CONCURRENT ENGINEERING: Research and Applications Computer Based Initiatives for Implementing and Sustaining Concurrent Engineering

The concepts and principles of Concurrent Engineering (CE) have been around for over a decade. In fact the literature is full of examples, studies and surveys advocating the potential accruable benefits of implementing CE. However, how to introduce it in a guided and holistic manner has received lesser attention. This paper attempts to fill this gap by reporting on a 3.5-year research study exploring and investigating the pertinent issues for CE. The research project was called PACE – a ‘Practical Approach to Concurrent Engineering’, and was a European Commission funded project consisting of a pan-European consortium. Its aim was to provide a holistic technology transfer infrastructure enabling the effective change and improvement of present engineering practices towards CE principles. The paper explores these issues based on three research questions posed at the outset of this study. The paper is split into four major sections. The first introductory part provides the rationale for this research study in terms of motivation and why the need for such a project by reviewing past studies and developments in the CE domain. This section is followed by a conceptual model which forms the basis of a CE knowledge platform. The third section reports on a set of complementary decision support tools for CE in practice. It is then argued that implementing CE successfully requires a huge cultural change in an organisation. A generic implementation support framework forms the basis for the final section before the concluding summary. Two case studies are used to illustrate the implementation of research findings and developments in multinational companies.