Concurrent engineering-key to cost-effective product reliability, maintainability, and manufacturability

A major effort is being directed to combine and integrate the product life cycle using the concept of concurrent engineering. The major barriers to industry-wide acceptance of concurrent engineering have been found to be management misunderstanding of the applications of the concepts involved and a lack of clear direction to its implementation, and a reluctance to change by the engineering professionals involved. A change in total corporate culture is required to eliminate these barriers. The principal conclusion reached is that the current push to introduce total quality management (TQM) into a company can be used as the driver for the integration of all engineering and manufacturing functions into a concurrent engineering operation. Concurrent engineering becomes an enabling technology for total quality management. Further, disciplines such as reliability, maintainability, and computer-aided engineering become the enabling technologies for concurrent engineering. The acceptance of the changes required in corporate culture leads to the natural introduction and evolution of new technology driven by total quality management. This evolution has resulted in a smooth transition from isolated product generation functions into a totally integrated design, test and manufacturing operation