized nations like Zimbabwe are drawn from international role models in CE such as Boeing’s Ballistic System Division and NCR. The author managed to put various literature of different researchers together since a lot of literature on concurrent engineering is scattered.

The transformation of product development process into lean environment using set-based concurrent engineering: A case study from an aerospace industry

This article presents a transformation process towards lean product development in an aerospace industry. This transformation was achieved in two main stages: the first was to integrate the principles of set-based concurrent engineering into an existing product development model of an aerospace company. This stage included defining activities and associated tools. The second stage was to implement the developed model in a research-based industrial case study, a helicopter engine in this case. Three main outcomes were realised from this work. First, it presented an industrial case of lean transformation in product development, where the leanness of an existing model was enhanced by embedding set-based concurrent engineering principles. Second, the developed model was structured into a set of well-defined activities and associated tools that were previously scattered or redundant. Finally, the developed model was trialled in an industrial project of a helicopter engine, tested to evaluate its value in enhancing the innovation level and reducing risk. The work presented in this article focused on early stage system level design, and future work will extend the implementation of set-based concurrent engineering to sub-system and component levels.

A Contribution for a Pragmatics-Based Approach to Concurrent Engineering Implementation

The paper investigates how a pragmatics-based approach may influence Concurrent Engineering (CE) implementation projects. Pragmatics, a field of semiotics, is used as a perspective for analyzing, as an instrument for constructing manufacturing systems and, in this particular research, as an instrument for CE implementation projects. In particular, as a part of the CE implementation methodology, modeling and the effects of different interpretations (as pragmatics aspects) of the assessment of processes’ simultaneity in a manufacturing organization are studied. The underlying thesis is that different interpretations significantly influence the perception of the organization’s reality, which has an impact on the project’s success. As a representation class, the so-called Simultaneity (Concurrency) Matrix (SCM) was used for simultaneity process assessment. The thesis is validated in two manufacturing companies. The results suggest that further improvements of the CE implementation methodologies, when using the pragmatics-based approach, lead to better quality of decisions and provide some assurance for the success of short-time and low-cost CE implementation projects.

The concept of DSM AND ADT INTEGRATION in the PRODUCT DESIGN PROCESS

In manufacturing, product design is often very complex and requires the participation of a large number of services and material resources. Managing these resources can be very costly in terms of time, risk and money. The use of well-known tools (e.g. PERT, CPM and Gantt) alone cannot establish a detailed andoptimized planning in the execution of different stages and tasks of a project. To address this problem theDesign Structure Matrix (DSM) and the Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT) appear to be an interesting solution.This paper presents a DSM and ADT integrated tool as a part of the decomposition-integration problem inproduct design development process, where the latter is more concerned with mapping customer’s needs from functional requirements to design parameters, while the former is better suited to modelling the interactions and the integration of the design parameters. It also presents some algorithms related to both DSM and ADT used for manipulating projects-based DSM information, coordination and timing requirements, and provides a complementary between them. The discussion in this paper addresses the implementation of concurrent design engineering which is the greatest challenge faced by design managers.

Implementation of concurrent engineering to Phase B space system design

Concurrent engineering (CE) has been in use within the space industry since the mid-1990s for the development of robust, effective design solutions within a reduced period of time; to date, however, such applications have focussed on Phase 0/A feasibility studies, with the potential for application in later phases not yet demonstrated. Applications at the DLR Institute of Space Systems have addressed this gap with practical attempts made on three satellite projects. The use of Phase 0/A CE techniques, such as dedicated CE sessions, online trade-offs, and design iterations and consolidation, was taken and augmented with more novel practices such as online requirements engineering. Underlying these practices was a suite of tools coming from both external and internal sources. While it is noted that the traditional time and cost benefits expected from Phase 0/A use are less likely to be achieved for Phase B applications, the resulting solutions demonstrated an increased robustness and performance.

Integrating numerical tools in underground construction process

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the time frame for the execution of a construction project in Algeria is rarely respected because of organizational problems and uncertainties encountered while the execution is underway.Design/methodology/approachA case study on the construction of a metro station is used as a pilot project to show the effectiveness of replacing traditional construction processes by more innovative procedures. Concurrent engineering (CE) is applied to optimize the execution time of the underground structure. A numerical simulation is integrated into the construction process in order to update design parameters with real site conditions observed during the construction process.FindingsThe results show that the implementation of CE is efficient in reducing the completion time, with an 18 per cent reduction observed in this case study. A cost reduction of 20 per cent on the steel frame support and a total cost reduction of 3 per cent were obtained.Research limitations/implicationsThe study demonstrates that the application of CE methods can be quite valuable in large, complex construction projects. Vulgarizing it as “the solution” to adjust time frame delay, control quality and cost, might be an issue for local construction enterprises in Algeria.Originality/valueUsing the concept of CE by overlapping different activities involved in a construction project and making use of simulation tools in the process at different stages of the execution have resulted in modifying the excavation method and hence reducing the completion times.

The effect of uncertainty and resource constraints on concurrent engineering projects

Concurrent Engineering (CE) requires careful planning and analysis due to the uncertainties caused by the parallel execution of activities. In this paper, a probabilistic mathematical model fitted to precedence relations is proposed to estimate the project completion time under uncertainty and resource constraints. A computer program was prepared in C++ to simulate the randomness in the process. The major benefits of the model developed are two-fold. Firstly, it allows users to consider uncertainty and resource constraints before CE implementation. Secondly, trade-off analysis between resources available vs. project completion time can be carried out in advance to allocate resources accordingly.

Implementing Concurrent Engineering

OVERVIEW:The use of concurrent and sequential engineering for new product development was compared in one technology-intensive company. Overall, concurrent engineering (CE) led to shorter development time and better performance. The study also established a framework for the systematic implementation of CE, involving process, people, tools and technology, metrics, organizational support, buy-in, and benefits and barriers to success. Among those barriers: lack of business unit and top management support, difficulty setting requirements at the concept stage, and lack of early involvement by Marketing.

Implementing concurrent engineering

OVERVIEW:The use of concurrent and sequential engineering for new product development was compared in one technology-intensive company. Overall, concurrent engineering (CE) led to shorter development time and better performance. The study also established a framework for the systematic implementation of CE, involving process, people, tools and technology, metrics, organizational support, buy-in, and benefits and barriers to success. Among those barriers: lack of business unit and top management support, difficulty setting requirements at the concept stage, and lack of early involvement by Marketing.