CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

PROF. A.B.PATEL

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING
CONCURRENT DESIGN Development from concept to product requires the consideration of four basic elements. Shape Material Production technique Assembly Concurrent design is the simultaneous planning of the product and the process for producing it. Prior to 1980 concept of team work was not there. Designers used to work in isolation and same was the case with manufacturing. Some of the observations were: The drawings were incomplete. The parts could not be made as specified in the drawing. The drawing were ambiguous. The parts could not be assembled if manufactured as drawn.

CONCURRENT DESIGN
The process of translating from concept to manufacturable product is accomplished by a team consisting of design engineer, a manufacturing engineer, planning engineer and material engineer. Since most design projects are large and require knowledge in many areas this can be accomplished by teams of engineers from varying back grounds. A team of individuals is formed, the names of these individuals will vary depending on the product. The titles of these individuals will vary from company to company. There may be one or more individuals carrying out a particular role.

The Design Team

Product design engineer
He is responsible for major design decisions. He must have understood the needs for the product. This requires both analytical and creative skills. He should bring knowledge about the design process and specific technologies required by the project. Normally person holding an engineering degree or post graduate qualification will be most suitable. However a person with experience in relevant field can also carry out this job.

Product marketing manager

He is the major link between the product and the consumer. He has the ultimate responsibility for the development of the product. He is also often referred to as marketing manager. He also represents the interest of sales and service.

Production engineer
He is responsible for providing know how about production processes both in-house and what industry as a whole can offer.

The Design Team

The design detailer
In many companies the design engineer is responsible for conceptual design, specification development, planning and early stages of design. After this the project is handed over to detailers. They finish detail design, assembly and manufacturing drawings. They posses either two or three years diploma in relevant technology.

Testing engineer
He helps the design engineer in developing the test apparatus. He conducts experiments and collect the data regarding the performance of the product. Experience gained is valuable in development of the product.

Materials engineer
He is responsible for assisting the design engineer in selecting the proper material. Selection depends on availability of the materials. He helps in bringing assistance from suppliers.

The Design Team

Quality control engineer
He has training in techniques for measuring a statistically significant sample to determine how well it meets specifications. This inspection is done on incoming raw material, incoming parts from vendors and parts manufactured inhouse.

Assembly engineer
He is responsible for putting the parts manufactured/purchased together in assembly of the product.

Suppliers representatives

Industrial designer

He is responsible for aesthetic aspects of a product. They are stylists and have background in fine arts and human factors.

There are many suppliers of raw materials and finished parts. It is important to have representative of critical parts in the team. This will even out any bottlenecks or disruption of supply of such parts.

Benefits of concurrent design approach

It reduces the time required to develop the product and put it in the market quickly. Many companies have reduced this time and saved lot of money. This approach is also known as Business Process Reengineering approach. Michael Hammer and Champy have used this approach in development of product by Eastman Kodak Ltd. USA to meet the high quality and smaller lead times of their competitor Fuji Corporation of Japan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Product Design and Manufacturing A.K. Chitale and R.C. Gupta Prentice Hall of India Private Ltd. New Delhi 2. . Dr. Radhakrishnan et al. The Relevance Of Concurrent Engineering In Industrial Technology Programmes JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY Vol.16, Number 3, May 2000. 3. Prasad B. Concurrent Engineering Fundamentals Prentice Hall Inc.

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