Journal of the Operational Research Society (1998) 49, 758-765 0 1 9 9 8 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Concurrent engineering: a competitive strategy for

process industries
A Gunasekaran
Brunel University

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to the integrated, simultaneous design of both products and their
related processes, including production. A number of research reports are available in the literature to deal with CE and
its applications in manufacturing industries. However, the application of CE in Process Industries (PI) has not received
enough attention from researchers and practitioners for improving productivity and quality. To use CE effectively in
process industries requires accuracy of data and a common architecture. In PI, the products are processed with minimal
interruptions in any one production run or between production runs of products that exhibit process characteristics, such
as liquids, fibres, powders and gases. The general characteristics of this industry add value to materials by mixing,
separating, forming, or chemical reactions. PI often initiate their flow with only a few raw materials and subsequently
process a variety of blending and resplitting operations. Nevertheless, there are many common characteristics such as
material and information flow between manufacturing and PI. This indicates the application areas of CE in PI and hence
to improve the competitiveness of PI in terms of flexibility and responsiveness. An attempt has been made in this paper to
study how CE can be utilized to design products, production system, and production planning and control (PPC) system.
for improving productivity and quality in PI.
-
Keywords: process industries; concurrent engineering; integration; productivity and quality

Introduction years, and now invest more in manufacturing control soft-

ware such as Manufacturing Resource Planning (MWII)
During the last decade, a number of articles have appeared
and Statistical Process Control (SPC) than engineering.'
discussing the application of computers in process indus-
Unlike manufacturing, the plant design and installation play
tries (PI). However, they have mostly dealt with various
a crucial role in improving productivity and quality in PI.
aspects of production control. One can find very little
Therefore, the application of CE should not only be
application of new methods of manufacturing such as
confined to product design in PI with the objective to
Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM), Just-In-Time
improve the effectiveness of down stream activities in the
(JIT), Total Quality Management (TQM) and Concurrent
life cycle, but also in the design of plant and installation.
Engineering (CE) in PI. Both the manufacturing and
~ v e r s h e i mdefined
~ simultaneous engineering as 'an orga-
process industries have the same objectives such as inven-
nisational strategy' with the idea to shorten the time of
tory and cycle time reduction, reduce the time to reach
product design by simultaneous planning of product and
market, high quality products and improved productivity.
production. Concurrent engineering may also be referred to
These indicate that most of the new methods and technol-
as simultaneous or parallel engineering. As mentioned
ogies used in manufacturing can also be applied to process
earlier, the plant design and installation form an integral
industries. Unfortunately, very little effort has been made to
part of the operational strategy of the whole system in PI.
implement these new methods and in turn the appropriate
This particular distinction between manufacturing and PI
technologies of manufacturing in PI. The application of
must be recognised while applying CE. Application of CE
computers in PI has mostly been in the areas of manage-
will improve the flexibility and responsiveness of the PI and
ment accounting, bidding, and process control. It has
in turn the competitiveness.
always been confinekd to computation-intensive and the
From the above analysis, it can be seen that the process
existence of large databases of construction cost data.
industries have automated their process control using
Process industries have increased their investment over
appropriate hardware and ~ o f t w a r e .However,
~ there are
still a number of concepts and technologies such as JIT,
Correspondence: Dr A Gunasekaran, Department of Manufacturing and CE and M m that have not been successfully utilised in PI.
Engineering Systems, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH,
UK.
One of the most important of them is CE that has not been
E-mail: A.Gunasekaran@brunel.ac.uk given due consideration in PI. As noted earlier unlike in