concurrent virtual engineering

2014

Pulkit Vijayvargiya (India)

Drew Brown (U.K.)

Ben Bourhis (France)

Leo Chryssinas (Greece)

A Report on Concurrent Virtual Engineering

A Report on Concurrent Virtual Engineering 2014

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University of Strathclyde

I declare that this submission is entirely my own original work.

This is the final version of my submission.

I declare that, except where fully referenced direct quotations have been included, no aspect of

this submission has been copied from any other source.

I declare that all other works cited in this submission have been appropriately referenced.

I understand that any act of Academic Dishonesty such as plagiarism or collusion may result in the

non award of my degree.

Signed……………………........................................................................................................................

Date 08/01/2014


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Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Background ......................................................................................................................................... 3

Reasons for Implementation and Advantages of Concurrent Virtual Engineering ............................ 7

Concurrent Virtual Engineering in Use ............................................................................................... 9

Case study on Concurrent Virtual Engineering ................................................................................. 17

Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 20

References ........................................................................................................................................ 21

Abstract This paper looks at the rise of concurrent virtual engineering as a product development

process. With industry’s ever growing dependency on computers and the internet it was inevitable

that companies would look to these resources to aid them in project management and creating a

systematic approach to design. The prevalence of large multinational and highly distributed teams of

engineers working together on single projects meant that regular concurrent engineering would no

longer suffice due to the lack of collaboration – a necessity in the ideals of concurrent engineering –

hence the development of concurrent virtual engineering. Virtual environments facilitate

coordination of work and file sharing between large groups, enabling a smoother and more well

understood design process for all involved

Background Prior to the 1980’s, the majority of companies used a traditional product development

process in order to prepare their products for each progression between market research and sales

and delivery.This process, sequential engineering, has a basic characteristic that each stage in this

method should work separately, preparing information which may be relevant only to the next stage

hence preventing advancement in a project until the previous stage is complete.

The lack of communication between employees who are responsible for different disciplines

of the project and the fact that there is no opportunity to shareinformation through the stages

affects the length of the process. In this case, it can easily be noticed that a number of design

changes can occur at the testing stage requiring iterations which lead to delays.

Another significant element of this process, which can be considered a natural consequence

of sequential engineeringis the fact that there is no employee or team in any company which follows


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this kind of product development that is responsible for the whole project, from beginning to end. As

a result, this procedure leads to an inefficient product development cycle which causes a number of

issues such as a lack of impetus in regards to producing the highest quality product in the shortest

time so as to avoid loss of market share. (Schmitz &Desa,1993)

In 1980, numerous companies, accompanied by scientists and researchers, tried to construct

an alternative method of product development which would overcome the disadvantages of

sequential engineering and would make their products more competitive in the market. This new

method was named Concurrent Engineering or Simultaneous Engineeringand is based on the proper

communication and collaboration between teams of various disciplines who were working on the

same project. The main purpose of this method is the minimization of the time that is necessary for a

new product to be introduced to the market (“time to market”) as well as the reduction of the

manufacturing and production costs. In addition, this new method has to meet another significant

challenge; improvement of product quality.

As far as the implementation of CE in product development process is concerned, the most

important issue is the existence of well qualified employees, organized in teams, who have the

capability of working together, sharing information and making decisions in early stages of the

process based both on their experience and their predictions. (Maxfield et al, 1995)

In the case that any important element that is mentioned above does not exist in a sufficient

degree, a number of issues will become apparent. This situation would lead to an inefficient

implementation of CEand as a result the product development process will collapse (Schmitz &Desa,

1993)

The proper collaboration between multidisciplinary teams produces a number of benefits for

the whole process and eventually for the sales and the progress of the company. First and foremost,

the employees’ collaboration affects the procedure to avoid late changes that require excessive

resources and take time to fixcompared to decisions made in the early stages. Use of an iterative

process early in product development makes a significant difference due to the fact that the

decisions made in these stages are crucial because changing things later is more demanding and the

cost for these changes is considered to be extremely high. Furthermore, the product can be earlier to

market both by avoiding having to repeat processes and by applying these alterations during the

early phases. Another benefit of the collaboration between various teams within a company is the

creation of a more enjoyable working environment which is suitable for the demanding projects of a

company and leads to growth of the productivity.

A lot of research has been producedregarding this issue; demonstrating that companies

implementing CE methods, improve their product quality while also reducing lead time by 30-40%.


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As a consequence of these results, companies have the opportunity to increase their market share

and to build higher reliability by meeting customer satisfaction.

Figure 1: Sequential Engineering compared to concurrent engineering.

However, recently companies using CE have encountered a problem. Different teams from

each company could no longer work at the same location because they were growing exponentially

and hence internationally distributed, consequentially they could not use the most significant

element of CE, collaboration. As a result, they had to develop a system that allowed for efficient

communication among employees or teams at different geographical locations. In order to meet this

challenge the companiescreated an improved CE method which would follow the technological

advances of the new business era. This method is called Concurrent Virtual Engineering and is based

on a computer based environment which solves both the problems of collaboration and completing

demanding projects in the shortest possible time. Moreover, CVE providesa low cost system for

sharing design information throughout the various facets withinacompany,therefore this method is

affordable to smaller companies too, helping them to be part of a wider network and to increase

their profits. (Sky et al, 1999)


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Figure 2: Example of how a virtual environment brings distributed companies together.

This report details the benefits of Concurrent Virtual Engineering over other management

processes and how it can aid a globally distributed company in designing and manufacturing a

product of quality within a minimized time scale.

The article entitled “The Development of Virtual Concurrent Engineering and its Application

to Design for Producibility” by Schmitz and Desa (1993) refers to the operation of CE in a project,

mentioning a variety of shortcomings that can be encountered while using the method. It also points

out the significance of using computer devices through the process connecting this thought with

Virtual Engineering. It concludes on how important a computer based environment is in a CE

method, giving an ideal approach on CVE and on its application.

Jina, Levitta, Christiansena andKunza(1995) with their article “The Virtual Design Team: Modeling

organizational behavior of concurrent design teams” conveyedinformation not only about concurrent

engineering but also about how organizations can be structured better using tools centered in a

computer environment. More specifically, they talk of a Virtual Design Team (VDT) which is a

database concerning the process and outputs important predictions about the progress of the

process as a whole. The examples provided within in the article detail how accurate this system is.

Naturally, a system with such useful results is ideal for the concurrent engineering processbecause of


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the inherent speed it adds to the process.

Another system that supports concurrent engineering proper operation is the Collaborative

Agent Interaction and Synchronization (CAIRO). “CAIRO: a concurrent engineering meeting

environment for virtual design teams” by PenÄa-Moraa, Hussein, Vadhavkarc and Benjamind

(2000).This article demonstrates how designers and engineers can collaborate effectively while

working on the same project despite being on different continent illustrating the definition of

Concurrent Virtual Engineering, describing the network that is used and giving details about this

process.

Finally, “A Distributed Virtual Environment for Concurrent Engineering” Maxfield, Fernando

and Dew (1995) provides further information about how a virtual environment operates within a

concurrent product development process. Plus, it expands upon the role of various applications

contained in such a process and which techniques are used to develop a network applicable to

support a demanding project.

Reasons for Implementation and Advantages of Concurrent Virtual

Engineering Concurrent virtual engineering has spread throughout the industry in recent years.

Althoughnot every company has changed to concurrent virtual engineering there is evidently an

increasing interest in the method. As an example, some of the leaders in the development of CAED

packages propose new functionalities oriented on concurrent virtual engineering. For example in

CATIA, CAD software developed by Dassault Systems, there is a common workspace for multi-agent

teams. It is clear that CVE is expanding into ever more technical and useful software systems but why

has it been such a success.

The first reason is financial;the main goal of the companies is to make profit and grow as a

business. Generally they are looking to reduce time and costs when producing. Concurrent

engineering is a process which provides a reduction in time to market and cost while improving

quality hence why industry continues to implement it into company infrastructure. However, there

are some limitations to concurrent engineering which make it ineffective. Concurrent virtual

engineering appears to face and overcome these limitations.

Obviously, this method is not feasible without a computer environment. Indeed, this process

includes a number of functions that are not possible to perform because of the technology involved.

If each time you change the design specification you need to run other programs and buy new tools

it becomes too expensive and too time consuming. A well developed digital environment allows all

files added to the database to work in harmony. It is easier to bring each facet of activity together

during the design steps within a computer environment because you can capture the engineering


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analysis of each domain and use it during the embodiment stages. Then thanks to computer

simulation it is less expensive to run fictive tests for each domain. Finally we can say concurrent

virtual engineering is developing because it hasallowed industry toeffectively perform concurrent

engineering in a distributed fashion while improving on resource usage.

Increasingly nowadays, companies outsource a part of their activities in order to reduce the

lead time of products but ensure they can have control over the core parts of the product. Almost

50–80% of all components manufactured by original equipment manufacturers (OEM) are out-

sourced to external suppliers (Gadhb et al, 2002).The objective is to compete withlarge

organisationsthat have their own equipment. This phenomenon leads to collaborative virtual product

development.

As previously stated, it is important to define the design specification early in the design

stages. In order to ensure a rapid definition of the design specifications some activities are

outsourced. This provides a close association during these steps between each of the different

contractors (manufacturers, assembly and design). However, all sectors cannot be on the same site

thus making communication more complicated leading to conflicts in the specification, hence why

concurrent virtual engineering is required to organise an environment which permits this resolution

by the collaboration of all actors in real time.

Moreover, the outsourcing of activities raises issues other than communication. Indeed, data

needs to be exchanged between the company and the subcontractors. For example, a sub-contractor

chargedwith the design of a part of an assembly will need to send its work to the company via the

internet. Without the development of concurrent virtual engineering this permanent exchange of

data between companies and subcontractors would not be possible.

The second reason for the development of concurrent virtual engineering is the

development of computer technologies and networks (Wright & Nam,2001). During the past decade

we have seen a huge development in network capacities. We are now able to share large amounts of

data with numerous techniques. The development of the internet and data sharing is also conveyed

by the growth of communication tools. Indeed, there are more and more communication platforms

becoming available on the market. The exchange capacities have allowed the companies to

outsource activities and thus create collaborative virtual engineering. The development of processors

also allows for the implementation of more powerful software which can deal with highly iterative

processes and simulation. Thus, the development of the technology and the network permits the use

of concurrent virtual engineering.

Another reason for its expansion is globalization. A lot of big companies are situated all over

the world with subsidiaries and subcontractors in different countries. Therefore, linked activities like


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design and manufacturing can be split over two different sitesand concurrent virtual engineering

overcomes the geographical problems created by globalization.

Concurrent Virtual Engineering in Use Concurrent virtual engineering raises a lot of technical and societal issues. The main

challenges to be addressed are the spatial and temporal separation of globally distributed teams,

interoperability across heterogeneous software, protection of the know-how of companies and the

implementation of all the tools on the same platform (Fowler, 1995).

The challenge in overcoming the spatial and temporal separation of people is principally the data

sharing. Indeed design activities require a large amount of data due to the size of CAD files and

assembly which need to be transferred from one agent to another. Of course, the transfer speed is

still limited. The second thing is the communication between the team members; a number of

communication platforms have appeared recently but for the moment they are not as in depth as

design activities. Moreover, in concurrent virtual engineering every agent needs to use a common

language, yet some companies are still not using international standards, this causes confusion and a

lack of continuity. Concerning the CAD platforms research is being conducted to develop real-time

visualisation and editing by different agents on the same file but it is currently still under

development.

Another obstacle to the implementation of concurrent virtual engineering is the variety of

existing CAD software and file formats. This diversity limits the level of information transferable

because it creates a need to convert the file into a neutral format and the file may lose part of its

information.

The third issue with concurrent virtual engineering is the protection of the data. Indeed with

virtual environment it is quite easy to copy data from another company and then keep it even if the

other company doesn’t agree. That’s why Product Data Management software has

beendeveloped;however, it appears they fail to protect the data correctly. There are some tracks on

various levels of details which would permit to assure data protection however it is still at the

research state.

The last issue concerns the integration of all the tools of concurrent virtual engineering on the same

platform. This raises some technical issues which need to be addressed with architectural novelties

in terms of algorithms. Current software architectures are not able to deal with all the aspects of

concurrent virtual engineering (Li et al, 2010).

Heterogeneous Data management in CVE: In CE product data exchange and its integration

plays a very important role in order to create collaboration among systems or engineers. But because

of heterogeneous nature of data it is always a challenge to achieve an ideal data management


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model. There are many CVE data management systems which provide solutions to this challenge. For

example STEP, CCI & PDM are the major systems which helps in product data exchange,

integrationand management respectively (Li et al, 2010).

PDM: In a concurrent virtual engineering environment many engineering departments work

in parallel; this involves the use of multi-disciplinary tools which results in a heterogeneous database.

Sharing and managing these discipline-specific model databases is a considerable challenge for

enterprises (refer figure 3). PDM or “Product Data Management” systems were developed as a result

to the demands of dealing withthese large and diverse sets of CAD files, documents and data in a

product development environment. Present state-of-the-art PDM systems like Windchill (MCAD-

Tools, AutoCAD etc.) aidsadvanced data management, product structure representation andreporting

and viewing capabilities (Li et al, 2010 and Li, 2010).A PDM system makes it possible to generate a

high-level “product-based view” as compared to “file-based view” of heterogeneous data by

grouping together all files and documents related to specific product configuration and version (refer

figure 1).

In figure 3, data of two products X and Y are tracked by a PDM system; various model files related to

them are grouped as two sets for data management. By using different programming skills in the

PDM system number of operations can be performed to the files (Li, 2010) For example to create a

new version of X MCAD file, analysis of new X version file, notify user about need of X item file in

other discipline models etc. With the help of advanced commercial PDM systems; assembly structure

information can also be extracted from the data files.

Figure 3: Product data management (PDM) system for different Models

Analysis

(CAE)

Electronic

(ECAD)

Systems

Engineering

Mechanical

(MCAD)

Item X

MCAD

Item Y

MCAD

Item X

CAE

Item Y

CAE

Item X

ECAD

Item Y

ECAD

Item X

SE

Item Y

SE

Item X

MCAD

Item X

CAE Item X

ECAD

Item X

SE

Item X

ModelsItem Y

MCAD

Item Y

CAE Item Y

ECAD

Item Y

SE

Item Y

Models


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STEP: STEP is the technology which helps in the exchange of product data through a product

lifecycle within a CVE system. STEP is the abbreviation for ‘Standard for the exchange of product

model data’. It is an ISO standard for the product data exchange, access and storage (Fowler, 1995).

STEP is the improved version of its previous standards such as IGES (Initial graphics exchange

specification) and mainly based on the language known as EXPRESS (Fowler, 1995). The main idea

behind STEP is that it transforms different data models (e.g. CAD, CAM etc.) in to “Application

Protocols” (APs). For example one of the most commonly used AP, AP 203 for exchange of CAD files

(Krima et al, 2009).

Data managed by PDM systems is associated but not integrated (Refer figure 3) as PDM systems do

not understand the internal semantic of data models. By using the STEP system this problem can be

solved very easily. (See figure 4).

Figure 4: Master Models Integrates different Discipline Models using STEP

Integrated master models X and Y are formed (See figure 4) as a result of mapping between models

(the STEP AP’s) and integrated master models. These mappings are done using the EXPRESS mapping

language of STEP. An integrated master model is the “Union” of all the discipline models of the

products and it is ready for import or export to another system.

Figure 5 shows the detailed process of data exchange between CAD system A and CAD system B

using STEP. Complete process is divided in to three steps numbered as 1, 2 & 3. In stage 1 data is

taken from CAD system A and sent to Inner step using “Pre-processor”. In stage 2 a new STEP format

file is generated with the help of EXPRESS and APs. In stage 3 the STEP file is converted back to CAD B

system file with the help of a “Post-processor”. Thus data exchange between A and B system is

processed (Li et al,2010).

AP 233AP 210AP 209AP 203

Analysis

(CAE)

Electronic

(ECAD)

Systems

Engineering

Mechanical

(MCAD)

X

Master Model

Integrated

Master Models

Discipline

View Mappings

Y

Master Model


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Figure 5: Data exchange using STEP

Globally distributed teams collaboration in CVE:As mentioned before in the report, team

work is one of the fundamental elements of Concurrent Engineering. Diversity, complexity and

increased competition in the field of engineering design lead to collaboration of engineers from

different geographical locations in an enterprise. Thus, virtual teams took shapeand work together

with the common goal of achieving global maxima in design (Prasad, 1996). There are many software

and technologies which are used in order to facilitate concurrent engineering in the virtual platform

by overcoming the challenges of data sharing and communication among diverse engineering teams,

clients or customers. There has been a substantial amount of research in the field of computer-

oriented data sharing and communication techniques mainly focusing on three main areas:

Electronic system of meeting (ESM); Video conferencing system and Social shared space (Hussein,

1995). Many advanced technologies for example, Large projection systems like CAVE & power walls,

reality theatres, Electronic Planning tables (EPT) (Runde et al, 2013), head mounted cameras &

displays, multi sensory devices, speech interfaces, CAIRO etc. come under the above three categories

(Talaba et al, 2010). The main goal of all of these technologies is to enhance virtual communication

and extend the CAD tools to a Virtual-Reality based concurrent virtual environment.

Electronic Planning tables (EPT): EPT or Table top systems (Runde et al, 2013) are atype of

ESM systems; they are new generation tables with electronic top which is capable of displaying 2D-

3D demonstration of designs and data in order to enhance its analysis in a virtual platform. It consists

of 2 screens, one is the top of the table (horizontal screen) and can be used to display either 2D or

3D data another screen is mounted on the wall (vertical screen) used to share 3D data. An EPT

system allows users to interact and make changes in the data displayed by the simple controls on the

table top it can be either ‘Touch screen’ (with multi touch input) or ‘Interaction Brick controls’ (See


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Figure 6, 7). This enables many users to participate in a meeting and interact at same time (Runde et

al, 2013).

Figure 6: Working at a planning table

Figure 7:Left:Multi-touch interaction table top, Right: Interaction brick on a planningtable

CAIRO:CAIRO is defined as “Collaborative Agent Interaction & synchronization”. It is distributed

conferencing software architecture for collaboration among geographically distributed engineers and

designers effectively (Pena-Moraa et al, 1996 and Hussein, 1998). A CAIRO system supports

multimedia interaction over a computerised network which enables engineers and designers to work

concurrently in virtual teams (Pena-Moraa et al, 2000). CAIRO system architecture is mainly

composed of different modules and servers (See figure 8). Different participants (a, b, c & d) are

called as collaboration managers (represented by dotted lines) which includes media drivers and

message servers (MSG). Control of a virtual meeting is undertaken by Forum Servers which are lead

by a forum manager. And a main server referred to as the ‘Name-server’ which stores whole

information, secures data and maintains the directory of all entities of a CAIRO system (Pena-Moraa

et al, 1996 and Hussein, 1998). Thus, a system is evolved with the help any user or client who has

access to internet and CAIRO software allowing them to congregate in a virtual meeting

environment. The entire object model of CAIRO is explained in the figure 9 and its system’s single


14


architecture is presented in the figure 10

Figure 8: CAIRO module diagram (Pena-Moraa et al, 1996)

Figure 9: CAIRO Object model diagram


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Figure 10: CAIRO System Architecture (Pena-Moraa et al, 2000)

Based on Java platform CAIRO creates a virtual presentation of a meeting room called as ‘Forum’.

One of the special feature of CAIRO is that based on meeting controlling nature; one can create a

forum of different types such as Chaired meeting, roundtable meeting, lecture meeting, freestyle

meeting etc (Talaba et al, 2010 and Pena-Moraa et al, 1996 and Hussein, 1998). Meeting controlling

body is dependent on the type of forum. For example in a chaired meeting their will be a chair

person who control all the features of a virtual meeting in CAIRO on the other hand in a round table

meeting no particular person is in charge. (Refer figure 11)


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Figure 11: Control interfaces: Roundtable, Chairman, and Lecture (Pena-Moraa et al, 2000)

Another important feature of the CAIRO system is side-conversation which enables a chat option for

the users during meetings, an additional ‘Agenda’feature monitors the time and subject of the

meeting from when the meeting begins and creates a report at the end of the meeting indicating the

productivity with time and completion status of each agenda item. CAIRO system also supports

asynchronous collaboration, with the help of ‘Replay’ feature; if a member missed a meeting he can

always see all the events and actions thatoccurred during the meeting as they are saved in the form

of log file in the system. Furthermore, CAIRO includes other different tools for effective

communication and collaboration like Message Board, Scheduling tool and also integrates with Auto

CAD which allows users to interact and work at the same time on same files but in a virtual

environment (See figure 12). Thus, a new level of control structure is introduced in CAIRO compared

to other internet conferencing systems in order to facilitate and alleviate the distributed

collaboration process (Pena-Moraa et al, 1996).


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Figure 12: CAIRO at work [11]

Case study on Concurrent Virtual Engineering How might concurrent virtual engineering be implemented into a distributed PCB design and

manufacture organisation?

As was the case with standard concurrent engineering, companies may initially be wary

about the difficulties of introducing concurrent virtual engineering. However, with the right action

and attentiveness it can be shown to be a successful system and more efficient than an

organisations current management style. Kornelius and Graaf’s case study in PCB manufacturing

(1996) conveys the issues that were encountered during the preliminary application of concurrent

engineering into a design and manufacture facility. Referencing examples from this report will give a

greater understanding as to how concurrent virtual engineering (CVE) can be introduced and the

advantages it will have.

When the company identified concurrent engineering as an ideal philosophy for continued

growth it did so because of the increased emphasis on congruent development of the product and

the processes that we to be used in parallel. Naturally this congruency shortened the time to market


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Figure 13: RACE model (Karandikar, 1993)

which is ideal in and industry as competitive as electronics. Moreover, the focus concurrent

engineering puts on the preferences of the end user allows products to be manufactured to more

exact tolerances and enables the company to meet needs that they would not have previously been

able to. In addition, CE creates a need for dynamism and more communication within a company

that prevents problems occurring later in the manufacturing stage because any issues a department

may have had will have been highlighted earlier in the process. Nowadays with companies often

being part of a globally distributed design and manufacture team it is becoming more difficult to

implement all of these process that are required for CE, hence the need for a virtual environment

which can bring them together.

Concurrent virtual engineering provides this environment and allows teams situated

anywhere in the world to come together and discuss data and future product development via a

digital network. Initially, when the company was looking at the potential of concurrent engineering it

used a model known as the readiness assessment for concurrent engineering (Karandikar et al,

1993). RACE (Figure 1) enabled the organisation to visualise where the main issues were with it’s

current system and how concurrent engineering would improve upon this.


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This model could be equally useful in a concurrent virtual engineering system, providing

engineers and managers to ascertain the key areas of knowledge that required alteration or

improvement to successfully implement CVE. The RACE method involves 14 vital points split

between two main headings; technology and processes. Through a seven step process of interviews

and planning a final result can be realised giving direction to the implementation of the project.

Once identified, the main issues can be approached head on facilitating a smoother switch from

concurrent engineering to concurrent virtual engineering or directly from sequential to CVE. The

company identified in the case study also required some pre-deployment changes to processes and

team training exercises to improve communication between sects within the organisation. Similarly

these areas of change would need to be identified and altered before a company could adopt CVE.

Due to the distributed nature of concurrent virtual engineering it could be considered more

difficult to work as a team in comparison to CE where teams are often found within the same facility.

However, with installation of software similar to CAIRO (Pena-Moraa et al, 2000) teams can be

brought together in a virtual environment. This improves accessibility of distributed groups by

allowing them to store information at a central server that all groups can view and hence use as a

focus for development of a design. For a company to move to using concurrent virtual engineering it

would be advantageous to have such a system in place as it will dramatically aid the sharing of

information from offices in a global organisation.

A further step that can be taken to improve the concurrency shown between a group of

teams is to enable electronic data interchange (EDI) and product data interchange (PDI)

(Graaf&Kornelius, 1996). EDI allows companies to handle order information, hence giving them an

improved idea of lead time and time, while PDI gives engineers the opportunity to send information

to their colleagues anywhere in the world via specific websites. “The efficient sharing of data and

knowledge within an organization is the prerequisite to enhance the competitiveness of companies

in this information age” (Carman et al, 2004). As is stated in the aforementioned quote, it is

imperative for continual growth that an organisation can effectively communicate between different

sectors hence conveying a smoother, more fluid transfer of knowledge and data. Concurrent virtual

engineering lends itself to this, similarly to how concurrent engineering did previously, but on a

more global scale.


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Figure 14: The Function of the Virtual Design Team (Jin et al, 1995)

In addition to virtual

environments and data sharing online

process and function models can be

created. This is congruent to how a

concurrent engineering process model

would be produced to ensure each group

knows exactly where it is supposed to be

at each time. Figure two shows the

Virtual Design Team Function model,

when used effectively it creates “links

among actors such as Report-to and

Coordinate-with…Changing the links

results in changes in team performance” (Jin et al, 1995). With the virtual design team platform

allowing managers to alter variables to create an end product that they want it makes it much easier

predict the outcome and lead time required for a project while also giving greater direction to the

task as a whole.

Utilising all of the applications mentioned in this section during the implementation and

actual use of CVE will ensure a more proactive and efficient grouping of processes. Lead time will be

reduced through effective communication and understanding between distributed teams and

therefore time to market should be improved, hence increasing the potential to exploit a market

area before slower moving competitors.

Conclusion The implementation of concurrent virtual engineering would be highly recommended for

organisations which are based in various different offices. The nature of its network savvy approach

to management provides companies with a basis from which to coordinate and share various

documents and files. This pertains to a more fluid and timely approach to engineering and negates

many of the problems that may arise due to poor communication between teams who are focussed

on the same goal. Furthermore as virtual environments continue to improve and standard file types

are adopted for varying tasks, many of the issues surrounding such technology will be resolved.

Similarly to concurrent engineering there may be a time during the initial implementation of CVE

where teething problems arise and expenditure increases due to some early inefficiencies, however,

once these are overcome and the process can be used to its full potential improvements will be

clear.


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