Concurrent engineering for the management of experimental testing and evaluation projects in an R&D facility.

摘要

The Management of Research and Development (R&D) is facing the challenges of reducing time cycle to customer, reducing cost, having higher accountability for results (improved quality), and increasing focus on customers. Concurrent engineering (CE) has shown great success in the automotive and technology industries resulting in significant decreases in cycle time, reduction of total cost, and increases in quality and reliability.; This philosophy of concurrency could have similar implications for the management of R&D organizations. Although most experts agree that CE should be applicable to any kind of R&D setting, there is limited research on the subject since most studies have been performed in manufacturing environments.; This research, conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), investigates the application of CE in the management of an R&D organization. Although the GRC, like many others R&D organizations, has a well-defined systems engineering specification for developing its new systems new challenges have indicated the need for improvement in the program management process for developing these new systems. The diverse nature of the R&D projects at GRC provides an excellent model for this research.; The research was conducted in two phases, one of interviews and one of structured questionnaires, to investigate three areas of interest. The first area investigates the organization's state of readiness for implementing CE by analyzing the presence of five key factors of CE. The second area investigates possible enhancers and barriers that organizational characteristics of this environment present to CE. And the final area investigates the potential benefits that CE could have in the success of R&D projects.; The data indicates that although GRC shows the presence of some of the factors needed for CE, it lacks in the presence of other factors. The environment presents a series of enhancers for CE, such as the current collaboration amongst internal organizations and the effective use of systems engineering and project management practices. However, there are also barriers for CE such as the strict procurement policies and the current budget cycles. Finally the general agreement is that the elements of CE have positive impact on the success of R&D projects.