Tape/Vol. 15: Concurrent Engineering System Integration: Requirements Engineering, Specification, Design, Implementation, Support and Audit

Tape/Vol. 16: Engineering Data Management: An IBM Case Study

Additional reading on Object Oriented Concurrent (hardware and software) Engineering: as a new development, view the free, electronically published R&D journal, ADAM with IT (Advanced Design And Manufacturing with Information Technology) at this web site, as well as enjoy the hotlinks to other web sites via ADAM's WebCorner; both just a click away...

Topics covered by Mr. John Halton, Manager, Lucas Engineering & Systems, in this program include the following:

• Concurrent engineering system integration
• Requirements engineering,
• Specification,
• Design,
• Implementation,
• Support and
• Audit
• Interactive team and/or individual exercises

When wieving this program, try to imagine that you are a member of the concurrent engineering team. As you can see, there are several different engineering, manufacturing, total quality, information technology/ computing science, marketing, management and other expertise represented in such teams.

• How could one/ you integrate your organization or factory effectively? What would be the benefits? What are the objects and classes of objects that need to be integrated? What are the engineering management challenges, methods and tools?
• How do you analyze/ formulate your long term business views, and your key business drivers?
• What is a diagnostic survey?
• How would you assess th erequirements in your, or in an other factory/ system?
• What tools (including software tools) and techniques do you/ would you use to perform some of the above functions? Explain these tools in terms of what they can/ could do for you.

• System integration tools
• Project management
• Continuous improvement
• Maintenance system design and management
• Production management and the business information system
• Shopfloor integration and diagnostic data collection
• Factory integration and cellular manufacturing
• Interactive team and/or individual exercises

When wieving this program, try to imagine that you are a member of the systems engineering/ concurrent engineering team. As you can see, there are several different engineering, manufacturing, total quality, information technology/ computing science, marketing, management and other expertise represented in such teams.

• Integrated, versus isolated machines and processes. (What are the losses when running isolated systems/ machines? Who is paying for this?)
• Integrated, versus isolated material flow.
• Integrated information flow, versus isolated "pockets" of data, and the
• Driving force behind all this: software! Broadly, try to specify what kind of software packages/ requirements one will have to fulfill the outlined requirements.

• Factory integration: the way sensors, machines and processes are developed to "talk" to each other in a layered architecture (ref. diagram above).
• If you are a computing science student/ person, think of classes of objects developing various associations at various layers (ref. simplified functional diagram above).
• Describe in this context the difference between integrating versus interfacing devices (e.g. two computer controlled machines on the shop floor). (For more on cellular manufacturing and shopfloor control, refer to the "Introduction to Flexible Automation..." multimedia CD-ROMs and Books and Videos on CD-ROM packages)

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Topics presented, with industrial examples, by Mr. Chris Skerry, Manager, IBM, UK, include the following:

• Engineering Data Management Methods (IBM)
• Tools and Industrial Case Studies
• EDI - Electronic/ Engineering Data Interchange between IBM La Gaude, Havant and a Scottish vendor - IBM case study

When wieving this program, try to imagine that you are a member of the concurrent engineering team. As you can see, there are several different engineering, manufacturing, total quality, information technology, marketing and other expertise represented in such teams.

• EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
• TEDI (Technical Electronic Data Interchange)
• E-mail
• CAD/CAM (Computer Aided Design and Manufacture)

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• Intelligent document handling and information management
• IBM's DAD system - design, application, concurrent engineering and CIM document integration aspects
• Interactive team and/or individual exercises

"Intelligent", electronic document management is an important issue in any business...As an example think what happens to a customer complaint, or a receipt in your organization... Who processes it? How? Why? How long does it take to process the data? ... and what happens with all the data after all this? Are there any follow ups? Feedbacks? How much does all this cost? How long does it take? Guess who is loosing the battle?... What are the solutions?

• The benefits of expert systems in EDM (Electronic Document Management)
• Document handling and management challenges...
• Document information interchange... Who gets the data? How does data turn into information? Try to draw up some criteria on how we could satisfy the (inside and outside) customerts? What software tools do we need to do this in the age of the Internet?

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