Production and Operations

Management

Concurrent Engineering
Lecture Session 01

You cant achieve world class

manufacturing without first
having a world class product
design

Jack M. Walker

Eng. K.C Wickramasinghe

BSc(Hons), AMIESL
Dept. of Mechanical & Manufacturing
Engineering,

Faculty of Engineering,
University of Ruhuna.

01

Concurrent Engineering
An approach used in product development in which the functions of
design engineering, manufacturing engineering and other functions
are integrated to reduce the elapsed time required to bring a new
product to market.

02

Development of a product - Traditional

Plan : Plan the product
Do
: Produce the product
Check: Check products to
make sure it was
produced in
accordance with
plan
Act : Market the product
Analyze how the
product is received
the marketplace in
terms of quality,
costs, and other
criteria

Plan
Act(Adjust)

Do

Check

03

Traditional vs. Concurrent Engineering

Design changes as a function of time

04

Traditional Engineering

Concurrent Engineering

05

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 the design and development process to ensure

effective and efficient product development process.

06

The Concept of Concurrent Engineering

07

The Concept of Concurrent Engineering

The design moves from the designer out to the experts
have the mission to conceptualize the product and optimize it
until a consensus agreement is reached on the functionality,
product ability, and cost constraints.
The design is then passed back to the designer, who resolves
conflicts in the suggested changes, modifies the design, and
sends it out again for evaluation.

08

Need for Concurrent Engineering

React to the rapid market change effectively and responsively
Reduce their time to market
Adapt changing environments
Decisions must be made quickly
Cannot wait time for repeating tasks
Bringing rapid solutions to product design and development
process.
In order to be competitive
Must alter their product and process development cycle
Able to complete diverse tasks concurrently

09

Case Study 02

10

Goals of CE
Minimize the product life cycle
Decrease production cost-Avoiding component features that are
unnecessarily expensive to produce e.g.. Specification of
surfaces smoother than necessary, wide variations in wall

thickness of an injection-molded component

Maximize production quality
Team work

11

Combined list of goals for Concurrent

Design
From the start, include all domains of expertise as active

participants in the design effort.

Resist making irreversible decisions before they must be made.
Perform continuous optimization of product and process.
Identify product concepts that are inherently easy to manufacture.
Focus on component design for manufacturing and assembly.

Integrate the manufacturing process design and product design

that best match needs and requirements.

12

Combined list of goals for Concurrent Design

Convert concept to manufacturable, salable, usable design by stating
all constraints.
Anticipate fabrication and assembly methods and problems.

Reduce number of parts.

Increase interchangeability between models.
Standardize fastener types and sizes
Identify difficult process steps for which costs and process times
cannot be predicted.

Use existing processes and facilities so that product yield is high.

Adjust tolerances to eliminate failures during assembly.
13

Combined list of goals for Concurrent Design

Identify testable areas.
Make assembly easier by minimizing setups and reorientations.
Carry out design for product ability and usability study
Design fabrication and assembly process.

Design assembly sequence.

Integrate quality control strategy with assembly.

Design each part so that tolerances are compatible with

assembly method and fabrication
Costs are compatible with cost goals.
14

Product Stages
in CE

15

Important factors in CE
Organizational Factors
Cross functional teams (team composed of experts in engineering,
production, marketing, etc)
Liaison personnel (fulltime job in coordinating separate functions)
Job rotation (temporarily or permanently)
Some helpful rule base methods

Product design methods (DFM, DFA, Design for quality, Design for
Life Cycle, etc)
Axiomatic Design, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA)

Integrated computer analysis (products are interrelated and can be

modeled effectively using computers)
16

In addition to facilitate CE..

Technologies like rapid prototyping, virtual prototyping and organizational
changes are required.

Rapid prototyping- is a new group of

technologies for
converting designs
from computer
representations
directly into
solid objects
without human
intervention.
17

In addition to facilitate CE..

Virtual prototyping is a method in the process of product
development.

It

involves

using

CAD

and

computer-aided

engineering (CAE) software to validate a design before committing to

making a physical prototype. This is done by creating (usually 3D)

computer generated geometrical shapes (parts) and either combining

them into an "assembly" and testing different mechanical motions, fit
and function. The assembly or individual parts could be opened in
CAE software to simulate the behavior of the product in the real
world.
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