ABSTRACT
Concurrent engineering (CE), which relies on a team approach and the adoption of certain specific techniques, is the answer to the problem of improving company performance. Records of changes to design, rig testing, experiments, and processes need to be kept meticulously. The changes made to introduce CE, some corporations have closed their quality control departments, transferring the specialists into other departments. By the time production approaches, product engineering is much more ready to make changes recommended by manufacturing because pilot production shows that rejects are excessive. If a change in legislation or in the market adds new factors — as with legislation on recycling or energy use — a specialist can be added to the team. Some companies may adopt CE with the specific aim of improving design for manufacture and assembly. Marketing is important because customers’ expectations are given far greater weight in CE than with conventional engineering.
