Concurrent Engineering

Concurrent engineering is by no means a new concept or revolutionary idea, but for Boeing it was a completely new way of doing things. Boeing is a conservative company that dislikes change. The old "throw it over the wall method" had worked in the past and it gave both design engineers as well as manufacturing engineers a ready scapegoat for errors. This, however, does not lead to an efficient design/build process. Phil Condit points out that, on average, each and every drawing in the Boeing system is changed 4 1/2 times before final release meaning that "we design four and a half planes for every plane we build".

Concurrent engineering requires heavier emphasis on planning at an earlier stage in the process. This saved many iterations as the design did not have to go from designer to planner to manufacturer to assembler and back again as everyone uncovered imperfections to the original design. Since all parties are involved from the beginning, the design does not leave the team without having been reviewed by everyone.

Originally developed by Shadd Shokralla