Information management for concurrent engineering

The main objective of Concurrent Engineering is the reduction of development lead time. This shorter time-to-market is achieved by paralleling development and production activities. With the deliberate use of incomplete and uncertain information an enormous reduction of development lead time can be achieved in comparison to parallel activities which are only based on exact information. Thus many activities can be started even if their predecessors are not completed. This article focuses mainly on two concepts to provide an adequate information management for Concurrent Engineering. The first concept is based on a systematic integration of uncertainty into the information flow. The second concept allows to restructure the sequential and document-oriented information flow by creating small information units. The application of both concepts supports an early information flow. Thus it becomes possible to coordinate activities more efficiently because critical topics can be recognized and balanced in advance, shifting the communication requirement to the early stages of the development process. Hence, expensive iterations, especially in the late stages of the product development process, can be avoided and the length of iteration loops can be reduced. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.