A SIMULTANEOUS DESIGN MODELING SUPPORT SYSTEM

Recently manufacturers are increasingly adopting the simultaneous engi neering concept in designing and developing new products to shorten pr oduct development time while maintaining higher product quality and lo wer manufacturing costs, as the concept of simultaneous engineering ha s become a major product development practice of the late 1990s in the world class manufacturing. In this paper, we propose a framework of a Simultaneous Design Modeling Support System in which decisions on pro duct design, process design and manufacturing system design are simult aneously made at an initial stage of product development period. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.