Integrated engineering environments for large complex products

An introduction is given to the Engineering Design Centre at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, along with a brief explanation of the main focus t owards large made-to-order products. Three key areas of research at the Cen tre, which have evolved as a result of collaboration with industrial partne rs from Various sectors of industry, are identified as (1) decision support and optimisation, (2) design for lifecycle, and (3) design integration and co-ordination. A summary of the unique features of large made-to-order pro ducts is then presented, which includes the need for integration and co-ord ination technologies. Thus, an overview of the existing integration and coo rdination technologies is presented followed by a brief explanation of rese arch in these areas at the Engineering Design Centre. A more detailed description is then presented regarding the co-ordination a spect of research being conducted at the Engineering Design Centre, in coll aboration with the CAD Centre at the University of Strathclyde. Concurrent Engineering is acknowledged as a strategy for improving the design process, however design cc-ordination is viewed as a principal requirement for its successful implementation. That is, design co-ordination is proposed as bei ng the key to a mechanism that is able to maximise and realise any potentia l opportunity of concurrency. Thus, an agent-oriented approach to cc-ordina tion is presented, which incorporates various types of agents responsible f or managing their respective activities. The cc-ordinated approach, which i s implemented within the Design Go-ordination System, includes features suc h as resource management and monitoring, dynamic scheduling, activity direc tion, task enactment, and information management. An application of the Des ign Co-ordination System, in conjunction with a robust concept exploration tool, shows that the computational design analysis involved in evaluating m any design concepts can be performed more efficiently through a cc-ordinate d approach.