TIE 521 Assignment on

The concept and practice of Concurrent Engineering

Prepared by BOLANLE Matthew K. 158134

Supervised by: Engr. Kolawole

Department of Industrial/Production Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan. Nigeria.

March, 2013

Concept of Concurrent Engineering

The process of concurrent engineering can be described as simultaneous engineering, lifecycle engineering, parallel engineering, multi-disciplinary team approach, or integrated product and process development. Concurrent engineering has become a common phrase used especially in manufacturing and assemblage industry. There is a peculiar and vibrant consensus that the practice of concurrent engineering has been greatly influenced by revolution in the areas of modern computing and computer technology e.g. specialized field of system modeling, behaviour simulation, computer aided designs (CAD) and complex mathematical computations. These have been the major driving force behind the increase is the practice of concurrent engineering. Incidentally, the management of a modern production/manufacturing organization is much more than the applications of advances in modern computing techniques. It however involves close interactions between different stages of production/manufacturing units such that the overall work system output is more robust, saves time and resources as compared to serial engineering.

Tenets of Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent engineering preaches the simultaneous progress of activities required in getting new products out to the paying customer as quickly as possible. An examination of successful concurrent engineering transformations in industry revealed the presence of and interaction between three underlying elements. These elements are the three (3) T's of concurrent engineering, and they are: Tools Training and Time

The three Ts of concurrent engineering are dynamic by nature, that is, the type of tools, areas of training, and realistic estimates of time constantly change in light of new innovations and discoveries. Even though the three Ts are also product-specific and company-specific, certain basic generalizations may be recognized.

Tools:
This involves the material infrastructure needed in a work system environment. The complexity of modern manufacturing/production processes is such that several interdependent units interrelate to produce the desired production output. As such, tools form the means through which these disparate units communicate with one another. An example is the Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Advances in computer networking have made it possible that information from a particular unit of a work system can be accessed by other units in real time and in a very fast manner.

Training
In practicing concurrent engineering, it is easy to program the machine part of a complex human-machine work system to interrelate, however, the human part needs to be trained to

jettison its retrogressive human tendencies and embrace the concept of team work, team spirit, knowledge transfer, process improvement and change management. As such organizations must invest in training its workforce to perform at optimum level. It is a common practice in the automotive industry for two or more competitors to pool resources together in training their workforce towards achieving their common business goals.

Time
As companies find that it is imperative to reduce the cycle time for new product development, they begin to think in terms of parallel activities. Although concurrent engineering is a relatively easy concept to understand, it takes much more for practical implementation. Reduced cycle time is just one of the many factors that affect the profit equation. The quality of the product and its cost to the customer are major determinants of success in the market. If a company is simply focused on reducing cycle time, the end result could yield poor quality products produced at premium costs in a shorter time period. This can be disastrous and depending on the extent of losses, the company may have to close its doors sooner than ever. It is safe to assume that a hurried implementation of concurrent engineering without careful planning and investment of time has a high probability of backfiring. The current trend in industry is to take the concept of concurrent engineering beyond the realms of the organization. This involves bringing in the companys suppliers and customers within the boundaries of the organization. Sometimes, this innovative idea can create barriers in terms of time for implementation.

Benefits & Conclusion

In a simultaneous engineering environment, industrial technologists can expect to have the opportunity to be actively involved in the product as it evolves from the cradle up to the end of its life cycle. The importance of concurrent engineering cannot be over-emphasized; however, care must be taken not to compromise product/service quality in face of the tremendous benefits it offers.

References
Kasuba, R. (1996). Concurrent engineering as a blending agent for engineering and engineering technology education. In World congress of engineering educators and industry leaders, UNESCO conference proceedings (pp. 463- 468). Paris, France Kelley, D. S. (1998). Web enabled engineering collaboration. Journal of Industrial Technology, 14(2), 45-47. LaCourse, D. E. (1995). Handbook of solid modeling. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Inc. Cooper, S., & Taleb-Bendiab, A. (1997). Consensus: Supporting conflict resolution through multiparties negotiation in concurrent engineering design. In Advances in concurrent engineering CE 97 (pp. 491-497). Lancaster, PA: Technomic Publishing Company. Corry, R. (1998). The LearnShare consortium: A model for the future. In Proceedings of the WebNet 98 world conference of the WWW, Internet and Intranet. Orlando, FL.