The management, optimization and measurement of concurrent information

The tools available to organizations intending to employ a concurrent engineering approach are both diverse and complex, with a multitude of software solutions to service the detailed needs of the development process and training approaches to maximise the benefits of teamwork. Although these tools will give specific and individual benefits towards the goal of concurrent engineering, they will all actually contribute in the same way, that is by maximizing the benefits of information at it´s earliest availability within the the development process. This paper briefly discusses and comments on two points arising from this: (1) failure to understand the current movement of information through existing organizational procedures and structure will result in inability to measure the benefits of concurrent engineering or to demonstrate any competitive benefits, and fail to give benchmarks for further improvement; and (2) attempting to maximise the benefits of available information should imply a clear and measurable understanding of the specific information required to instigate each and every action within the development process