AReport on

IMPLEMENTATION OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

MSE G531 CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI

Submitted to:

KULDIP SINGH SANGWAN

Instructor In-Charge

Submitted by:

K.Lakshmi Priya(2009H142086P)

MAY 2009
 INTRODUCTION

DEFINITION OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

Concurrent engineering is a business strategy which replaces the traditional

product development process with one in which tasks are done in parallel and
there is an early consideration for every aspect of a product's development
process. This strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's
resources in t he design and development process to ensure effective and
efficient product development process.

Several definitions of concurrent engineering are prevalent.

The first one is used by the Concurrent Design Facility (ESA):

“ Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to integrated

product development that emphasizes the response to customer
expectations. It embodies team values of co-operation, trust and sharing in
such a manner that decision making is by consensus, involving all
perspectives in parallel, from the beginning of the product life cycle. ”

The second one is by Pennell and Winner, 1989:

“ Concurrent Engineering is a systematic approach to the integrated, ”

concurrent design of products and their related processes, including,
manufacturing and support. This approach is intended to cause the
developers from the very outset to consider all elements of the product life
cycle, from conception to disposal, including cost, schedule, quality and
user requirements.

WHEN IS CONCURRENT ENGINEERING USED?

The majority of a product's costs are committed very early in the design
and development process. Therefore, companies must apply concurrent
engineering at the onset of a project. This makes concurrent engineering a
powerful development tool that can be implemented early in the
conceptual design phase where the majority of the products costs are
committed. There are several application in which concurrent engineering
may be used. Some primary applications include product research, design,
development, re-engineering, manufacturing, and redesigning of existing
and new products. In these applications, concurrent engineering is applied
throughout the design and development process to enable the firm to reap
the full benefits of this process.

WHY DO COMPANIES USE CONCURRENT ENGINEERING?

Competitive Advantage

The reasons that companies choose to use concurrent engineering is for

the clear cut benefits and competitive advantage that concurrent
engineering can give them. Concurrent engineering can benefit
companies of any size, large or small. While there are several obstacles
to initially implementing concurrent engineering, these obstacles are
minimal when compared to the long term benefits that concurrent
engineering offers.
Increased Performance

Companies recognize that concurrent engineering is a key factor in

improving the quality, development cycle, production cost, and delivery
time of their products. It enables the early discovery of design
problems, thereby enabling them to be addressed up front rather than
later in the development process. Concurrent engineering can eliminate
multiple design revisions, prototypes, and re-engineering efforts and
create an environment for designing right the first time.
Reduced Design and Development Times

Companies that use concurrent engineering are able to transfer

technology to their markets and customers more effectively, rapidly and
 predictably. They will be able to respond to customers needs and
desires, to produce quality products that meet or exceeds the
consumer's expectations. They will also be able to introduce more
products and bring quicker upgrades to their existing products through
concurrent engineering practices. Therefore companies use concurrent
engineering to produce better quality products, developed in less time,
at lower cost, that meets the customer's needs.

IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY
__Demonstrate the importance for Concurrent Engineering
__Select a Pilot Project to Introduce Change
__Assign Resources
__Identify Strategies and Objectives
__Demonstrate the Benefits and the Need
__Enhance Knowledge
__Organisational Culture and Group Participation
__Continuous Improvement
__ Document the Output
IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY
As most changes in SME’s, Implementation of Concurrent Engineering (CE)
involves a top down- approach. The initiative of implementing CE in an SME
should be taken by the top management. By doing so implementation processes
in the organisation will have wider acceptance and participation.
Demonstrate the Importance for Concurrent Engineering
Even if top management is directly involved in the implementation process, they
need to demonstrate the importance of the implementation of CE. Assigning
resources for the CE project and initiating a pilot project to test the viability in the
organisation can demonstrate the importance.
Select a Pilot Project to Introduce Change
A Concurrent Engineering pilot project team should be launched as soon as
possible. By starting small, a degree of comfort can be generated and the risk of
making costly mistakes minimised.
Effort should be placed in selecting the right pilot project. This should be an
important project to the company, for example the introduction of a new product
rather than smaller, less complex projects requiring only incremental
improvements or enhancements to existing product lines. The team should be
provided with a clear product specification, product development target and
distinct boundaries for making product development decisions. The pilot project
team should then begin product development activities as soon as possible to
encourage the company to learn fast through experience.
Assign Resources
Setting up a task force to implement CE in the organisation, and assigning human
resources and financial support for the taskforce will help the pilot project to
move forward. The task force should be accountable for the budget and that was
allocated. Very often resources are one of the biggest obstructions for introducing
projects in SME’s.
Identify Strategies and Objectives
CE is not to be implement for the sake of implanting it. CE should only be
implemented if there is a clear need for a change and improvement. This need
should be aligned with the company’s visions, strategies, objectives, and the
underlying reasons for the change. CE is not a quick fix for persistent problems in
the organisation and short-term view will not help the implementation of CE,
since most of the benefits through changes flows into the organisation
after two to three years. Success of a pilot project can clearly demonstrate the
benefits to all involved. The implementation methodology should therefore
initially concentrate on early, positive actions that senior management and the
pilot CE project team can take to increase the likelihood of a rapid and successful
launch of CE implementation.
Demonstrate the Benefits and the Need
If possible, the taskforce should select a new product development or re-design of
a product that have really good chances to be a success as a pilot project. This will
assist in avoiding the resistance to support, and will facilitate a complete
incorporation of CE. Only people with open minds and who have willingness to
challenge old paradigms should be selected in the pilot project.
In order to win support from as many as possible for implementation CE process
in the organisation, it is essential everybody understand the need for a change.
Whether the reason is proactive (market will change), reactive (market is
changing) or crisis (market has already changed) the full understanding by
employees the motive for change will help expedite the process. Therefore, it is
advisable to give more specific information about CE to enhance the
knowledge on CE.
Enhance Knowledge
There are several possible ways to enhance knowledge about CE in an
organisation. If any of employees are knowledgeable or have experience in CE, he
or she can train and lead the pilot project; otherwise someone with the
experience on CE outside the organisation can be brought in to train for the
taskforce. A third way is to hire a knowledgeable consultant as a CE
mentor. The mentor can participate during the whole pilot project as a provider
of necessary knowledge. The mentor need to asked to make sure that everybody
in the organization understands the principles of CE and their roles in the project.
The mentor will also try to create the right culture within the team to facilitate
the teamwork.
Organisational Culture and Group Participation
A good organisational culture supports teamwork. Teamwork relies on positive
attitude of people and organisational culture. In an organisation, facilitating
interactions where they share and transfer knowledge and information will
improve the team sprit. The team needs to have the commitment to make CE a
successful process. Selecting and training leaders in new leadership skills, training
employees in team member skills, conducting few meetings with employees to
generate commitment and establishing a cross-functional implementation team
with expertise in all relevant disciplines are some of the techniques which will
enhance the teamwork and the organisational culture. Managing a change is
more effective if those required to change have a high level of ownership for the
changes required and feel that their ideas and opinions have been accounted for.
Concurrent Engineering is a cross-functional change process, as employees need
to be drawn from all parts of the organisation into multifunctional product
development teams. For Concurrent Engineering to be successful, it cannot be
driven from just one department within the organisation, and must be supported
by the managing director or chief executive officer.
The implementation methodology should bring together the managing director
and senior managers from all functions to work together to plan the changes.
Once selected, the pilot project team members should be actively involved in the
early implementation activities. They should work along side senior managers to
ensure that a cross-section of views on the change process are represented and
ownership for the implementation is widespread. This will help break some of the
hierarchical barriers that exist as well as the more traditional focus of CE on
breaking down barriers between departments. It will also introduce a process of
negotiation between managers and the team.
Continuous Improvement
The objectives, strategies and underlying reasons for the implementation of the
project should be carefully examined and decided in the planning phase of the
pilot project. A pilot project followed by a continuous improvement drive
provides a lower risk approach and minimizes the number of changes and the
amount of training that would have to be accomplished if a more ambitious start
is taken. It also enables the organisation and its members to learn gradually and
adjust their behaviours and actions to meet the changes occurring in their
environment.
Documenting the Output
Documentation is an important part of the implementation process as it ensures
that a permanent record of decisions and actions is kept for future reference.
Earlier decisions can easily be referred back to as the implementation progresses.
The implementation methodology should provide a method for easily capturing
and recording important decisions.

PREPARATION PHASE
Improve the understanding of the principles of CE
Before any further work is done the principles of CE need to be understood
by everybody involved in the organisation.
Identification of the reason(s) to improve
What are the reasons to implement CE?
· Strategy driven (proactive)
· Identified through the use of benchmarks (reactive)
· Highlighted by the occurrence of problems (crisis)
Identification of the objective for implementing CE
Based on the reason to improve, one must know what the objective (s)
is/are. The possible goals for implementing CE are given in Section 3
Form clear goals and measurements for the implementation that aligns with the
company’s strategy and the reason(s) to change
This information has to be considered while identifying strategies and
objectives.
Assign a project leader
In this stage assign a project leader who can provide necessary knowledge,
skills and experience about CE to others..
Identify which components of CE that should be used
The components and activities in the list below is a selection of the most
common used, it is mainly based on Salomone’s (1995) summary of the
basic concepts of CE.
Collaboration:
· Organisational support
Support of the top management
Support from the functions
Elevation of the project
· Multi-functional teamwork
Collective team responsibility
Team autonomy
Elimination of barriers to integration
· Leadership required for the whole project
Project staff dedicated for life of project
Elucidated and clear objectives
Elucidated and clear strategies
Team contract
Budget responsible
· Knowledge
Using existing knowledge
Training personnel for the task
· Experience
Take into account the effects of the firm’s organisational culture and prior
experience Skills
Talented and competent employees, managers and team members
Willingness to collaborate and learn
Ability to recognize one’s own strengths and weaknesses
· Mentor to support CE implementation
Technology
· Information technology
Client/Server hardware and networking software
Database software
Analysis and simulation software
Communication technology
Environment/desktop software
Computer aided tools
Co-location of personnel
Identify whether the right enablers and activities that underpin CE already exist in
the company?
The enablers can be:
a. Culture of change
b. The positive attitude
c. Good communication between different units/functions associated with
the product life cycle
d. Open organisational structures such as matrix management and
teamwork
e. The knowledge and skills to understand the company’s own needs and
potential solutions
f. Supplier and customer involvement
g. Knowledge about CE and its components
Adapt CE to the company’s circumstances
Explore if there are any specific circumstances that need to be considered.
A SWOT analysis can be very helpful in this stage to ensure that the
company’s circumstances are considered.
Identify the important points for integration
 Explore what activities can be performed in parallel? The priorities for the
project need to be considered when deciding this issue.
Determine the functions and personnel that should be involved in the CE process
Below are the most common functions that are involved in a NPD process.
· Product development
· Manufacturing engineering
· Marketing
· Sales
· Service
· Purchasing
· Finance
· Specialist vendors (e.g. machine tools and other key components)
· Main suppliers and customers
Verify that the implementation of CE doesn’t result in any adverse side effects
When implementing CE one must make sure it matches with all the other
concepts and strategies already existing within the enterprise. If there is a
mismatch somewhere it has to be solved before the implementation
process begins.
Verify that key performance indicators are in use and are aligned with the
company’s strategy and the reason to change
The CE process should not be measured by the same measurements as of
the
departments/units but have separate NPD measurements. Below are some
examples of suitable measurements for the CE process [18]:
· Project schedule/Shipment date
· Market penetration goal
· Revenue goal
· Product cost goal
· Development cost goal
· Functionality
· Expected volumes
Form an action plan for the implementation
Form a budget for the project
IMPLEMENTATION PHASE
Implement CE according to the developed implementation plan
Stabilize the CE process and collect data fore subsequent assessment
Follow the plan and monitor the milestones and measures
REVIEW AND EVALUATE PHASE
Review the results of the implementation of CE
Did the concurrent engineered processes produce the desired effect? Did
any unintended consequences or adverse side effects result?
Revise the process, if necessary
Standardize the processes to continue the improvement
Establish measures for monitoring the process for changes
REFLECT AND LEARNING PHASE
Assess the results and recommend changes
Continue the improvement where needed, standardize where possible
Seek other opportunities for improvement
Evaluate the learning from the experience

PACE MODEL FOR CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

STEP 1 Develop a Strategy

STEP 2 Assessment
STEP 3 Create the Culture
STEP 4 Prioritise Improvements
STEP 5 Plan the Change
STEP 6 Implement Improved Situation
STEP 7 Support Implementation
STEP 1 Develop a Strategy
Informal ideas for implementing CE may already exist but a top level strategy
must be formulated before proceeding. Exactly why the company must change
needs to be identified, together with a thorough implementation plan. The kick-
off activity would be to analyse long and short term business objectives - e.g. a
computer manufacturer may have reducing time to market as the primary
objective, whereas a luxury boat maker may consider quality to be critical with
time being a lesser factor. Followed by:
• Define motivation for change - assess the need for change in the organisation
and obtain buyin from all concerned. Without this any change will fail. Working
processes have to be reengineered at all levels of the business encompassing
everything from marketing, engineering and development through to
manufacturing.
• Appoint a CE team - people committed to the change need to be assigned at an
early stage. A core team of top and middle managers from across the organisation
could initially be assigned as a ‘think tank’ or an individual CE champion could be
appointed.
• Write the strategic plan - top management strategic plan outlining the reasons
for change and involving all parts of the organisation needs to be formulated at
this stage. The exact nature of the plan must be decided by the individual
organisation - according to their policies and procedures, the main point being the
involvement of everyone. The plan needs to concentrate on core aspects such as
clarifying the problem and reason for change, discussing the implications of the
chosen solution, etc. Once this is completed, set timescales and move onto
assessment in Step 2.
STEP 2 Assessment
Analyse current situation both quantitatively and qualitatively by assessing
available resources, tools and techniques. Measurements could include
benchmarking, assessment tools, questionnaires and performance metrics.
Specifically:
• Define company targets by carrying out a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats) analysis.
• Analyse core business aspects including people (determine skills, experiences
and capabilities in the company), technology (and its role in the company),
processes (count, record interactions and who is involved) and data management.
• Bottleneck analysis: Identify weaknesses in the existing system by tracking the
workflow, focusing on all the aspects mentioned above. A huge variety of
methods and techniques (both software and paper-based) are available to do this.
• Assign people from the core team to initially be responsible for these changes.
• An assessment system must be put in place and maintained by the CE
champion.
STEP 3 Create the Culture
Without support and understanding, implementation will fail. Creating a
welcoming atmosphere is very important. This will have both tangible benefits
(results) and intangible benefits (willingness to succeed). A number of measures
need to be taken in order to elicit full support.
These could typically include:
• Raising awareness - communicate the reasons for change and outline what will
happen to help create an organisation where learning and change is the normal
situation.
• Encouraging involvement - ask for opinions and ideas on the proposed changes
from all levels of the organisation.
• Holding initial training sessions - introduce the practicalities of the changes. This
can be philosophy training to give an appreciation of the big picture; and specific
training on tools and techniques CAD, QFD, etc.
• Debriefing - after the initial stages should involve top management to discuss
problems and opinions and to ensure buy-in from all-concerned.
• Applying the training - into a real job situation while it is still fresh and before
enthusiasm is lost.
The purpose of these measures is to encourage openness, ease of expression of
ideas and a common ethos amongst employees.
STEP 4 Prioritise Improvements
Constraints (either financial or otherwise) reduce change options open to most
businesses. A certain path may look ideal at first glance but without backing in
terms of available team members, equipment and time, it would be doomed to
fail. Identify suitable tools – considering product development, manufacturing
and support tools, to help achieve the proposed plan.
Investigate what is already available in-house and what would need to be
purchased. Consider the cost-benefit decision - analyse the results from the
assessment performed in step 2 to identify the weakest areas in the organisation
that are in urgent need of attention.
Prioritise bottlenecks in order of importance. Perform a cost benefit
analysis and match highest returns with business objectives, bearing in mind
budget and other resource constraints. Optimal allocations can then be made.
STEP 5 Plan the Change
Careful and appropriate planning is essential for success. The CE champion and
team representatives use results from step 4 to draw up an action plan. This plan
should:
• involve all people affected by the change
• include operational planning at a detailed level i.e. all tasks & sub-tasks and a
full reporting structure
• establish milestones/targets and anticipated interim results
• consider rate of change, resource allocation and include a Gantt chart to clearly
represent activities, timescales and targets.
There should be provision in the plan for more in-depth training on the chosen
tools and techniques as the project develops. Ensure that there is constant
feedback from the assessment/measurement tools (see step 2). This needs to
enable constant up-to-date flow of information - at the activity level - to allow
adaptation to changing circumstances and to keep the plan on target.
STEP 6 Implement Improved Situation
This step is the centre of activity and will be used to put the new system into
practice. For example if a company successfully trains its engineers in QFD and
prepares them to use the technique on future projects, but then decides not to go
ahead for financial or other reasons, this could result in disillusionment with
training and a lack of enthusiasm for future ‘management fads’. Specific stages
include carrying out the plan, monitoring deviations, adapting as necessary
(according to changes in circumstances e.g. loss of key personnel, new
technology, etc.) and installing a feedback loop. An ongoing feedback loop, to
ensure that there are no weak links in the chain, is of utmost importance at this
stage. This should be linked into the activities of the CE champion and the teams.
Feedback information also needs also to be easily accessible by senior
management - perhaps electronically via a computer network.
STEP 7 Support Implementation
This step requires a major effort to avoid reverting to previous behaviour. It is
mainly concerned with making sure that; the change process is stable, the
benefits are visible and that change is common practice. The loop is made
continuous by identifying the next improvement opportunity.
Once the first solution has been operationalised, it has to be constantly reviewed
and improved upon. Specific steps could include; on-going commitment of top
management in a visible way; contingency funding in the budget to cater for any
unexpected changes in technology, market, personnel, etc.; clear support and
communication network; track progress to ensure that what you are doing does
not become sub-optimal; and continuous training involving new staff and
updates/reviews to complement initial courses.

REFERENCES

1.Concurrent Engineering: From Concept to Implementation

Dr Kulwant S Pawar & Helen Driva,
Department of Manufacturing Engineering & Operations Management, University
of Nottingham

2.“A GUIDE TO INTRODUCING CONCURRENT ENGINEERING IN YOUR

ORGANISATION” published by Australia’s National Institute for Manufacturing
Management / Smartlink based on research conducted at the Centre for
Advanced Manufacturing Research (CAMR) at the University of South Australia.