ABSTRACT
The most unique aspect of this book is the tailoring process discussed in this chapter. Through our observation and work with small companies using concurrent engineering, we found that the team members became very frustrated when required to go through all steps for every project whether the steps were needed or not. This frustration lends itself to sloppy work and an apathetic view of concurrent engineering, Therefore, we developed a method for tailoring the methodology based on the design project characteristics. In this chapter, we will discuss the major types of design that a small company will encounter, both in product design and process design. Then, we will present models for each of these design types. Finally, we will introduce a method that will allow a team to customize the product and process design methodologies to suit their projects, thereby eliminating needless steps from the process.
