Current concurrency in practice

Abstract

Concurrent Engineering has been a major theme in the 80s and 90s of the previous century in research and practice. Many advantages have been achieved in terms of cost and time reduction and quality improvement. While starting with a design-manufacturing alignment, gradually the CE way of thinking has been extended to incorporate more lifecycle functions together with a stronger focus on and involvement of both customer and supplier. In this paper a history of CE is sketched as well as its major achievements and challenges. Challenges are briefly described that exist in two application areas, aeronautics and agro-food. © Springer-Verlag London 2013.