ABSTRACT
This chapter on product development discusses the impact of concurrent engineering on product development. In the fi rst subchapter we discuss the need for teamwork among the various factory functions, starting with the customer’s wants and his or her early involvement in the product development cycle. The role of the engineering manager, manufacturing engineer, project manager, or product engineer when guiding the product development process includes fi ve basic steps in a systematic approach to product development. Pahl and Beitz, in their book Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach (1993), defi ned fi ve conditions that must be satisfi ed when employing a systematic approach to guide the product development process. Those fi ve steps have proven to be very crucial to the editor in creating the corporate atmosphere conducive to cooperation and concurrent engineering design in the past 30 years of product design for major corporations.
