AN APPROACH TO CONCURRENT ENGINEERING USING DISTRIBUTED DESIGN METHODOLOGY

This paper presents a design model that allows concurrent engineering to be put into a conceptual framework and suggests a design methodolog y for that framework. Distributed design methodology is based upon a m odular approach where modules are connected in a network, and where co mmunication plays the main role allowing the product to emerge. Each m odule needs its own tools; some of them already exist but others have to be built in a new point of view. The design solution results from d ecisions which are made by all the modules in a distributed way. An ex ample from a design experiment introduces the discussion of the model and outlines the information exchanged. The validity of this design mo del is also proved by this experiment.