Rules for Concurrent Engineering

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Rules for Concurrent Engineering

Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Based on various sources, here are some general rules for concurrent engineering. Note that these rules are not necessarily all consistent with one another. An example of how these rules can contradict with one another is available. 1. Ensure that parts most likely to require maintenance are easily accessible. 2. Ensure that the degree of maintenance of your product is consistent with your company's policy on making, stocking, and supplying spare parts. 3. Ensure tools needed for installation and maintenance are as inexpensive and common as possible. 4. The decisions made in the first 15% of a product development process fix 85% of the downstream quality and cost of the product. 5. include all experts actively 6. resist making irreversible decisions 7. continually optimize the designed product and the design process 8. prefer concepts that are easy to manufacture 9. prefer concepts that are easy to assemble 10. integrate design and manufacturing 11. do not overconstrain or underconstrain the design 12. look ahead of the current state of the design to forsee problems 13. reduce the number of parts 14. increase interchangeability of parts; standardize parts; minimize variation in parts 15. modularize functions and subassemblies 16. design multi-functional and multiple-use parts 17. avoid flexible components 18. avoid separate fasteners 19. improve robustness 20. allocate time/man-power based on cost/benefit analysis of a proposed action 21. maximize yield of existing equipment 22. keep assemblies/components as independent as possible 23. maximize tolerances
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Rules for Concurrent Engineering

24. test only what can be quantified; actively search for testable aspects of a design 25. minimize machining set-ups and re-orientations 26. design parts for feeding and insertion into machines 27. perform functional analysis 28. tailor the manufacturing process to the character of the product 29. study producibility and usability 30. design the fabrication process 31. design the assembly seequence for top-down assembly 32. minimize assembly instructions 33. use known/proven vendors and suppliers 34. use new technologies only when necessary 35. identify subassemblies as soon as possible in the design process 36. do engineering changes in batches 37. integrate quality control with assembly 38. match assembly processes to tolerances 39. operate on a minimum inventory
2001-2003 Filippo A. Salustri

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