THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A CONCURRENT ENGINEERING TEAM WITHIN AN SME: A CASE STUDY

摘要

Concurrent engineering (CE) is widely adopted as a strategy for reducing product development time scales. Large companies that implement CE have the capacity to build product development teams with dedicated resources, enabling them to allocate separate and distinct tasks to individual team members. However, in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) it is frequently the case that individuals have responsibility for a wide range of tasks such as planning, managing, contacting suppliers, and organising testing and prototype manufacture. This multiplicity of individual responsibilities means that the development and implementation of CE product development procedures may sometimes be problematic in an SME. This paper is based on a detailed case study of the development and implementation of CE procedures in an SME manufacturing electromechanical components. The paper provides an insight into the factors that bear upon successful team-working in SMEs. It also discusses the key issues of ownership and responsibility which companies often encounter when integrating multifunction CE teams into a non team based manufacturing environment.