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Concurrent engineering or concurrent new product development (CNPD) is gradually becoming the norm for developing and introducing new products to the market place. Through the use of three in‐depth case studies looks at the seldom discussed problems in CNPD implementation and day‐to‐day management, and tries to provide a clear picture of the current state of its development, at three companies in three different countries across Europe. Identifies a number of issues emerging from the study, in particular the lack of process understanding for a concurrent or integrated product development effort and the abundance of “organisational” factors as the main barrier to its success. The results identified both differences and commonalties in CNPD experiences between each of the three case study companies. The case studies highlight the importance of process management, with a focus on process modelling and analysis of organisational factors, to improve the existing implementations of CNPD.

This paper aims to report on data from case studies of development process, and a survey of use patterns over ten years, for 13 highly innovative products. While the paper does not claim concurrent commercialization (CC) as a universal solution, it aims to highlight significant correlates between management best practice, concurrent commercialization and builder use rates for these 13 highly innovative products in the USA residential construction industry.

To study the effect of CC on new‐product adoption rates by installers, the authors assembled data from the National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Builders' Practices Survey (BPS) for the years 1996 through 2005. The data collection was executed in three phases. Best practices were collected from literature. Explanatory variables regarding best practice and presence of CC were collected and measured through case studies. The measure of market penetration, based on the concept of innovativeness, was obtained from the BPS survey data.

Data analysis of 13 highly innovative products indicates that CC is consistent with accepted best practice in product development. These products suggest that some organizations might contain 100 percent CC with varying degrees of best practice management ideals, and also include equilibrium.

The extent to which products, with varying CC percentage, are affected by individual steps within CC is a direction for future research. The authors also did not have the ability to look at the entry year for other products strongly rooted in CC; there could be other explanations for a product entering the market strongly.

CC is essentially directed at designing a commercialization process, as opposed to designing a product, which benefits the product development from exposure to all members along the construction supply chain. CC, drawing on concurrent engineering, expands the definition of the market to include all supply‐chain participants, not just the installers and advocates the establishment of a complete supply chain, possible only if every member of the chain foresees net benefits to joining. In strengthening the commercialization process, the product might experience better probability of success.

The paper places reason upon product failure, in the residential construction industry, through further investigation of sound commercialization process.

The primary purposes of this paper are to add support to the existing three‐dimensional concurrent engineering (3DCE) theoretical framework and to identify issues that currently hinder the adoption of 3DCE.

While 3DCE has been suggested as a way to improve new product development success and supply chain performance, the research on 3DCE is in its infancy, largely conceptual, or based on two, rather than all three aspects of 3DCE. To help bridge the gap between concept and theory for 3DCE, this paper provides a cross‐disciplinary perspective, incorporating literature from supply chain management (SCM) and logistics, operations management, marketing channels, and general management and strategy, to help ground the theory of 3DCE. Based on this literature, testable research propositions are developed.

Based on the review of the literature, there is substantial theoretical grounding for 3DCE and evidence that it should provide beneficial outcomes to organizations. 3DCE is also a very useful theoretical lens as researchers become more concerned with taking a systemic view of supply chain and organizational performance. Effectively using 3DCE as a lens may require different research approaches, such as systems dynamics and supply chain mapping.

This research provides insights into the relatively low adoption rates of 3DCE in practice. Successful 3DCE requires top management support as well as functional support. It is not simply a SCM tool.

From a research perspective, this paper helps provide support for using 3DCE as a theoretical lens for grounding future research. It also provides an insight into research methods that might be most useful in gaining greater understanding of 3DCE practices.

Composites are prime examples of technology moving faster than the underlying science. Faced with increasing global competitiveness, the issues of high cost, product robustness and long lead times associated with product development are emerging in the forefront of problems facing emerging and existing performance‐critical industries, such as in the area of advanced materials. However, the mere use of the new paradigms or philosophies, such as concurrent engineering, is insufficient to guarantee successful completion of the product realization process (PRP). Planning for competitiveness and quality as an integral part of the programme goals and decision process is a key to success. It is essential that clear plans be developed and measurable attributes of performance be identified as early in the design process as possible. The approach described herein provides the framework for successful implementation of an integrated decision‐production system within the basic definition of Total Quality Management (TQM). Discusses the five elements critical to the success of a new technology or product: definition; requirements; benchmarking; concepts; and review.

Examines the importance of the design process in the development of a quality product. Discusses the concept of concurrent engineering which regards design as a process which begins at concept, and continues through physical design development and into manufacturing and involves a wide variety of disciplines such as marketing, manufacturing, business planning and finance. Outlines the use of critical parameter management to predict the functionality of a design and the design intent of a product. Concludes that critical parameter management can bring many improvements to the concurrent engineering process, bringing engineering and manufacturing closer together and bringing the customer influence into design thinking.

An empirical study of 57 top‐tier suppliers to the North American automotive industry examined the direct and complementary effects of information system infrastructure (ISI) and process improvements on time‐based performance. The results show that the three dimensions of ISI – design‐manufacturing integration (DMI), manufacturing technology (MT), and information technology (IT) – directly influenced at least one dimension of time‐based performance. For example, DMI influenced manufacturing lead time, MT influenced new product development time, and IT influenced customer responsiveness. Process improvement also directly influenced supply‐chain time performance. Finally, ISI and process improvement had a positive and complementary effect on time‐based performance. Specifically, the IT factor along with process improvement variables (standardization and concurrent engineering) had a complementary and significant positive influence on time‐based performance. The findings strongly support the idea of joint deployment of information system infrastructure and process improvement to streamline cycle time performance in a supply chain.

Looks into the use of concurrent engineering (CE) in new product development (NPD) processes. To this end presents an NPD strategy framework, which is derived from an operations strategy framework filled out with integration mechanisms decision alternatives. The framework focuses on cross‐functional co‐operation, inter‐functional communication and process overlap, and identifies four types of mechanisms, i.e. integration by strategy, process, technology and organization. Gives examples of effective and less effective implementation of these mechanisms in four Dutch companies. Bases the examples on in‐depth case studies in these companies of, on average, one‐and‐a‐half years. Together, the integration mechanisms and the case study examples of their implementation form the basis of the ultimate objective of the research: to develop a CE design and implementation methodology.

Describes a set of re‐engineering strategies that critically examine current business policies, practices and procedures (3Ps), rethink these 3Ps and then redesign some mission‐critical “products, processes, and services.” The term process improvement implies that the change or effort is directed towards an array of re‐engineering strategies. Process improvement efforts are categorized into four primary re‐engineering strategies: a set of continuous process improvement (CPI) tactics, a set of restructuring tactics, a set of organizational traits, and a set of renovation tactics. Discusses how these four re‐engineering strategies can be logically combined in a concurrent fashion to achieve significant process improvements. Introduces two new hybrid re‐engineering strategies for process improvements that have been found quite useful at Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Accounts.

The extremely high and ever‐increasing annual disposal rates of solid waste have caused a big problem for environmental protection in the world. Unlike the first environmental revolution in the 1970s, which was aimed at cleaning up hazardous waste from contaminated sites and natural resources, the second revolution is addressing waste reduction at the source. The solution of these problems cannot rely only on legislation and must be supported by effective methods. This goal can be achieved through the design of products that promote disassembly, reusing and recycling. In order to design environmentally friendly products in concurrent engineering, this paper applies axiomatic design to develop the integrated design guidelines with Axiom 1 (independence axiom) for generating acceptable designs and an evaluation score with Axiom 2 (information axiom) for determining better or the best design from the acceptable designs.