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Concurrent Engineering
Concurrent engineering, also known as simultaneous engineering or integrated
product development is a method of designing and developing products, in
which the different stages of product development run simultaneously, rather
than consecutively. It emphasizes the parallelisation of tasks (i.e. performing
tasks concurrently).

It decreases product development time and also the time to market, leading to
improved productivity and reduced costs. Hence it is better than sequential
engineering.

It is integrated approach to product-design that takes into account all stages of

a product’s life cycle from design to disposal – including costs, quality, testing,
user needs, customer support, and logistics.

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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.

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Concurrent Engineering is a long term business strategy, with long term
benefits to business. Though initial implementation can be challenging, the
competitive advantage means it is beneficial in the long term.

It removes the need to have multiple design reworks, by creating an

environment for designing a product right the first time round. Concurrent
engineering has been implemented in a number of companies, organizations,
and universities, most notably in the aerospace industry.

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.

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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.
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.

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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 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. It is also highly compatible
with systems thinking and green engineering.
Concurrent engineering replaces the more traditional sequential design flow,
or "Waterfall Model". In Concurrent Engineering an iterative or integrated
development method is used instead. 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. The difference between the two design
processes can be seen graphically

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
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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.

Challenges associated with concurrent design

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. 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.

It is important to note that although the nature of some project activities

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.
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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.
Why do companies adopt concurrent Engineering
Introducing concurrent engineering can lead to:

 Competitive Advantage- reduction in time to market means that businesses

gain an edge over their competitors.
 Enhanced Productivity- earlier discoveries of design problems means potential
issues can be corrected soon, rather than at a later stage in the development
process.
 Decrease Design and Development Time- makes products which match their
customer’s needs, in less time and at a reduced cost methods?

Need for concurrent Engineering

 Environments are constantly changing

 Actions must be quick, effective, and responsible

 Things must be done correctly the first time

 Reduce reaction time and act

 “To be competitive, corporations must alter their product and process

development cycle to be able to complete diverse tasks concurrently”

 Continuous improvement is always needed

 Focuses on optimizing and distributing resources within a company or unit

during design and development

 Collaboration is required

 Involves implementation, appraisal, and continuous improvement

initiatives

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 Must be applied throughout a system to be successful (requires strong
leadership)

How to apply concurrent Engineering

 Commitment, Planning, and Leadership

 Continuous Improvement

 Communication & Collaboration

Why to use CE principles

 Competitive Advantage

 Helps any size company (small or large)

 Increased Performance

 Improves quality, development cycle, delivery time…etc

 Reduced design and production (development) costs

 Respond better to customer’s expectations at lower costs

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