Regular meetings should be scheduled to allow the team members to renew communication paths and to exchange ideas and complaints about various phrases of the project. The intervals between project meetings must be long enough to allow for meaningful questions to develop but show enough so that important design decisions can be elaborated by the group.

It is important to place the team members in the same location (co-location), so that the project team can be continuously stimulated to find solutions to the problems of the project. Co-location improves communication between project members and, thus, motivates continuous improvements.

The following are disadvantages related to co-location:

Firstly is the high cost of moving and providing for the project members. Secondly, by moving individual members out of their functional unit environment, the

organization takes away the paths of communication that previously existed within the respective units.

Information Communication Technology (ICT) allows business organization to get the advantages of a co-located team but still retain all the advantages of a functional business organization. By interconnecting the team together, the project is turned into a managed set of resources and applications, through which the team communicates.

There are three advantages of this technology:

1. It eliminates the cost of co-location. 2. It allows for maximum communication between project members and outside consultants; and3. It records the progress for management and accounting uses.

Although each of the above-mentioned steps towards implementing Concurrent Engineering (CE) adds advantages, it also increases costs. These costs, both in time and in money, must be considered before any model I applied to a business organization. Every solution also requires progressively more difficult culture changes in the organization for it to be effective. By having project meetings, management can begin to change the culture of the business organization. Thus, after cultural changes have been inculcated, the business organization can already add a project facilitator or go directly into dedicated project teams. Once these teams have been established, the organization may wish to co-locate each project team or try to network all the projects.

12.7 THE TOOLS OF CE

The Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) can bring closer the gap between design and rapid prototypes. CAD files can be converted to tool path geometry and then downloaded directly to a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machine. A model can then be cut for the Concurrent Engineering group to evaluate and discuss in terms of design option.

There are many tools needed to make Concurrent Engineering (CE) work. In fact, without these tools, Concurrent Engineering is not as effective as we all expect. It is only then and then when a proper mix of the following tool is judiciously implemented that Concurrent Engineering (CE) will radically reduce lead times.

These tools are:

1. Computer-Aided Drafting (CAD)2. Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM)3. Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC)4. Total Quality Management philosophies5. Computer Networks (Local and Global)6. International Organization for Standards (ISO 9000)7. Quality Function Development (QFD)8. Solid Modeling Software9. Finite Element Analysis Software10. Rapid Prototyping Techniques11. Design for manufacturing and Assembly Techniques12. Continuous Process Improvement13. Just-In-Time Production14. Design of Experiments15. Statistical Process Control16. Benchmarking17. Taguchi’s Quality Design