Journal of Engineering Design

Vol. 17, No. 2, April 2006, 143157

State of the art of the concurrent engineering technique

in the automotive industry
S. M. SAPUAN*, M. R. OSMAN and Y. NUKMAN
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
Universiti Malaya, Malaysia
In this article a study of state of the art of the concurrent engineering technique in the automotive
industry is presented. The importance and benefits of concurrent engineering in automotive industry
are highlighted. The study in the areas of concurrent engineering tools, especially the information
technology tools such as finite element analysis, computer-aided design and expert systems, is carried
out. The use of concurrent engineering techniques in the development of the automotive engine and
transmission, chassis and body is finally described.
Keywords: Concurrent engineering; Automotive industry; Automotive body design; Automotive
chassis design

1.

Introduction

The sequential nature of the design process in automotive industries has traditionally caused
the throw-over-the-wall principle to be practiced (Vasilash 1990). It means there is a barrier
between designers working in the design office and manufacturing engineers working in
manufacturing sites. Concurrent engineering (CE) is a technique practiced in industries to
overcome those problems. Reducing the time to market (Anonymous 1989, Burman 1992)
and expensive rework costs (Miles and Swift 1992), quality improvement (Anonymous 1989,
Yeh 1992) and team work (Ranky 1994) are the essence of CE. Youssef (1994) stated that
the literature on CE is replete with success stories implemented by various industries. He
pointed out that successful implementation of the CE strategy requires cultural changes that
allow for better communication among all subsystems, promote team work and integrate the
efforts of those involved in product and processes decisions. Therefore, nowadays, almost
all automobile manufacturers worldwide as well as their suppliers have serious implemented
CE and are reaping tremendous benefit out of it, especially in terms of cost reduction, time
compression and higher quality product (CTQ).
Pioneers of the car industry practiced CE technique in their development of automobiles.
Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, Karl Benz andAdam Opel were not only designing automobiles, but

*Corresponding author. Email: sapuan@eng.upm.edu.my

Journal of Engineering Design

ISSN 0954-4828 print/ISSN 1466-1837 online 2006 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/09544820500275511

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they were also product and process engineers who designed both cars and the factories that built
them. However, as these industries developed and became larger, work became specialized
and a designer would come up with a product but expect a manufacturing engineer to figure
out how to manufacture it (Ranky 1990). It can therefore be said that divergence from CE in
automobile development has caused the automotive manufacturers to suffer in terms of CTQ.
CE, sequential engineering and the CE cycle should not be repeated in order to succeed, but
continuously employing CE ensures automakers stay competitive and remain relevant.
Lucas (1983) presented a forecast of the motorcar in 2000 in terms of expected shape, drag,
power unit, transmission and weight. However, no mention was made on the use of the CE
technique that became the main success factor for the desired attributes described earlier. For
instance, a low-weight vehicle is normally achieved through the use of advanced materials such
as composites, and the design and manufacture of composite components can best be achieved
through implementing the CE technique. The reason was quite obvious because during that
time the term CE had not yet even been born in the practical sense. But what happened in 2000
shows that almost all the forecasts of Lucas (1983) were achievable, and the success factor
was mainly due to CE implementation.
Ponticel (1996) reported Biren Prasad, Director of the Concurrent Engineering Research
Association, as saying that extra time spent on establishing product definition saves time
and money in the long run when compared with an approach in which little time is spent in
product definition the latter approach often entailing additional and costly effort in redesign.
The former is the crux of CE activity. As a CE guru, Prasads statement should be considered
seriously not only by automakers but also by suppliers of automobile companies, especially
in achieving products at improved CTQ. The suppliers should become the integral part of CE
team.
Dubensky (1992a) reported the benefits and future directions of CE in automotive industries.
Among the benefits of implementing concurrent engineering method are:
Involvement of all functions and personnel (including project engineers, designers, process
engineers, cost analysts, marketing and sales personnel).
Better processing considerations.
Improved manufacturing launch considerations.
Fewer revisions to the product after manufacturing has started (a very expensive procedure).
A better product.
Improved worker involvement and satisfaction.
Management involvement and acceptance.
Automotive manufacturers who have implemented CE achieved some, if not all, of these
benefits. Team working spirit, which is an important gist of CE, gives more emphasis of
manufacturing issues during the design stage and an improved CTQ.
Dubensky (1992a) reviewed the development of automobiles by Chrysler, Ford and General
Motors from the early 1980s using the CE approach and their successes of using the CE method
is discussed. Now, their success story is now being followed by many companies worldwide
and one such company is Proton Berhad in Malaysia. Proton Berhad started the CE programme
in the early 1990s when the principal author was employed there.
CE is defined by the Institute for Defence Analysis (IDA) report as:
Concurrent engineering is the systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design
of products and related processes including manufacture and support. (Dwivedi et al. 1990,
p. 142)
This definition was developed in 1988 and this was the period when CE was being implemented seriously. The term CE was became more popular in the early 1990s. This definition fits
very well in the automotive industry because many activities in this industry are interrelated.

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Darus (1999) reported that market environment in the automotive industry can be divided
into various categories such as marketing, logistics, computer system, lower volume, wider
range and reduced product lifecycle. For marketing activity, what is targeted is a short leadtime from order to delivery; and for logistics, what is expected is the use of Just-In-Tume
(JIT)/Kanban, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and scheduling. For achieving lower volume, wider range the use of Advanced Manufacturing Technology is essential, which includes
lean/agile manufacturing, a flexible manufacturing system and a modular system. A computer
system, whether in the form of computer-aided design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) or Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) (Computer Numerical Control
(CNC)/Direct Numerical Control (DNC), Computer Aided Styling (CAS), Programmable
Logic Controls (PLC) and Automatic Level Control (ALC), is another important factor in
market environment. Finally, reduced product lifecycle requires halving of the current product lifecycle, typically from 4 to 2 years, the use of CAS, CAD and computer-aided CE
engineering as part of the activities within the reduced product lifecycle. However, in the view
of the author, CE fits in all the activities within the market environment stated earlier. It can
be concluded that, despite using CE, many practitioners still did not have correct knowledge
of the term CE. Therefore, it is suggested that they should be encouraged to learn in detail the
philosophy of CE so that it can be implemented fully without any doubt.

2. The tools of concurrent engineering

Before proceeding with this section, one comment is made regarding the papers in the area of
CE in automotive industry. The papers written by industrial practitioners normally describe
clearly the work on the development of automotive components using CE technique but they are
unable to explain in a convincing manner regarding how the CE technique is implemented (for
instance, Darus 1999). On the other hand, some papers written by researchers and academicians
are full of theories and technical detail about CE but very few information can be related directly
to automotive component development (for instance, Muhamad 1997, Sapuan 1998b). This
paper attempts to bridge the gap between these two communities.
Dubensky (1992b) outlined the CE method in the automotive industry with emphasis on
the techniques used and ways of obtaining training in these new techniques. The proposed
techniques were:

CAD.
Analysis, simulation and modelling.
Geometric modelling.
Statistical and quality methods.
Human resources.
Management.

CAD, analysis, simulation and modelling and geometric modelling are computer-based tools
in CE, and human resources and management are the non-computer-based tools. Statistical
and quality methods could either be computer-based or non-computer-based tools. Many
automotive industries have used these techniques with varied success. In order to achieve
success, top-level management commitment is essential.
Foreman (1990) reviews various CE tools, which can be used to resolve natural conflicts
that arise between design/engineering and manufacturing while designs are still on paper and
not at the prototype, or finished product, stages. These tools are:
total quality control (design standardization, Taguchi method, quality function deployment
[QFS], process control planning);

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computer integrated manufacturing (simulation and analysis, electronic data exchange,

networks and data communications, value engineering, solid modelling, group technology);
just-in-time productivity improvement (design for assembly/design for manufacturability,
synchronous manufacturing, continuous improvement programme); and
human systems (program/project management, communications, problem-solving).
It can be seen that both computer-based and non-computer-based tools should be implemented,
in which a huge amount of investment is unavoidable. In addition, human attitudes such as
cooperation and team working are essential for a successful implementation of CE.
Once again, those tools can be broadly classified as computer based and non-computer
based, and they are described in the following sections.
2.1 Non-computer-based tool
Non-computer-based tools are normally quite simple and straightforward, and could be
acquired through self-study of books and journals, training via short courses and by on-the-job
acquisition of the skills.
QFD is a non-computer-based tool normally used in the automotive industry. Despite
restructuring, reorganizing and even process reorganizing efforts, both the European and
American automotive industries have failed to attain parity in product cost, productivity or
throughput compared with Japanese producers. This is because Japanese producers stressed
the quality issues and customer satisfaction through the use of QFD. Prasad (1998) reviewed
some historical developments in QFD and extended house-of-quality concepts that are popular for organizing product, process, and production planning information and for processing
customer requirements (Muhamad 1997). QFD is indeed a successful method of CE in the
automotive industry and its use is not only productive but also simple and very interesting.
However, in the article by Prasad (1998), the emphasis is placed on concurrent function deployment, an extended version of QFD. In the authors view, extended version is not required at
this moment because QFD is already established and well accepted by the automotive industry
and trying to complicate it may become the setback in its use, unless the extended version can
easily be understood and implemented without much effort, cost and time.
Value analysis/value engineering (VA/VE) is another powerful tool of concurrent engineering. VA/VE provides a common measure and a method to tie customer value to the product
design, manufacturing processes and supplier processes (Ponticel 1997). However, the article
of Ponticel (1997) did not describe how to apply this method in the automotive industry, and
the reader is forced to rely on established textbooks describing it such as that of Wright (1998).
According to Wright (1998) theVA/ VE method involves assigning manufacturing and material
costs to each functions that the customer values. This enables the cost of producing each function to be calculated. The function/cost data enable the design team to see whether the cost of
producing the product is being shared between the functions in a way that makes sense in terms
of their relative importance. The value analysis matrix also helps the team to answer questions
about the means by which cost could be reduced without decreasing the value, or whether
value can be enhanced. A number of employees should be trained when implementing this
method. In addition, VA/ VE training needs to contain CE element because it is easy to deviate
from the real objective as this method has been available in open literature since the 1970s.
Nagy (1993) discussed various design tools available for todays automotive product designers, and the most important tool is CE. Within CE itself, several tools are required that include
an understanding of the various aspects of project management, team-working, target setting, communication and interpersonal skills development. The automotive industry may have
invested money in providing these skills to their staff to a large extent, except that they are

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classified as concurrent engineering (CE) tools in the formal way. Normally these skills are
acquired unknowingly, and sometimes are inherited through time.
2.2

Finite element analysis

In automotive industries, advanced computer modelling methods such as finite element analysis (FEA) are used in simulation of manufacturing processes, such as metal forming and
casting. In this manner, the component design could be optimized with respect to performance
and manufacture at the design stage; it is an example of CE (Adams 1991). Through FEA,
component design can be optimized in terms of stress, shape and material usage, and this
analysis is very useful during the detail design stage rather than during the conceptual design
stage.
Bayly and Barney (1995) described the use of FEA as a CE tool in designing a universal
joint. Organizational changes, which facilitate CE, can ensure that design analysis (FEA) and
manufacturing engineering play a part in the design process from the outset. A contour plot in
FEA could show areas of high stress in the universal joint under load. These stresses can be
chosen as a criterion for optimizing the component, making sure it is neither over-engineered
nor under-engineered. In the authorsopinion, in order to support CE, FEA should be employed
in all structural components, and the analysis on universal joint is just an example. The ability
to integrate the FEA software with other software such as CAD and an expert system will
enhance the concept of CE under the topic information technology (IT) integration tool.
Bokulich (2001) has reviewed the recent development on FEA in the automotive
industry, particularly that of ANSYS. ANSYS simulation products target three levels of
expertise, namely generalist, professional and specialist, with three levels of application
complications, namely linear, static, single part, analysis sophistication and non-linear, transient, multiple parts. ANSYS also has developed a system called e-SIM strategy, which is a
Web-based distributed simulation environment that can be used as a collaboration tool. To
support CE, various FEA software with different natures of application and with different
capabilities are available, such as LUSAS, ALGOR, MS-DYNA, ANSYS, etc. It is a matter
choice for the designer to use the software of his preference.
Clarke (1987) developed a FEA system during the design concept in the design of a product. It is contrary to the usual practice where complicated analysis is carried out during the
detail design process. Fifteen years on from the paper by Clarke (1987), designers are still
incorporating FEA during the detail design stage and it is hoped what was proposed by Clarke
should be implemented. The reason for the difficulties in implementation is that during the
conceptual design stage most of the design is still sketches. Carrying out complicated analysis
at the very early stage is considered a waste of time and resources because when conceptual
designs are being evaluated, most of the factors are beyond strength/stress/deflection and
involve non-engineering factors such as cost, aesthetics and customer perception. However,
any new development and ideas are always good and encouraged in CE.
2.3

Expert system

A knowledge-based system or expert system is another computer-based tool for concurrent

engineering. Abdalla et al. (1994) developed an expert system for the process quality control
planning system for an automotive brake pedal. The system selects the possible manufacturing
routes for a brake pedal. The method with the lowest cost and best tolerance is selected. The
methodology used is similar to the work of Abdalla (1997). An approach for concurrent product and process design of mechanical parts including automotive components is presented in

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the PhD thesis of Abdalla (1995). This approach enables designers to ensure that the product
can be made within the existing manufacturing environment. The proposed concurrent design
environment consists of integrated expert and CAD systems. The expert system comprises
detailed information about product features and manufacturing facilities, which allows the
designer to check process limits and product feasibility and also to detect design inconsistencies. It can be observed that CE is a powerful tool in assisting the designer, including an
automotive designer, in coming up with the best design of component through integration of
various IT tools and to consider all the manufacturing issues early in the design process.
The work by Abdalla (1997) is concerned with a mechatronics approach for designing a
product, which requires the integration of an expert system, CAD and a database. The expert
system, which supports both object-oriented programming and rule-based programming, was
utilized as a platform for the mechatronics design environment. As automotive components
also involved using mechatronics principles, successful implementation of Abdallas (1997)
findings entail consideration of mechatronics products in automotive components. Capturing
engineering knowledge in the automotive industry is a very important step in CE but it requires
additional time, effort and cost in developing the high-quality expert system.
A development similar to that of Abdalla (1995) was carried out by Pham and Dimov (1998).
They developed a new approach to CE, focusing on simultaneous product design and process
planning. The main contents of their findings are: a framework for structuring manufacturing
information and maximizing the information-carrying capacity of the design models; a procedure for intelligently mapping form features on to pertinent manufacturing considerations; and
a procedure for utilizing the available manufacturing information about components already
machined within the given manufacturing environment. Successful implementation of this
system can assist car manufacturers to develop efficient manufacturing and process planning
routes in producing cars. Similar work was also the development of Abdalla and Ikonopisov
(1993), but they work for feature recognition for process planning only. In short, improved
communication and documentation of knowledge based system (KBS) to facilitate CE is
observed through shared design intent capture, dynamic databases and conflict resolutions.
Some work in Ford Motor Company is concerned with the potential integration of expert
systems with process modelling and simulation (Demiri 1990). This integration allows the
design and manufacturing engineers to evaluate more alternatives in less time and at lower
cost than would be possible if the traditional methods of design and manufacturing are used
especially at the design stage where the most important decisions and mistakes are usually
made. This CE approach can provide an integrated design environment in which designers
can transfer data, interact and be cooperative with each other.
An intelligent expert system was developed by Colton (1993) to provide an information
standard that captures the minimum set information completely describing a part, and ensures
its manufacture. The part that was studied is the car engine assembly. As the results are
very promising, the work of Colton (1993) can be more useful if it can be extended to other
components within the automobile beyond the car engine assembly.
Sapuan et al. (1997) and Sapuan and Abdalla (1998) developed an expert system for material
selection of polymeric-based composite automotive pedal box system. This approach utilizes
an expert system (Knowledge Engineering Environment) tool-kit and concentrates on selecting
the suitable materials for automotive components, in particular for major elements of the pedal
box system such as accelerator, clutch and brake pedals as well as the mounting bracket.
Important design requirements such as mechanical, physical as well as chemical properties,
economic and manufacturing considerations were the factors used for the material selection
process. The material must satisfy all the aforementioned requirements in order to become a
suitable candidate for a particular component. These requirements are then translated in the
form of heuristic rules in the knowledge-based system. If any one of the rules were violated,
the system would give the message about the unsuitability of the material for a particular

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component using the constraint violation facility. Then the system proceeds with searching
for other materials until finally only the materials that satisfy all the rules are selected as suitable
materials. This work is suitable for selecting the best materials for automotive components,
particularly for short fibre-reinforced composites utilizing glass fibres. The integrated nature
of the system (expert system, CAD, FEA and database) enables designer to perform distributed
activities on a single screen and thus saves time and effort. This research can be broadened to
other activities within the CE environment such as process selection and optimization, mould
optimization, mould flow analysis, cost estimation and rapid prototyping.
Olson et al. (1995) used the automotive suspension system as an example of a knowledge
sharing system. The design of suspension is helped by an expert system that exchanges information and shares some common understanding of the information content. Collaborators
need the ability to establish and customize knowledge sharing agreements that are usable by
people and their machines.
An expert system is also used in various fields of automotive research, such as: Prospector,
a knowledge-based mould-making system from Cimlinc Inc. for studying the range of mould
machining issues (Trego 1998); CAD, an expert system from Concentra Corp. to reduce
product cycle times for automotive windshield wipers (Trego 1997); ICAD used by GM Powertrain to develop an expert system for reading computer-aided design and manufacturing
data, and to generate a minimum stock size needed to support machining, in-process dimensions and stock removal tolerances (Korde 1997); and I.C.E., an expert system for automatic
analysis and design during conceptual stage of Lotus Elise (Buchholz 1996).
Dong and Agogino (1997) developed an expert system that helps designers to communicate
the design information with respect to the current and relevant information needs of the design
based on the annotation of the drawings.A technique for inducing a representation of the design
was based upon the syntactic patterns contained in the corpus of design documents. Since the
automotive industry deals to a certain extent with the drawings and design documents, this
technique may be very useful in the future. However, this approach seems to be very complex
and requires more work before it could be acceptable to the automotive industry.
In the papers by Olson et al. (1995), Trego (1997, 1998), Buchholz (1996) and Dong and
Agogino (1997), it is seen that the expert system forms an important tool in CE because
in the automotive industry each skilful worker is a very valuable asset in the company. In
order for the workers to achieve a certain level of skill and knowledge, high investment is
required and is very costly. Therefore, there is a need to capture the knowledge of the skilled
workers whenever they are absent or leave the company, their knowledge still remains intact
in the company.
A recently work carried out by Edalew et al. (2001) is concerned with the development
of an expert system for the automatic selection of cutting processes and tools within a CE
environment. The main aim of this research work was on the development of a procedure
for the selection of cutting tools, development of a dynamic programming-based system that
utilizes mathematical modules and heuristic data to determine and calculate cutting parameters
and tool component. The procedure is similar to that Sapuan (1999) and is capable of selecting
cutting tools and calculating cutting conditions and estimating component costs. The work of
Edalew et al. (2001) can be improved using a different and more user-friendly expert system
shell and should be focusing on a specific component in the automobile initially so that it can
potentially be more commercializable.

2.4 Computer-aided design

Buchholz (1997) and Trego (1997, 1998) review various CAD software used by car
manufacturers in the design of automobiles. The main emphasis of the articles is on the

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contribution of CAD in the integration of design and manufacture. The use of advanced CAD
has helped the automakers to reduce the vehicle design cycle considerably. Structural and
impact analysis is performed faster and more easily to reduce overall mass and cost targets.
Dimensional analysis and control were improved and tooling was created using master data
information. Among the CAD software reviewed by these authors are Catia, Vamos, I-DEAS,
EDS Unigraphics, Cosmos, Surfcam, Varimex, Quest, Ergo, Robcad, Dvise, Euclid, Cadra
DM, ICAD and Pro/Engineer. Although Tregos (1997, 1998) papers are reviews in nature,
the findings should be used to form the basis for the study of CAD in the CE environment in
order to enrich CE understanding.
Automotive Components Dunstable, the supplier of windscreen wiper systems for GM
Europe, Rover, Nissan and Volkswagen, integrated Catia CADCAM to support design engineering (Farish 1995a). The system consists of three-dimensional solid and surface modelling,
kinematics and FEA. These systems are linked to assembly management and for product
design, tool application and CNC. These links are the essence of CE philosophy. When CE
was first introduced, the majority of the companies who used the CE were automobile manufacturers or original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but this trend has now changed.
OEM has delegated some of the CE activities to their component suppliers. By adopting this
approach, it is observed that CTQ benefits are achieved.

3.

Concurrent engineering in automotive chassis design

Matterzzo and Ardayfio (1992) used the design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA)
method, one of the main tools of CE, to develop a new front suspension system. In this
study, DFMA activity of front suspension was a major contributor in saving product costs,
reducing product complexity and reducing plant refuse. DFMA is a method where all possible failures of components are identified and the severities of the failures are given a rating.
Finally, the component that is the most severely failed requires immediate attention for repair
or replacement.
The CE method was employed by Ford Motor Company and John Brown Automation, UK
to design automotive pedal box system (Warwick 1988). The objective of the study was to
automate assembly activities wherever possible and identified that in order to achieve this it
is important to design the product for automation. In the design three main criteria must be
achieved, namely maximization of quality, minimization of equipment investment cost and a
design to be directly targeted for automatic assembly.
Matterzzo and Ardayfio (1992) and Warwick (1988) are among the earlier users of CE in
the automotive industry. In fact, the work of Warwick (1988) was reported in the same year as
the Institute for Defense Analysis, USA came up with their definition of CE, which is accepted
as the best definition of CE. As early as the 1980s, the CE practitioners have achieved three
main benefits of CE CTQ.
Sapuan and colleagues (Sapuan et al. 1995, Sapuan and Abdalla 1997, Sapuan 1998a, b,
1999, 2001) have developed a polymeric-based composite pedal box system employing the
CE technique. Weight and cost savings were two major advantages of the research. The design
and manufacturing processes of tooling and pedal box components are also discussed in the
light of the existing composite materials manufacturing technology. It is observed that there
is very limited work in open literature on the use of CE in automotive composite applications.
Therefore, the principal author is considering it seriously and working hard to be one of the
experts in this field. Ongoing research is currently carried out to intensify the use of CE in
automotive composites.

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Price (1991) stated that quality composite materials could be made at a competitive price
if the fabrication methods, with their advantages and limitations, are considered in the early
design stages. The CE approach exemplified by a pul-forming machine in the design of an
automotive leaf spring is employed where a continuous low-labour process produces a nonconstant cross-section.
Immature designs reached manufacturing, causing expensive changes, and a failure to bring
the manufacturing technologies and process tradeoffs to the product design community are two
mains problems for OEMs. Therefore, in the attempt to improve these, GM and its suppliers
used CE to develop its product. For instance, one of the GM vendors, Diversified Plastics Corp.,
developed an automotive knee bolster (Anonymous 1990). This company tackled the problem
as follows: mould the piece from an expandable styrenic maleic anhydride copolymer bead.
As a result, Diversified Plastics Corp. pioneered a whole new industry (i.e. close tolerance
expandable copolymer moulding).
Francis (1990) emphasized the importance of integrated design and manufacture for any
industry to restore competitiveness in manufacturing. He demonstrated the importance of CE
using a car brake assembly design using the I-DEAS system from SDRC. This design stresses
the need of the CAD system to help designers in the design and analysis of the brake assembly,
and at the same time issues related to manufacturing are considered.
Price (1991), Anonymous (1990) and Francis (1990) have used CE in an automotive composite leaf spring, automotive knee bolster and brake assembly, respectively. What is common
in these papers is the stress on the importance of considering manufacturing issues (including
mould design) at the early stage of the design process.

4.

Concurrent engineering in automotive body design

Dubensky (1993b) investigated the use of the CE technique in the design of a bumper system.
The study focuses on the conceptual design stage. The method of matrix representation is used
to come up with various combinations of alternative concepts. Three main components of the
bumper system, namely fascia, bumper beam and energy absorber, are studied.
Dubensky et al. (1989) used CE to design plastic bumper beams for weight saving. The
work describes process-driven design and the benefit of this technique. The techniques have
been used to accelerate the process to complete a bumper beam concept analysis of a proposed
design in approximately 6 h. This allows the investigation of new materials and design.
Both these papers stressed the importance of development the right conceptual design in
product development. During this stage all the manufacturing issues are considered so that
the final design will be of high quality, can be produced at low cost and time (CTQ) and the
product is manufacturable.
The CE technique was used by Delphi and GE Plastics (Anonymous 1996) to develop the
gas-assisted injection moulding of a plastic car door. This design is very complex in terms
of both resin and gas flow. A variety of computerized design tools were used, including FEA
for modelling structural properties and mould/gas filling. Stereolithography was used for
producing prototypes. No matter what materials are employed, metal, composite or plastics,
the emphasis of CE remained the same. In the case of plastic door development, one important
element of CE namely, integration of IT tools is the main concern.
Vauxhalls Luton, UK (Farish 1995b) plant employed 418 robots in the body shop at the end
of 1995 in order to increase the heavy automation and reduce stock holding. Lean manufacturing and design for assembly (DFA) or CE approaches were employed. In the DFA approach,

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the plant builds more subassemblies (or modular assembly), including the underbody, frontend dash, bonnet, door and tailgate, which were previously supplied externally as a complete
assembly. The strength of Farishs (1995b) report is the use of a modular assembly system in
automobile production, and it can be assumed an important CE activity.
Marshall and Leaney (1995) used the concept of modules into a new car body assembly.
Modular assembly of an automobile benefits from reduced handling, fewer process steps and
component integration, increased flexibility in tooling, equipment and processes and higher
productivity through the integration of DFA, design for manufacture, design for service and
design for environment, which are important elements of CE. The strength of this work is
on the integration of various IT tools and non-IT tools (procedure-based tools). The latter is
considered unique to the work of Marshall and Leaney (1995) because it is not easy to carry
out such integration.
Ford Motor Company and The Budd Company, have teamed up to put CE into practice. Both
companies used CE and the Variation Simulation Analysis program to simulate the assembly
of a door for Fords Aerostar minivan. The final result was that new features were added to the
vehicle, resulting in component addition and redesign. All this happened before a single tool
was stamped or a single line fault occurred because all have been studied on the computers
assembly line (Coffmann 1990). Although CE is implemented, Coffmanns (1990) work has
resulted in component redesign. One may argue that by employing CE there is no need for
composite redesign. In actual fact, component redesign is unavoidable in CE, but by employing
CE component redesign can be minimized greatly.
Zuber (1992) and Dubensky and Salansky (1992) studied the use of plastic for automotive
fenders using the CE approach. Extensive uses of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools
have been exploited. The application of plastic is more desirable to metal body panels in the
automobile body, and CE proved to be very useful aid in the design. By employing CE in
automotive plastic components, one major advantage obtained is weight reduction. Weight
reduction ultimately allows for fuel saving in an automobile.
Braunsperger (1996) stated that automotive industry practice has shown that quality control methods such as FMEA, QFD and project management must be combined with other
techniques when an improvement in product quality is required. The product development
procedure must be better arranged and made capable of achieving preventive quality assurance. He presents an all-areas quality assurance concept as drawn up in the body development
area of the BMW AG Company. It should be emphasized that in order to achieve a high-quality
product, the designer must resort to the use of an effective quality-related tool such as FMEA
and QFD, which can be regarded as the tools under the umbrella of CE.

5.

Concurrent engineering in automotive engine and transmission design

Dubensky (1993a) studied the design aspects of an automotive power train subsystem using
CE techniques. In his work, in the design of power train, he suggested the following conditions
and constraints be satisfied:

Use of common parts.

Reduce investment using existing tooling and equipment.
Reduce product cost.
Increase number of accessories and/or options.
Increase reliability at all stages of the design and prototype development process.
Reduce the number of phases in the hardware development cycle.

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All these results from employing CE can be regarded as the main benefits of CE in automotive
industry and can be summarized as improvement in CTQ.
The development of a plastic automotive intake manifold for the Ford 1.6 liter Zeta engine
was carried out using a CE technique by combined work of Ford, Du Pont and Dunlop
(Costanzo 1992). The material used to replace metal is a glass fibre-reinforced Nylon 6.6
resin. The benefits of this study were as much as 3.5 kg reduction of material weight and
20% cut in cost were achieved as compared with the comparable aluminium part. This paper
demonstrated one of the attempts to include component and material suppliers as part of the
CE team in an OEM in carrying out their CE activity.
Perkins Technology Limited (Steward 1994) has developed a project management system
covering all aspects of an advanced internal combustion engine. The work utilizes a CE technique where the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork is emphasized. The development
involves the manufacturing team, marketing, sales, suppliers and designers. An achievement
of 95% of power and torque targets within cost and weight objectives is demonstrated. In this
paper, a team-based approach, another important element of CE, is emphasized.
In designing an automobile component such as an engine for power and fuel consumption, the design is determined using simultaneous consideration of several factors such as the
parts function, the material from which it will be made, how the part fits with other components, weight, cost and the constraints imposed by the manufacturing process. Computer-aided
techniques make it possible to predict performance before fabrication. Manufacturing constraints, once also considered late in the design process, now form a significant part of CE
(Compton and Gjostein 1986).Although the paper did not mention anything on CE, the work
carried out was a perfect CE activity in the automotive industry.
Madsen (1990) reported that ABB was involved as a partner in an automotive engine design.
The task of ABB was to develop a reliable, flexible and cost-effective cylinder head assembly
system. During the development, some unique solutions were achieved and the layout was
generated. Harrington et al. (1996) developed a framework for knowledge-based support in a
CE environment for a chemical power plant. Automotive manufacturers for automotive power
plants could adopt the system. It enables the designer to make design decisions with respect to
lifecycle concerns and reduces design iteration and compromise. Computational support aids
designers in making decisions, weighing up the alternatives and providing advice that covers
the lifecycle perspective. In the papers by both Madsen (1990) and Harrington et al. (1996),
the results obtained include a cost-effective product produced at high quality (reliable and
flexible) and in a shorter time (design iteration reduction), and these agreed the finding of
many CE researchers (CTQ).

6.

Other important issues in concurrent engineering

Rosen (1994), Huh and Kim (1991) and Chin and Wong (1996) developed systems for assisting designers to concurrently design products and moulds for injection moulding process.
Rosen (1994) developed a computer system for automated construction of tools from a purely
geometric reasoning viewpoint. Starting with a solid model of a component, undercuts are
found and classified, and then moving tool sections are constructed. Undercut classification is
important since their cost implications can be reported back to the component designer during
design.
Huh and Kim (1991) studied and came up with a knowledge-based CAD system for the
synthesis of supplementary features of injection moulding with a solid modeller for geometric modelling. It provided non-expert designers with knowledge of injection moulding,

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structural design and CAE analysis. By integrating this knowledge into a CAD system, CE is
performed to design supplementary features of the injection-moulded part. This framework
of the knowledge-based CAD system for injection moulding can be used for various product designs including automotive components. Chin and Wong (1996) developed a prototype
expert system for plastic products during the conceptual design stage. The prototype expert
system was developed to assist the designer in selecting thermoplastic materials according to
the product requirements, and in determining the mould design features.
The papers by Rosen (1994), Huh and Kim (1991) and Chin and Wong (1996) demonstrate
that there is a strong tendency in the CE community to study the feature-based system, particularly using a CAD system. Therefore this trend can be used in automotive components under
a CE environment.
Tsuda (1995) investigated the systematic application of QFD to CE procedures of
automobile development, which led to a proposal of defining the ideal figure of the project
leader. Included within this role are all the necessary responsibilities with judgements and
decisions related to the project. Based on this proposal, a 2-stories-quality-chart model is
conceived that the project team prepares as a result of cooperation with function departments.
The above proposal of an ideal project leader and the concept models simplify the treatment
of systematic application of QFD to total CE.
Normally, many researchers employ a conventional QFD method but the use of a 2-storiesquality chart in automobile development is something unique. Therefore researchers are
encouraged to use the 2-stories-quality chart in order to gain more meaningful results as
Tsuda (1995) has obtained.
Nielsen and Holmstrom (1995) studied the benefits of taking account of supply chain considerations, in the design and process engineering stages of the automotive industry. This was
performed because developing fast operation involves integration with the production systems
of critical suppliers and a slow and demanding process. This study would achieve the benefits
of JIT supply with more suppliers by accommodating product design, process technology
and operation management perspectives. A means for moving the formation of variety downstream in the value adding process is provided by option-based product modelling. In this
way, a direct control link may be created between the options chosen by the customer and the
variety of producing process. In this paper, soft CE tools such as a supply chain study and
JIT were used in automotive component development, and it is concluded that the supplier
can be considered one important element in CE studies.
Abdalla and Knight (1994) carried out the study of a worldwide benchmarking survey, which
covers several industrial sectors such as the automotive industry. Effective communication,
the systematic involvement of customers and suppliers, flow of information between departments and effective use of modern technology are reported as the key elements for success.
Cox and Thompson (1998) also carried out comprehensive review on the appropriateness of
benchmarking with the aim to examine and critique the current benchmarking concept as a
means of creating competitive advantage for an organization. Benchmarking is defined as the
search for industry best practices that will lead to the superior performance of a company.
Benchmarking study that should be carried in automotive component development should
ultimately support the main goal of CE; namely, consideration of manufacturing issues during
designing a product. If this element is missing, benchmarking here just remains a management
tool and cannot be regarded as a CE tool.
Abu-Bakar et al. (1997) carried out a study of the relationship between small and medium
enterprises and large industries, especially in the automotive industry. They pointed out that
CE could play an important role in a successful link between these two classes of organizations. They developed a model of the role of small and medium enterprises to a CE team in
the automotive industry in producing automobiles. A similar model was also developed by

State of the art of concurrent engineering

155

Dubensky (1993b). The CE practitioners have started to include the suppliers of automotive
components in the CE teams early in the design process. This approach enables small and new
companies to be informed of the latest developments in the automotive industry and, most
importantly, they are not deprived of this powerful tool called CE.
Although there is no study being conducted on how to bridge the gap between academia
and industry on their approach and views about CE, this literature review has combined papers
form both parties and hopefully this review can provide one of the platforms for both academia
and industry to obtain the latest information on the development of CE. This is because the
papers compile here are taken from these two communities. The examples of papers from
industry include Dubensky (1993b) and Darus (1999), and the examples of papers purely
from academia include Sapuan (2001) and Muhamad (1997).

7.

Conclusions

A detailed literature survey in the area of CE reveals that this technique is very powerful,
in achieving successful products, in the automotive industry. Companies who adopted this
technique have gained tremendous benefits in terms of reduced time-to-market, low cost and
improved quality. The automakers that are still unaware of or uninterested in this technique
should reconsider their traditional design approaches. They should start investing money in
implementing this technique if they want to be competitive with companies who have already
implemented it. Whether it is in the areas of automotive chassis, engine and transmission or
body designs, the CE technique has provided great advantages to automakers.

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