Implementing Concurrent Engineering Through Rapid Prototyping And Manufacturing An Nsf Funded Project

Over the last 10 years the manufacturing sector in the U.S. has applied several tools, strategies, and philosophies to reverse declining trends in the global marketplace in an attempt to improve productivity, flexibility, time to market, product quality and reliability, and to reduce costs. Concurrent engineering has been successfully deployed to achieve all of the preceding benefits and has attracted significant attention from the manufacturing community worldwide. Concurrent engineering may be defined as the design of the entire lifecycle of a product simultaneously using a product design team and automated engineering and production tools. The definition underscores the importance of two key factors people and equipment, with an emphasis on their interdependence upon each other.