Increasing global competition in a product-oriented industry has required manufacturing enterprises to continuously improve product quality, functionality and features, as well as implementing a reduction in product cost and time to market. The traditional approach to product development requires a substantial amount of time to evolve the product design from its initial configuration to the final product. Since 70% or more of the total product cost is determined in the design stages, significant potential savings can be achieved by improving traditional design practices. Because of its effectiveness and great potential in product design, concurrent engineering (CE) is attracting great interest from both industry and academia. The 13 research papers in this volume provide a current overview on progress in concurrent engineering. Divided into two parts, Part 1 primarily focuses on methodology and applications of CE, while Part 2 discusses product design and information modelling. The articles should be of interest to all those involved in the multidisciplinary process of design, including experts from product design, control system design, electronics design, manufacturing, production planning, maintenance, quality control, service and marketing.
