DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL FOR BENCHMARKING FOR CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

Benchmarking for concurrent engineering is a method to compare working methods with other companies, with the goal oi enhancing the performa nce of the product development process. The Readiness Assessment for C oncurrent Engineering (RACE) is used to describe the product developme nt process. Strengths and weaknesses of the process are thus identifie d. The characteristic ''Teams in the Organization'' is chosen to be im proved. Benchmarking this characteristic seems to yield the best resul ts. Companies that are willing to cooperate in this benchmarking effor t are identified and approached by a benchmarking team. information ex change on a particular characteristic leads to an improvement drive fo r the particular company, because it shows a performance gap and a way to bridge it. The method described above is developed for Philips Con sumer Electronics Hasselt. The analysis of the current process is the most important benefit of benchmarking. RACE clearly identifies what c haracteristics need improvement, and thus provides a focus for the imp rovement process. After that, selecting a capable benchmark partner is very time consuming. Reviewing that partner's product development cha racteristics is hard to do from the outside. Differences in terminolog y used complicate the information exchange. A long-term relationship, e.g., a cross-pollination group, is therefore recommended to fully ben efit from one another.