CONCURRENT ENGINEERING ASSESSMENT - A PROPOSED FRAMEWORK

There are few studies that have found an adequate means of assessing f irms based on their specific needs for a concurrent engineering (CE) a pproach. Managers interested in introducing CE have little choice but to rely on their past experiences of introducing change. Using data gl eaned from a nine month case study, a British-wide survey and a series of in-depth interviews, this paper summarizes the findings of a resea rch study that examines how firms orientate themselves towards change and how they go about introducing CE to their operations. The data sho w that there are many benefits to introducing CE and that firms differ with respect to their needs for the CE approach. A tentative means to assess CE heeds' is proposed which is based on the level of complexit y of goods produced by firms. The method is currently being developed and extended to provide an applications-based framework to assist firm s to improve their new product development performance.