Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent Engineering [ Home | Links ] Updated 2003-10-06 Concurrent Engineering Vincent Chan and Filippo A. Salustri Introduction Traditionally, design and manufacturing have been separate engineering departments. The trend today has been to combine these functions and form design teams. This systems approach to product design has led to reduced lead times and reduced problems in manufacturing. One of the resulting major changes to manufacturing philosophy in embodied in a process called concurrent engineering. The design stage of concurrent engineering is sometimes called concurrent design. Concurrent engineering may be defined as: A systematic approach to integrated, simultaneous design of products and their related processes, including manufacturing and support. Thus, concurrent engineering is a paradigm shift away from serial or sequential engineering, to a process where all relevant departments are involved in the design process from the very beginning. This interaction should compress the development cycle and reduce the time-to-market for a new product. Factors such as global competition and ever-faster-changing consumer demands have placed new challenges on manufacturers. Some of the benefits that can be gained from concurrent engineering are: ● customers are consulted during and throughout the design process; their expectations will more likely be met. ● improved design quality, leading to fewer changes after manufacturing starts. ● reduced product development and design times. ● reduced production costs due to fewer design changes and faster product development. ● reduced delays that often lead to loss of market share. http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/t/dfmce.html (1 of 11)2004/07/30 12:36:06 •.• Concurrent Engineering ● quicker product turnover. ● increased reliability and customer turnover. The four pillars of concurrent engineering Obviously, the key element of concurrent design is the co-ordinated activities between all the stakeholders in the process. Beyond this, four areas have been identified upon which the success of any concurrent design rests. Organisation People must be motivated to change their traditional work habits to share ideas, offer ideas, and accept the ideas of others. There must be an unhindered exchange of ideas and information. This challenges the way companies have been organised in the past, i.e. into discipline-based departments (mechanical, electrical, software, hardware, manufacturing, quality assurance, etc.) Management must be flexible enough to build teams with representation from all departments. The organisation of a company that implements concurrent practices is such that conventional departments are subservient to project-based teams. Communication Not only must the different groups be able to understand each other (e.g. marketing and engineering), but the infrastructure, such as computer hardware and software to support them, must be compatible. There must be an easy transfer of information relating to the product's development. For example, designers must be able to access marketing data, and CAD and CAM formats must be compatible. Workflows within departments must account for workflows in other departments to ensure that individual workers can participate in the project, not in the department's activities. Product design specification This is the "formal" description of the problem to be solved. Most importantly, it represents an agreement between the product developers and the clients/users on what exactly is needed of the product. It provides a goal towards which the whole team must work. Although in real life, requirements can and do change, by having everyone working towards a "goal post" the number of design changes and iterations before production is reduced. http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/t/dfmce.html (2 of 11)2004/07/30 12:36:06 •.• Concurrent Engineering Product development Product development is the process used to get from the PDS to the total design of the product, ready for production. Refer to the section on the design process for details. Concluding remarks Implementing concurrent engineering is not easy, especially if not everyone in a company agrees that it is necessary. Consider the following article (reprinted without permission for teaching purposes). A Bet Chrysler Can't Afford to Lose by Doron P. Levin, New York Times, 26 August, 1991. AUBURN HILLS, Mich. Designing a car from scratch is an immense financial bet, and one an auto maker must be strong enough to lose. The Chrysler Corporation may not have that luxury with its latest car project, which is being hurried toward completion next summer. Chrysler's new family of midsize cars, which have been given the code name L/H, will sell for $15,000 to $20,000. The cars will contain Chrysler's first all-new configuration of body and chassis since the plucky K-car of a decade ago, when the company was near bankruptcy. The L/H project is important for Chrysler not just because it may be a last chance for the company to recapture some of its shrinking market share, but because the 744-member design team is modeled on a Japanese project team. Its success or failure will be crucial for Chrysler in finding out whether it can produce vehicles that can compete with Japanese models. Japanese auto makers appoint engineers and planners with diverse skills to work in close-knit project teams. typically, top executives interfere very little after a car's size, shape and target buyers are decided upon. In the United States, however, auto makers have done the opposite. Planners and engineers are borrowed from larger departments, like those dealing with brakes or engines. These employees usually maintain their loyalty to department bosses instead of to their design http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/t/dfmce.html (3 of 11)2004/07/30 12:36:06 •.• Concurrent Engineering teams, and their decisions may often be overruled by any number of top executives outside the design teams. At Chrysler, new models often embodied the compromises, mistakes and delays that resulted from such a system. To maintain a health distance from meddling executives and to keep their own lines of communication short, L/H team members were assigned to a small, one-story office building here in Detroit's northern suburbs, 20 miles from Chrysler's engineering headquarters. Eventually, the team will have a separate floor of the $1 billion Chrysler Technology Center under construction nearby. On most days, those team members who are not lcoked in continuous meetings, which start as early as 7 A.M., are hunched before the color monitors of computer work stations or scurrying about with scrolled drawings. A small mock-up room is crammed with steel, plastic, or wood prototypes, known as "bucks." Struck by the importance of the L/H to Chrysler's future and their own jobs, people here often work on Saturdays and Sundays - voluntarily, for there is little money for over-time pay. Stretching the Resources Chrysler will barely have the resources to complete the project, a situation emphasized by its recently proposed equity offering, meant to raise $500 million. Chrysler would not be selling stock at severely depressed prices unless it was desperate, many financial analysts say. But even a wirthy design may fail to generate adequate sales. The L/H cars, representing an investment of more than $1 billion to replace poorly selling models like the Eagle Premier, Chrysler New Yorker and Dodge Dynassty, might still flop in a weak economy. The L/H models (said to be named the Chrysler Concorde and Eagle Vision, with the new Dodge as yet unnamed) could also flounder if the civiously competitive midsize car market becomes so crowded with Toyota Camrys, Ford Tauruses and Chevrolet Luminas that prices collapse and profit margins evaporate. In either case, most experts say Chrysler would have to seek a financial rescue or a merger. But if the L/H stumbles because the cars are panned by reviewers of http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/t/dfmce.html (4 of 11)2004/07/30 12:36:06 •.• Concurrent Engineering scorned by consumers, Chrysler's fundamental design and engineering competence would fall under such harsh scrutiny from suppliers, lenders and shareholders that new loans or investments would be more difficult to obtain. A Spunky Optimism Bucking those grim possibilities is Chrysler's spunky optimism, fueled by glowing preliminary reviews of L/H prototypes, which have been examined and driven in recent months by automotive writers, suppliers and analysts. The L/H is notable for a chassis design that provides exceptional interior space for a car of its size. The performance, styling and comfort represent vast improvements over current models, many people in the industry say. Talal el-Awad, who supervises development of interior trim parts like armrests and door locks for the L/H, said the doom-saying that had resulted from Chrysler's recent poor performance does not faze him. "What you read isn't that important," he said. "People inside know we are going to make it." Cutting Development Time Mr. Awad's upbeat assessment is shared widely by his colleagues, especially G. Glenn Gardner, head of the L/H team. Mr. Gardner and Fransis Castaing, vice president of engineering, helped persuade Chrysler's top management to try a project-team system. Mr. Gardner had first seen it in action in 1989 after serving nearly five years as chairman of Diamond-Star Motors, Chrysler's joint venture with the Mitsubishi Motor Corporation. Mr. Gardner's goal was to cut the normal 51-month development cycle to 42 months or less, and to authorize relatively junior engineers and planners to determine precisely what characteristics the L/H cars would have. Mr Gardner is said to have exceeded the goal by three months. By compressing deadlines for production of prototypes, L/H engineers gained more time for testing actual vehicles in the real world, he said. Tests of the engines and transmissions, in particular, have been made longer and more rigorous.

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