Concurrent Engineering Final

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

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Concurrent Engineering

Objectives Explain what is Concurrent Engineering Explain the importance of Concurrent Engineering Define and explain the basics elements of Concurrent Engineering Brief explanation of Concurrent Engineering evolution

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING With the latest development due to globalization, business unit may have the capacity to deal with the increasing competition. This is possible only by drastic organizational productivity improvement. One of the tools to achieve the organizational productivity improvement is called Concurrent Engineering. If there is a delay of three months in bringing a product to the market, it would cause an enormous loss to the organization by way of reduced market share. A systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of products and to their related implementation, including operational aspects, whereby designers/ developers process simultaneously and since go ahead, all requirements of the product life cycle, from concept through delivery, includingquality, cost, schedule and user requirements. Concurrent Engineering, also called parallel or simultaneous engineering, is a new philosophy, viewed by most corporations as a means to competitive, world class manufacturing. It strives to do the right job the first time. It results from the synthesizing the two fundamental observations which are given below: 1.

The changes become more costly , and these changes are incorporated in the project later.

2. Performing different steps of a project in parallel, would complete the project more quickly than executing the steps sequentially, one after the another. Therefore concurrent engineering can be defined as: 1) A philosophy of product development: Integrating multiple design issues 2) A method of product design: Integration of multidisciplinary folks into the design team 3) A method to lead people: Design issues are represented in the people 4) It is not the “over the wall”

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

TRADITIONAL ENGINEERING

VS.

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

In traditional engineering a relatively short time is spent defining the product. A relatively long time is spent designing the product and a surprisingly long time is often spent redesigning the product. The key to shortening the overall design time is to better the product and better document the design process. Traditionally, the development of a product had been seen as a cycle of plan...do...check...act...(adjust). Concurrent engineering is a process in which appropriate disciplines are committed to work interactively to conceive, approve, develop, and implement product programs that meet pre-determined objectives define

Example of design changes as a function of time for an American and Japanese automobile. Source: Engineering Modeling and Design, Chapman, Bahill & Wymore (see reference 1.A).

This is the relatively recent term which is applied to the engineering design philosophy of cross-functional cooperation in order to create products which are better, cheaper, and more quickly brought to market.

This new trend reunites

technical and non technical disciplines such as engineering, marketing and accounting. Always focusing on satisfying the customer, these representatives work together in defining the product to be manufactured. Various organizations follow a plethora of product and process development cycle. Characterizing the phases of the product development cycle helps to put in perspective some of the organizational issues involved. The phases are: N. C. COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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1.

Mission statement: it is also known as design brief or charter. I should contain a general description of the product, target market segments, and the customer categories and specify business goals so as to market share, profit margins and the product’s projected life cycle.

2.

Market and concept definition: Consumers demands are identified by various market survey techniques; benchmark studies are conducted, the functional technical design requirement are identified, design and manufacturing feasibility is determined and cost estimates are projected.

3.

System level concept generation and selection: various design concepts that satisfy the functional design requirements are generated. Design satisfying these requirements in terms of quality, cost and delivery is selected and the product architecture is determined.

Mission statement Market & concept Definition System level Concept generation & Selection Detail Product Design Prototype testing & refinement Process & Production Planning & Control Production Ramp-up

Development time Start Date

4.

Detailed

Launch Date

product

design:

Detailed

specification

of

product

dimensions , materials and tolerances are made. Special and standard components are identified & make or buy decisions are made.

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

5.

Prototype testing and refinement: prototypes of the selected design are tested for functionality, manufacturing and assembly feasibility, reliability & cost.

6.

Process planning , Production planning and Control: Actual production processes of the final deign are planned.

Production

control and quality assurance plans are drawn up. 7.

Production Ramp-up and Refinement: in this final phase a pilot production is run is carried out with the purpose of familiarizing and the training the workforce, discovering the correcting production problems before full production level s are reached. Subsequently, the product is launched.

Importance of Concurrent Engineering The goal of Concurrent Engineering is the interactive work of different disciplines that affect a product to make it better. 1.

Minimize the product life cycle - eliminate the redesign procedure.

2.

Decrease production cost - results from the minimization of the product life cycle.

3.

Maximize product quality - By spending more time and money initially in the design cycle and ensuring that the concept selection is optimized, the company can increase the prospect of delivering a quality product to the customer.

4.

Team Work - Human Resources are working together for a common product.

♦ Product Design Methods 1) Design

For

Manufacturing

(DFM)

-

DFM

seeks

to

minimize

manufacturing information content of a product design to the fullest extent possible within constraints imposed by functionality and performance. The purpose of DFM cost estimating analysis is to enables design teams to weigh alternative design and various production processes, quantify manufacturing cost and make the necessary trade off decisions between the

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CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

6 parts consolidation and the material/manufacturing costs. The benefits of design for manufacturing for design are listed below:

• • •

Minimize the total number of parts Simplify the design to ensure that the remaining parts are easy to fabricate, assemble, handle and service Standardize where possible to facilitate

desirable

productibility characteristics such as interchangeability, interoperability, simplified interfaces, effective consolidation of parts and function, availability of components and so forth 2) Design for quality - It can be implemented in the system design step by

intentionally designing the product and process to be tolerant of variation. Design engineer can convert costumer need into engineering specifications using quality functions. It helps the translating customer needs even before finalizing concept specifications. The conceptual definition of the product is done in a better way by quality function, so, quality function translates the preference of customer into products features and also establishes quality based on fitness for use. 3) Design for Assembly (DFA) - Seeks to minimize cost of assembly within

constraint simposed by other design requirements. DFA has been the starting point for development of a corporate DFM philosophy and the culture change that accompanies it. 4) Design for Environment (DFE) - The designer must develop the habit of

constantly

evaluating

the design for safety, considering

not only the

design itself but the personnel involved in fabricating the product, using the procedure, and in maintaining and repairing the product or system as well as the end user or purchaser. This evaluates: •

A given range of operating conditions

•

A specific environmental condition

•

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7 5) Design for Environment (DFE) –

It is one of the most efficient

approachesto the realisation of Concurrent Engineering. It targets at limited number, substantial elements at once. This makes it possible to make best use of the available resources. DFA , DFM , DFE , DFS ….

•

Key Elements

The Concurrent Engineering approach is based on the following key elements: • The system engineering process • A multidisciplinary, product oriented team • An information distribution and control environment • Supporting tools and facilities The approach may be evolved into an Integrated Product Development (IPD) based on cross functional Product/Process Teams for all products and services, plus a System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Team to cover the system issues, balance requirements between Product Teams and integrate the Teams.

SYSTEM COORDINATION - TEAM ORGANIZATION Strict relationship between the structure of the team, the Product Tree Team composition: • cross functional Product/Process Development Teams (PDTs) for all products and services, • System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) team to cover the system issues, balance requirements between product teams and integrate the teams. A collaborative approach is implemented between the SE&I Team, PDTs and the Supporting functions (Configuration Control, Data Management System, Cost Engineering and Cost and Schedule Control). Since engineering represents the balance point between the customer needs and the program costs, the PDTs shall be given the means to make cost-effective decisions.

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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. 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's concerns within 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. 6) Increased Competition 1) 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 increase 'recently' at times which we no longer consider recent. 2) For example in the 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 design-manufacturing interaction issues. Similarly, in the claim is made that the high level of competition in the 1950's requires 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. 7) New Production Methods 1) 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

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9 available to the product designer. This knowledge is often resident in the production engineer. 1) 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 8) Lead Time 1) 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. 2) 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.

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