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The realization that concurrent engineering can be adopted in construction has led to various efforts to develop appropriate tools and techniques for its implementation in the industry. This paper discusses the role of client requirements processing in implementing concurrent engineering in construction. Client requirements processing refers to the definition, analysis, and translation of client requirements into solution‐neutral specifications for design. It is essential in maintaining focus on the client, and provides for the effective consideration, resolution and prioritization of the various perspectives within the client body. It also facilitates collaborative teamwork, compliance checking at every stage of the design and construction process, and the traceability of design decisions to explicit and implicit client requirements. The paper concludes with a description of a model for processing clients' requirements in construction, and an example of its practical application.

Aims to develop an approach to deploy practically a concurrent engineering environment. Deployment here signifies a combination of two important elements: translation from one language to another, and team decision making. The translation of the customer′s vision into physical reality by the product development team is described. Towards this end, computer graphics with virtual reality capabilities will be used in order to help customers communicate their requirements. Examines the utilization of graphic capabilities of computers into a new digressive approach for concurrent engineering that combines the concepts of quality function deployment, reverse engineering and virtual reality.

Summarizes the most important principles of concurrent engineering [CE] and computer integrated manufacturing [CIM]. Discusses system data flow and IDEFo diagrams used as graphical descriptions of the engineering process. Introduces a software package called CIMpgr. Concludes that CIM addresses the total information requirements and management of a company from the development of a business plan through to the shipment of a product and the follow‐up support.

A multi‐component design of a “concurrent team” is described here for a concurrent engineering organization. This concurrent “team design” is composed of four essential teaming components: a logical component, a virtual component, a technological component and a personnel (work‐group or humane) component. The description is based on an implementation of a “concurrent team” environment for product development at Delphi Divisions of General Motors. The paper first describes how to configure a “concurrent team” organization that provides a decentralized cooperation during an integrated product development (IPD) process. The paper then shows how, with strategic design of a “concurrent team,” an organization can achieve optimum teamwork productivity during an IPD. As it has been observed during a number of automotive projects that the teamwork productivity of a concurrent engineering organization is largely influenced by the design of such “concurrent teams” as well as by elements of decentralized cooperation, the paper, also describes four key elements of decentralized cooperation that have been found useful with IPD clients.

The key to successful project management is knowing how well the process is performing to prevent problems rather than fix them after they occur. Success measurement in product development has emphasized end‐result measures of overall project performance or economic value. The product development literature has largely ignored process performance (i.e., the measurement of how effectively the product development process is actually working). Process performance may be an early warning signal of downstream problems in a project's quality, time, or productivity. This paper proposes a model of process performance at the project level during product and process engineering. The model suggests that process performance mediates the influence of concurrent engineering (process choice) on overall project development performance. This process performance model is tested in the automobile industry using a sample of 406 product development projects in Germany and the USA. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

The goal of concurrent or simultaneous engineering is to move a product concept based on a market need to a manufactured and marketable product in the shortest possible time and with minimum cost. The concurrent engineering approaches, processes, and systems should find increasing practical applications in the coming years. Several recent technological advances should help expedite this process.

Concurrent engineering was heralded as the new panacea for manufacturing in the 1990s. The complexity of implementing the process through an organization has proved to be a major obstacle in achieving anticipated results: implementing it is a painful process in which a complete top to bottom understanding of an organization′s processes is needed. There are few organizations who understand their own dynamics. For concurrent engineering to be successful, cross‐functional design teams, along with their associated data, must be brought together. PDM assists in implementing a concurrent engineering strategy successfully because a PDM system provides the mechanism to capture and enforce a specific product development process consistently according to the way a company does business. Global companies which have already invested in PDM technology include: Xerox, Texas Instruments, Groupe Schneider, Honeywell, and General Electric.

Focuses on the benefits of actually carrying out the tenets of simultaneous, or concurrent, engineering on a project. The advantages are not explained in purely theoretical fashion but rather, are presented with factural data and experiential retrospect. The Hewlett‐Packard (HP) 34401A Multimeter not only represents a breakthrough in its market and specifications, but also a radical improvement in the product development process and subsequent manufacturing processes required to bring it to the marketplace in a tough global economy. Shows how HP integrates tools such as DFMA, QFD, and activity‐based‐costing into the concurrent engineering process to give the customer what he really wants at a competitive price. Lower manufacture and assembly techniques, lower cost and higher reliability is being achieved.

Presents samples of ideas and examples of concurrent engineering discussed at Management Roundtable′s Seventh International Conference on Design for Manufacturability, held in Orlando, Florida, USA.

The construction industry in the UK has been subject to frequent reports over recent years, all focusing on perceived inefficiencies within the industry and how processes can be improved to deliver construction projects on time, and within cost and quality targets. Most notable of these reports have been Latham (1994) and Egan (1998), which contend that construction should come closer to manufacturing in design, development and supply chain practices to achieve ambitious improvement targets. The most frequently mentioned industries for such “benchmarking” are the aerospace and automotive industries. Concurrent Engineering (CE) appears to offer significant potential to the construction industry as a means to achieve these targets. This paper identifies key aspects of CE practice in aerospace manufacturers and, in the spirit of the Egan report, possibilities for their adoption in UK construction projects.