Value of Concurrent Engineering for A/E/C Industry

Abstract

Producing constructed facilities of the highest quality in a cost-effective environment will benefit not only owners and end users, but also all participants engaged in the conception, design, construction, operation, maintenance, rehabilitation, or decommission phase of its life cycle. Cost-effective and top-quality facilities can be conceived, designed, built, and operated if these activities are not performed in a vacuum, but rather, performed in a life-cycle context. Concurrent engineering is a philosophy, which is conducive to true life-cycle analysis. It brings together, from project inception, multiple individuals to address all angles of a project and enables the accumulation of knowledge and information so as to reduce downstream risks and anticipate constructability, operability, and maintainability expectations. Aspects of concurrent engineering are already practiced in the architecture/ engineering-construction (A/E/C) industry in the form of Total Quality Management (TQM), constructability reviews, and partnering. Other aspects like multifunctional team formation, macrolevel reorganization, and computer-based cooperative and distributed design still have not been adopted. This paper suggests that the A/E/C industry should continue adopting more facets of the concurrent engineering paradigm. Concurrent engineering can turn the industry's high degree of fragmentation and specialization into a strength, as opposed to a current debility.

The need for life-cycle integration of project processes

“…Project participants do not form teams but their processes are integrated within each phase and also within each process. The end result usually produces fragmentation as described by De La Garza et al . (1994).…”

“…To avoid fragmentation or promote sharing of information, a life‐cycle integration (utilizing concurrent construction/engineering) philosophy should be utilized. Some of the potential benefits are: improvements to exchanging information (Howell 1996); reduction in project costs and time (Haugstad 1996); integrated planning of upstream and downstream life‐cycle activities (De La Garza et al . 1994); shared goals and objectives (De La Garza et al .…”

“…Some of the potential benefits are: improvements to exchanging information (Howell 1996); reduction in project costs and time (Haugstad 1996); integrated planning of upstream and downstream life‐cycle activities (De La Garza et al . 1994); shared goals and objectives (De La Garza et al . 1994); and recognition of the fact that decisions made in early stages inevitably have an impact on future outlays (Shtub et al .…”

“…This is not necessarily the most efficient method in terms of the project outcome. Fast tracking involves overlapping design, procurement and construction activities; on the other hand, concurrent construction involves full integration of the relevant project processes and activities (De La Garza et al . 1994; Haugstad 1996; Lautier 1996; Jaafari 1997).…”

Eşzamanlı Mühendislik İstihdamının İnşaat Projelerinin Performansına Etkisi

“…The means of CE were studied over a wide range in the literature [11][12][13]. Further developments have since been realized in the CE technique, and the methodology has been used in the fields of apparel [14], automotive industry [15], product development [16], chemical [17], and construction [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”