INTERORGANIZATIONAL CONCURRENT ENGINEERING - A CASE-STUDY IN PCB MANUFACTURING

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is mostly applied within an organization. Due to the focus at core competencies, suppliers need to be involved. Focusing on core competencies requires manufacturers to involve suppli ers in the development of complex products, especially in electronic d esign. Consequently, an inter-organizational approach is necessary to reduce throughput-time, improve quality, and lower costs. Analysis of a European PCB supplier's difficulties in implementing CE, with the Re adiness Assessment for Concurrent Engineering (RACE), led to a maturit y model for supplier involvement in electronic design. This framework' s first step is effectuation of basic CE principles within the organiz ation, which has been recommended for the PCB supplier. Further progre ss requires customer involvement, ultimately leading to virtual custom er-supplier-teams striving end-user satisfaction, supported by enhance d, ethernet-based application tools. The lack of customer effort, to a chieve inter-Organizational CE, proved to be the major road-block for the PCB supplier. Nevertheless, suppliers have a strong competitive ed ge, since they are capable of entering customer-supplier-networks can therewith be established instantaneously.