CONCURRENT ENGINEERING HISTORY OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING MODULE 1
1.2 HISTORY OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING
1. What things are at the core of Concurrent Engineering? a. Increased role of manufacturing process issues on product design decisions b. Formation of cross-functional teams c. Focus on meeting customer products requirements d. Lead time as competitive advantage 2. What is the cost in Concurrent Engineering practice? When is it a bad idea? a. Concurrent engineering practices are not warranted when the product is simple, or when the incremental change is marginal. b. Concurrent engineering is difficult, that is, it involves some administrative and communication overhead, as well as effort to change company culture. CONCURRENT ENGINEERING FUNDAMENTALS Alternative definitions of concurrent engineering are available, but this list is a fairly typical one. The increased role of manufacturing process design on product design decisions, the formation of cross-functional teams to accomplish the development process, a focus on the customer during the development process, and the use of lead time as a source of competitive advantage are all part of it. All products have a need to incorporate constraints imposed by the manufacturing process in the product design. Depending on which manufacturing process is considered, these effects may be encoded into formal or computer-based rules, or else may be conveyed through individual experience and expertise. Addressing these design concerns early in the development process creates the opportunity to reduce manufacturing costs and improve product quality. Often the method of accomplishing the integration of design with other functions is through the use of cross-functional teams. These teams may include people with expertise in production, marketing, finance, service or other relevant areas, depending on the type of product. Another important functional barrier is the separation between the engineering designer and the customer. Under the same philosophy of removing the designmanufacturing barrier, the designer can become more responsive to customer desires and thereby create a more successful product. This is known as design-marketing integration. Lead time has proved to be a significant facet of modern competition. By lessening the lead-time the firm is able to rapidly respond to market trends or to incorporate new technologies. A lessened lead time creates a market advantage for those firms who are able to produce products rapidly. All of these ideas, which are fundamental to concurrent engineering, have been discussed in the literature for many years before the emergence of the concurrent engineering movement. The following sections illustrate how these topics have been discussed by earlier generations of engineers.
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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING HISTORY OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING MODULE 1
NEED FOR INTEGRATING DESIGN WITH OTHER FUNCTIONS Product designs have existed for as long as mass production has existed. Early on, there arose a division of intellectual labor whereby the designer was responsible for producing the design and the manufacturer was responsible for making the actual product. Because of this division there is the opportunity for the product designer to work in ignorance of the manufacturer's constraints. The designer has been accused of 'throwing the design over the wall' which separates design from manufacturing. A design which is thrown over the proverbial wall is generally difficult and costly to produce, and does not necessarily conform to the desires of the market. This functional separation and its resulting adverse effect on the resulting product design may be repeated with other functions (such as marketing, maintenance or others). The remedy for this situation is to have the designer become more aware of other concerns within and without the organization in which s/he works. Engineering writers have long implored that these barriers be removed. There have been several distinct reasons for claiming that the role of manufacturing concerns in the design process should be increased. The most frequently repeated among these reasons are an increasing level of competition, the role of new manufacturing process, and the need to reduce development lead time. All of these justifications for pushing concurrent engineering ideas have deep historical antecedents. These justifications are discussed below. INCREASED COMPETITION One justification given for the need for increased cooperation in the product development process is an increased level of competition. There have been claims that the level of competition has increased 'recently' at times which we no longer consider recent. For example, a claim is made that the level of competition has increased since the beginning of the nineteenth century and modern firms can not afford to ignore designmanufacturing interaction issues. Similarly, another claim is that the high level of competition in the 1950's required that design and manufacturing personnel cooperate on new product development. Economic competition is now and has always been fierce. This is not a new effect. NEW PRODUCTION METHODS As new production methods come into service it becomes important for knowledge about the new production processes to affect the resulting product design to take advantage of, and respond to the limitations of the new processes. Knowledge about these processes must be made available to the product designer. This knowledge is often resident in the production engineer. Therefore, the situation where new production processes are used will often be an important area for ensuring that design engineers work closely with production engineers. Among new manufacturing processes, the development of automatic assembly techniques has been frequently cited as requiring a higher level of integration between design and manufacturing. New manufacturing processes are being developed continuously. Each manufacturing process, when it is new, requires close cooperation between the designer and the manufacturing engineer.
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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING HISTORY OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING MODULE 1
LEAD TIME
One of the prime motivations for a concurrent engineering approach to product development is a desire to shorten the total time that it takes to bring a product to the marketplace. The notion that the length of the development cycle is an important competitive advantage and that addressing all aspects of the design problem simultaneously might lead to a shortened development cycle is a long-standing precept. In summary, the claimed reasons for the need of integration of economic competition, new production processes, and a shortening lead time are not new.
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