Presenting the gradual evolution of the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE), and the technical, social methods and tools that have been developed, including the many theoretical and practical challenges that still exist, this book serves to summarize the achievements and current challenges of CE and will give readers a comprehensive picture of CE as researched and practiced in different regions of the world. Featuring in-depth analysis of complex real-life applications and experiences, this book demonstrates that Concurrent Engineering is used widely in many industries and that the same basic engineering principles can also be applied to new, emerging fields like sustainable mobility. Designed to serve as a valuable reference to industry experts, managers, students, researchers, and software developers, this book is intended to serve as both an introduction to development and as an analysis of the novel approaches and techniques of CE, as well as being a compact reference for more experienced readers.

Presents a top-down approach to the design, development, testing and recyclability of products, components and systems across a wide range of industries. Starting with the desired result and working back through the details, it shows how to produce goods, taking into account the challenges of actual manufacture, what the reliability requirements should be, quality control, associated costs, customer needs and more. Additional features include case studies and team negotiating. Also well-illustrated with figures, photographs, charts and tables and includes an extensive bibliography.

These proceedings contain lectures presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Concurrent Engineering Tools and Technologies for Mechanical System Design held in Iowa City, Iowa, 25 May -5 June, 1992. Lectures were presented by leaders from Europe and North America in disciplines contributing to the emerging international focus on Concurrent Engineering of mechanical systems. Participants in the Institute were specialists from throughout NATO in disciplines constituting Concurrent Engineering, many of whom presented contributed papers during the Institute and all of whom participated actively in discussions on technical aspects of the subject. The proceedings are organized into the following five parts: Part 1 Basic Concepts and Methods Part 2 Application Sectors Part 3 Manufacturing Part 4 Design Sensitivity Analysis and Optimization Part 5 Virtual Prototyping and Human Factors Each of the parts is comprised of papers that present state-of-the-art concepts and methods in fields contributing to Concurrent Engineering of mechanical systems. The lead-off papers in each part are based on invited lectures, followed by papers based on contributed presentations made by participants in the Institute.

A thorough, original guide to using Concurrent Engineering principles to develop products that meet customer needs -- and to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible.This book shows how CE encompasses manufacturing competitiveness, life-cycle management, process reengineering, cooperative workgroups, systems engineering, information modeling, and product, process and organization integration. This book also identifies, for the first time, 25 fundamental CE metrics and measures. These are categorized into four groups: simulations and analysis, product feasibility and quality assessment, design for X-ability assessment, and process quality assessment. The book describes the new process of Concurrent Function Deployment, which allows workgroups to work concurrently on conflicting values and compare notes and common checkpoints. Extensive exercises and illustrations are included throughout. Managers involved in any type of product development.

This textbook presents the concepts of engineering design process in proven steps of needs assessment, problem formulation, system modelling, analysis and implementation. It discusses in detail the concepts of system development, system modelling, system evaluation, system reliability, system simulation and presents the optimization techniques in a practical manner. The approach presented leads the students and practising engineers to understand and learn the design process and to develop the objective rationale for decision making in order to fulfil their professional role in society.

This book contains the edited version of the lectures presented at the NATO ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE on "COMPUTER AIDED ANALYSIS OF RIGID AND FLEXIBLE MECHANICAL SYSTEMS". held in Troia. Portugal. from the 27 June to 9 July. 1993. and organized by the Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica. Instituto Superior Tecnico. This ASI addressed the state-of-art in the field of multibody dynamics. which is now a well developed subject with a great variety of formalisms. methods and principles. Ninety five participants. from twenty countries. representing academia. industry. government and research institutions attended this Institute. This contributed greatly to the success of the Institute since it encouraged the interchange of experiences between leading scientists and young scholars and promoted discussions that helped to generate new ideas and to defme directions of research and future developments. The full program of the Institute included also contributed presentations made by participants where different topics have been explored. Such topics include: formulations and numerical aspects in rigid and flexible mechanical systems; object-oriented paradigms; optimal design and synthesis; robotics; kinematics; path planning; control; impact dynamics; and several application oriented developments in weapon systems. vehicles and crash worthiness. These papers have been revised and will be published by Kluwer in a special issue of the Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics and in a forthcoming companion book. This book brings together. in a tutorial and review manner. a comprehensive summary of current work and is therefore suitable for a wide range of interests.