Concurrent engineering
Concurrent engineering is a development approach where design, manufacturing engineering, procurement, quality, and other functions work simultaneously rather than sequentially on product development. By running activities in parallel and collaborating continuously, concurrent engineering compresses development schedules and catches problems early when changes cost less.
Examples
Simultaneous design and process development: While product designers develop a new electronic device, manufacturing engineers simultaneously design the assembly process, tooling engineers develop test fixtures, and procurement qualifies suppliers. These parallel efforts converge rather than proceeding in series.
Integrated product teams: A company forms a cross-functional team including design, manufacturing, quality, and procurement representatives who work together throughout development. Daily interaction enables immediate feedback rather than sequential handoffs.
Concurrent supplier qualification: Instead of waiting until design release to begin supplier qualification, procurement starts engaging and evaluating suppliers while designs are still developing. Qualification activities overlap with design finalization.
Definition
Concurrent engineering emerged as a response to traditional sequential development, often called "over the wall" engineering, where each function completed its work before passing to the next. Sequential approaches create long development cycles and late-discovered problems requiring costly redesigns.
The concurrent approach requires organizational changes: co-located or well-connected teams, collaborative tools, and management support for parallel activity. It also requires comfort with uncertainty, as downstream activities begin before upstream work is complete.
Key enablers include early and continuous communication, shared access to evolving design data, regular integration points to synchronize parallel efforts, and willingness to iterate as new information emerges. PLM systems support concurrent engineering by providing shared access to current design information.
Procurement's role in concurrent engineering includes early engagement to inform make/buy decisions, parallel supplier identification and qualification, early cost estimation to guide design tradeoffs, and supply chain planning that overlaps with design development.
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