Concurrent engineering and virtual reality for human resource planning

New tools, such as the Internet virtual reality, used in support of new glo bal industrial initiatives, can only be implemented effectively with knowle dge and consideration of the context in which they are to be used. The foll owing paper provides some background of effective concurrent engineering an d its relevance in implementing these new tools and initiatives in the serv ices industry. Considering the current trend toward globalization and the n eed for geographically distributed product development, manufacturing, mark eting and training, it is important to develop domain knowledge regarding t echnologies, such as the Internet virtual reality, while giving special con sideration for the previously developed understanding in concurrent enginee ring in manufacturing. This paper addresses some research questions recentl y studied regarding some of the human and organizational aspects of global product development and virtual training in the manufacturing and service i ndustries, while considering some of the current practical limitations. The summary of work presented in this paper together provides a connection bet ween the lessons learned in concurrent engineering in manufacturing industr ies with applications to risk management training in the service industries . The suggestions for future work are intended to provide some insights for an effective utilization of new technologies, such as the Internet virtual reality, in support of global software product development projects and hu man resource planning in the service industry. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.