Concurrent Engineering

The major project goal of the ISTforCE project is to provide an open, human-centered Web-based collaboration environment which supports concurrent engineering while working on multiple projects simultaneously and offers easy access to specialized engineering services distributed over the Web. Normally, engineering applications are bought and then installed and used locally, but in the last years there is a growing interest, especially by small, highly specialised vendors, to offer such applications on rental or "pay per use" basis. The main innovation of ISTforCE is in the human-centred approach enabling the integration of multiple applications and services for multiple users and on multi-project basis. This should lead to support the work of each user across projects and team boundaries and to establish a common platform where providers of software and end users (engineers, architects, technicians, project managers) can meet. This paper will focus on three specific aspects of the ISTforCE project. The first addresses product data models also referred to as Building Information Models (BIMs) given the specific scope of the application domain dealt with and also covers the contribution of ISTforCE to standardization activities, either within the frame of ISO / STEP or of the IAI and the development of the Industry Foundation Classes. The second will address part of the software architecture designed to support concurrent engineering activities with the development of the Product Data server (PDS) and finally we will cover AI based applications, more specifically in the area of automated building conformance checking (CCS).

Today, it can be maintained that the customer is a ‘king’ as he will buy only the products that satisfy his needs and wants. The companies of today are facing new challenges: global business and local operation, standardization, and individualization of products, demanding customers and fierce competition. The company wants to achieve shorter product development time, lower costs, high quality of the product, and finally, customer satisfaction. In order to achieve the set goals, the company has to take into account the customers wants and needs during the new-product-development process. This article presents the mode of description of processes that allow recognition of suitable natural systems and their transformation into technical systems and a model for management of development process. The phases of quality functions deployment (QFD) during the new product development process along with the location for collecting customer needs and wants are presented. A detailed description...

The paper provides a comprehensive insight into current trends and developments in Concurrent Engineering for integrated development of products and processes with the goal of completing the entire cycle in a shorter time, at lower overall cost and with fewer engineering design changes after product launch. The evolution and definition of Concurrent Engineering are addressed first, followed by a concise review of the elements of the concurrent engineering approach to product development and the economics of the same. Discussion of teamwork for successful concurrent engineering, with deployment strategies is included.

This paper describes a methodology to integrate design and manufacturing using feature recognition technique for achieving some concurrent engineering goals. the input of the feature recognition is the boundary representation (B-Rep) of solid models. The features considered in this work are protrusion and depression type of prismatic components. the feature's faces are planar, cylindrical and hybrid. The recognized features are to be used for downstream manufacturing application

This article presents a transformation process towards lean product development in an aerospace industr y. This transformation was achieved in two main stages: the first was to integrate the principles of set-based concurrent engineering into an existing product development model of an aerospace company. This stage included defining activities and associated tools. The second stage was to implement the developed model in a research-based industrial case study, a helicopter engine in this case . Three main outcomes were realised from this work. First, it presented an industrial case of lean transformation in product development, where the leanness of an existing model was enhanced by embedding set-based concurrent engineering principles. Second, the developed model was structured into a set of well-defined activities and associated tools that were previously scattered or redundant. Finally, the developed model was trialled in an industrial project of a helicopter engine, tested to evaluate its value in enhancing the innovation level and reducing risk. The work presented in this article focused on early stage system level design, and future work will extend the implementation of set-based concurrent engineering to sub-system and component levels.

The purpose of this paper is to present modern ways to manage time, resources and progress in a large-scale project. Over the last ten years, new project management techniques and tools have appeared such as concurrent engineering, Continuous Acquisition Lifecycle Support (CALS) and Engineering Data Management System (EDMS). The world downturn of the early 90s influenced project management: increasing constraints on time and budget and more external direction on spending that, for example, requires sophisticated sub-contracting practises. However, the evolution of the software and hardware market makes project control tools cheaper and easier to use. All project groups want to have their scope of work considered as complete projects and to control them themselves. This has several consequences on project staff behaviour concerning project control, and has to be taken into account in every planning process designed today. The system described will be at the heart of the planning and ...

Present day ship design is faced with a difficulty to successfully integrate multiple design tools. This paper introduces ng.zine, a new design system intended for conceptual and preliminary ship design, aiming to make the design tool integration easy. ng.zine acts through the flexible XML database, storing and on-demand supplying current and previous values of significant ship parameters and attributes. It does so without a demand for changes in either designers working environment, or in the tools it integrates, leading to the increased flexibility of the design process. ng.zine permits a parallel execution of multiple design tasks. To assure efficient control and management, ng.zine applies concepts of group decision-making. Every designer is supported in choosing the proper parameter values with respect to the particular task responsibility and the global ship performance. Considered concepts allow designers to model in their experiences, knowledge and organizational hierarchy.

Many organizations in different locations with different cultures and languages participate in the construction and operation of process plants. The data generated by each stakeholder involved in the plant life-cycle are closely related to each other. Therefore, it is important to link and integrate the various data created by each stakeholder. In this study, a method of integrating plant life-cycle data, including the equipment maintenance history, was proposed based on the International Organization for Standardization 15926 standard. To this end, a data model for integrating plant life-cycle data, including maintenance, was developed using the International Organization for Standardization 15926 standard. The proposed method was validated by developing a prototype system and performing experiments converting and visualizing life-cycle data, including maintenance history in the International Organization for Standardization 15926 format, using sample data from a refinery plant.

C\RFAX SUMMARY This paper describes a systematic concurrent workfiow n1anage1nent (WM) process for integrated product developnzent. WM consists of planning and scheduling teams' activities to suppo1t cooperative and concurrent works. This paper firsr explains process re-engineering, flowcharting and va1ious workfiow practices in concurrent engineering (CE) to come up with a general process for WM. The WM process is based on an infomiation infrastructure containing nzodels of product require1nenrs, enterpn"se organization and resources, including the workjlow activity. Finally, technologies supporti'ng WM such as work process tnodeling, peifonnance analyzing, process re-engineering straregies to redesign the process and activtiy 1nanagenzent-t-eal-tinie task's rnonitoring-are introduced.

The paper presents the trends in the development of methods and systems for manufacturing and assembly process planning on the background of Concurrent Engineering strategies. The solutions for the functional integration of design/manufacturing and production preparation phases and the IT infrastructure including Product Data Management systems for the storage of product structure data, design and manufacturing process documentation are presented. The concept and the example of integrated process and manufacturing system planning in Product Lifecycle Management environment are presented.

The product development environment typically
suffers from a number of shortcomings.
• Some are partly due to the lack of integrated tools
while
• others are partly due to the diverse nature of an
enterprise's business operations that one has to
deal with.
• Tool related shortcomings are often caused by
inappropriate or inadequate computer group-ware
or aids. Such aids range from hardware and
software tools to technologies, to standardization.
• The shortcomings in business operations result
from two main sources:
(a) Process stagnation (why fix, if it is not broke, such as
business, management, technical, or operational
3Ps-policy, practices and procedures); and
(b) Influence of infra-structural factors (such as culture,
mind-set, organization, and human factors).