Question

 

Traditional Engineering VS Modern Engineering

Traditional engineering depends mainly on the sequential procedure in which the various tasks involved in the design and manufacturing of something are performed in a predefined and established order. This contributes to certain disadvantages wherein there is a loss of flexibility in the entire process and this may also lead to severe alterations or even scrap in the later levels of the product development life routine.

However, the arrival of Concurrent anatomist, which targets working interactively between the various techniques in the merchandise development, is relatively new. The term "Simultaneous Engineering" has been used since the ten years of 1990s. It was based on the idea that the life span cycle of the new product must fit in with the pre-existing product program lifecycles. It is a relatively recent process which utilizes cross functional assistance to assist in the creation of products which can be cheaper, better and also have a lower time to advertise. It isn't an isolated idea and encompasses almost all the functions like engineering, designing, support, marketing, accounting, and others. Though, this new engineering technique isn’t favored in case of simple products or where there is only an incremental improvement in margin by the application of the strategy.

General Electric Company (GE) is an exemplary case of this engineering technique. The General Electric's Airplane Engines Division had a strategy to introduce engines for the new

“F/A-18E/F” super hornet. It used several multi-functional design and development groups to merge the look and developing process. The groups achieved 20% to 60% reductions in design and procurement circuit times through the full-scale component tests which preceded full engine tests. Problems surfaced before and were dealt with more proficiently than they might have been with the traditional development process. Routine times in the design and fabrication of some components have lowered from around 22 weeks to 3 weeks.

Moreover, General Electric (GE) maintains a corporate-level reliability program to train and certify GE engineers. Practitioner and Expert certifications are attainable, with the latter including an additional external accreditation. These certified professionals carry their reliability toolboxes across the GE businesses, driving a culture of education and best practice sharing. GE’s process begins by establishing the reliability goals for the product. These goals are based on a variety of inputs, including benchmarking activities, application considerations, customer expectations and warranty requirements. Design teams perform a structured analysis that surfaces potential failure modes in a system. This would help engineers to design robust reliability test plans focused on the critical system elements and most likely failure modes.

Questions (25 marks each):

1. Compare between the traditional and modern engineering techniques.

2. The modern engineering approach is directly related to the product life cycle. Explain the aspects of this relationship.

3. What benefits has GE acquired while implementing such quality approaches?

4. Which tools did GE use to make designs more reliable? Elaborate. ​(25

Answer 1

1) The main difference between traditional and concurrent engineering techniques lies in the fact that various changes take place at the early stage of the product development life cycle of the latter. These changes keep on decreasing for the remaining stages. However, frequent changes are required at every step of the product development life cycle in a traditional approach. Thus, concurrent engineering follows a cross-functional approach of product design by changing how products are delivered from the manufacturers to the market. In a traditional engineering approach, design and manufacturing take place according to predetermined procedures in sequential order. This results in a loss of flexibility in the process where altercations or scarps may rise in the later levels. However, in concurrent engineering, targets interactively work in merchandise development, which provides enough flexibility for making any required changes during the life cycle. This helps in minimizing altercations or scraps in the later stages.

2) Concurrent engineering(CE) is formed from the idea of the life span cycle of a new product fitting into the program life cycles of the pre-existing products. This approach utilizes various cross-functional assistances in the development of products that are cheaper, better and takes fewer advertisements time. Furthermore, this technique helps marketing and other groups of the organization to review the whole process of the product life cycle and monitor changes that might be required during the modeling, prototyping and software tooling phases of the product development. CE uses CAD software systems with 3D modelers for enabling a visual monitoring in the early phases of the product life cycle when design changes are the least.

3) GE introduced several multi-functional design and development groups for merging the look and developing process through concurrent engineering. It achieved impressive results from the technique. There were near about 20% to 60% reductions in design and procurement circuit times as full-scale component tests were conducted before full engine tests. This also helped in identifying problems at the early stages, which were consequently resolved efficiently. In addition, routine times in the design and fabrication of components could be reduced from 22 weeks to around 3 weeks by using the new engineering approach.

4) GE has developed a corporate level reliability program for training and certifying its engineers. These engineers are provided with the practitioner and expert certifications. They carry these toolboxes for carrying out various businesses throughout the company. This increases the credibility of the product designs. Furthermore, design teams also perform a structured analysis for identifying potential failure modes in a particular system, which in turn, helps the engineers to formulate robust reliability test plans for monitoring the critical elements of a system and other failure modes.