Introduction
In today's business world,
corporations must be able to react to the changing market needs rapidly,
effectively, and responsively. They must be able to reduce their time to market
and adapt to the changing environments. Decisions must be made quickly and they
must be done right the first time out. Corporations can no longer waits time
repeating tasks, thereby prolonging the time it takes to bring new products to
market. Therefore, concurrent engineering has emerged as way of bringing rapid
solutions to product design and development process.
Concurrent
engineering is indisputably the wave of the future for new product development
for all companies regardless of their size, sophistication, or product
portfolio. In order to be competitive, corporations must alter their product
and process development cycle to be able to complete diverse tasks
concurrently. This new process will benefit the company, although it will
require a large amount of refinement in its implementation. This is because,
concurrent engineering is a process that must be reviewed and adjusted for
continuous improvements of engineering and business operations.
Definition
Concurrent
engineering is a business strategy which replaces the traditional product development
process with one in which tasks are done in parallel and there is an early
consideration for every aspect of a product's development process. This
strategy focuses on the optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in
t he design and development process to ensure effective and efficient product
development process.
Concurrent engineering is a business strategy
which replaces the traditional product development process with one in which
tasks are done in parallel and there is an early consideration for ever y
aspect of a product's development process. This strategy focuses on the
optimization and distribution of a firm's resources in the design and
development process to ensure an effective and efficient product development
process. It mandates major changes within the organizations and firms that use
it, due to the people and process integration requirements. Collaboration is a
must for individuals, groups, departments, and separate organizations within
the firm. Therefore, it cannot be applied at leisure. A firm must be dedicated
to the long term implementation, appraisal, and continuous revision of a
concurrent engineering process.
Concurrent engineering is recognized as a strategic
weapon that businesses must use for effective and efficient product
development. It is not a trivial task, but a complex strategic plan that
demands full corporate commitment, therefore strong leadership and teamwork go
hand and hand with successful concurrent engineering programs.
Method in Concurrent Engineering
Commitment, Planning, and Leadership
Concurrent
engineering is not a trivial process to apply. If firms are going to commit to
concurrent engineering then they must first devise a plan. This plan must
create organizational change throughout the entire company or firm. There must
be a strong commitment from the firm's leadership in order to mandate the
required organizational changes from the top down. Concurrent engineering without
leadership will have no clear direction or goal. On the other hand, concurrent
engineering with leadership, management support, and proper planning will bring
success in today's challenging mark et place.
Continuous
Improvement Process
Concurrent
engineering is not a one size fits all solution to a firm's development processes.
There are many different aspects of concurrent engineering which may or may not
fit in a corporation's development process. Concurrent engineering is only a
set of process objectives and goals that have a variety of implementation
strategies. Therefore, concurrent engineering is an evolving process that
requires continuous improvement and refinement. This continuous improvement
cycle consist of planning, implementing, reviewing, and revising. The process
must be updated and revised on a regular basis to optimize the effectiveness
and benefits in the concurrent engineering development process.
Communication
and Collaboration
The
implementation of concurrent engineering begins by creating a corporate
environment that facilitates communication and collaboration not just between
individuals, but also between separate organizations and departments within the
firm. This may entail major structural changes, re-education of the existing
work-force, and/or restructuring of the development process.
Principle of concurrent engineering
- Get a strong commitment to from senior management.
- Establish unified project goals and a clear business mission.
- Develop a detailed plan early in the process.
- Continually review your progress and revise your plan.
- Develop project leaders that have an overall vision of the project and goals.
- Analyze your market and know your customers.
- Suppress individualism and foster a team concept.
- Establish and cultivate cross-functional integration and collaboration.
- Transfer technology between individuals and departments.
- Break project into its natural phases.
- Develop metrics.
- Set milestones throughout the development process.
- Collectively work on all parts of project.
- Reduce costs and time to market.
- Complete tasks in parallel.
When
is concurrent engineering used?
The majority of
a product's costs are committed very early in the design and development
process. Therefore, companies must apply concurrent engineering at the onset of
a project. This makes concurrent engineering a powerful development tool that
can be implemented early in the conceptual design phase where the majority of
the products costs are committed. There are several application in which
concurrent engineering may be used. Some primary applications include product
research, design, development, re-engineering, manufacturing, and redesigning
of existing and new products. In these applications, concurrent engineering is
applied throughout the design and development process to enable the firm to
reap the full benefits of this process.
Potential
Advantage of Using Concurrent Engineering
There are several benefits that
concurrent engineering can bring, although it is difficult to quantify many of
these benefits by using spreadsheets and numbers. These are not only benefits
which the participating company will experience, but ultimately the end users
or customers also will reap these benefits by having a quality product which
fits their needs and in many cases, costs them less to purchase. Therefore,
concurrent engineering produces a unified profitable corporation and a satisfied
consumer.
Regardless
of the type of application, there are significant benefits to the firms or
organizations that use cross functional teams.
- Faster time to market which results in increased market share.
- Lower manufacturing and production costs.
- Improved quality of resulting end products.
- Increased positioning in a highly competitive world market.
- Increased accuracy in predicting and meeting project plans, schedules, timelines, and budgets.
- Increased efficiency and performance.
- Higher reliability in the product development process.
- Reduced defect rates.
- Increased effectiveness in transferring technology.
- Increased customer satisfaction.
- Ability to execute high level and complex projects while minimizing the difficulties.
- Shorter design and development process with accelerated project execution.
- Higher return on investments.
- Reduction or elimination of the number of design changes and re-engineering efforts at later phases in the development process.
- Reduced labor and resource requirements.
- Ability to recognize necessary design changes early in the development process.
- Increased innovation by having all players participate in the concept development phase.
- Ability to design right the first time out / first time capabilities.
- Overlapping capabilities and the ability to work in parallel.
- Increased cohesiveness within the firm.
- Improved communication between individuals and departments within the firm.
- Lower implementation risks.
- Faster reaction time in responding to the rapidly changing market.
- Lower product and process design and development costs.
- Improved inventory control, scheduling and customer relations.
Why do companies use concurrent
engineering?
Competitive Advantage
The
reasons that companies choose to use concurrent engineering is for the clear
cut benefits and competitive advantage that concurrent engineering can give
them. Concurrent engineering can benefit companies of any size, large or small.
While there are several obstacles to initially implementing concurrent
engineering, these obstacles are minimal when compared to the long term
benefits that concurrent engineering offers.
Increased
Performance
Companies
recognize that concurrent engineering is a key factor in improving the quality,
development cycle, production cost, and delivery time of their products. It
enables the early discovery of design problems, thereby enabling them to be
addressed up front rather than later in the development process. Concurrent
engineering can eliminate multiple design revisions, prototypes, and re-engineering
efforts and create an environment for designing right the first time.
Reduced
Design and Development Times
Companies
that use concurrent engineering are able to transfer technology to their
markets and customers more effectively, rapidly and predictably. They will be able
to respond to customers' needs and desires, to produce quality products that
meet or exceed the consumer's expectations. They will also be able to introduce
more products and bring quicker upgrades to their existing products through
concurrent engineering practices. Therefore companies use concurrent
engineering to produce better quality products, developed in less time, at
lower cost, that meets the customer's needs.
