CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

THE CONCURRENT ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY TO BE DEVELOPED WILL BE BASED ON MULTI-ATTRIBUTE UTILITY THEORY, FACILITATING A SYSTEMATIC TRADEOFF ANALYSIS. THE METHODOLOGY WILL BE SUPPORTED BY AN OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE AND AN ASSOCIATED USER FRIENDLY EXPERT SHELL TO ENABLE EASY AUGMENTATION OF THE UNDERLYING INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE, AS TECHNOLOGY EVOLVES OR MISSING PARAMETERS COME TO LIGHT. THE METHODOLOGY WILL ENABLE THE INTEGRATED DESIGN OF PRODUCT, MANUFACTURING AND SUPPORT PROCESSES WITH AN EMPHASIS ON EFFICIENCY (E.G., DESIGN, PROCESSING), PRODUCE PERFORMANCE (E.G., FUNCTIONAL, ELECTRICAL, THERMAL), QUALITY ASSESSMENT (E.G., PROCESS, PRODUCT, RELIABILITY), AND COST (E.G., LIFE CYCLE, REPAIR). THE USE OF AN EXPERT SHELL TO ACCESS THE OBJECT-ORIENTED DATABASE WILL ENABLE BOTH THE TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST (E.G., THERMAL EXPERT) AND THE NOVICE USER TO INPUT DATA, DESIGN CHOICES, AND DESIGN RULES INTO THE SYSTEM AND EXTRACT APPROPRIATE RESULTS AND CONSEQUENCES FROM THE DESIGN WORKSTATION SYSTEM. THE APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS AND PROOF-OF-CONCEPT CANDIDATES GENERATED IN PHASE I WILL LEAD TO THE SUBSEQUENT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUITE OF INTERACTIVE TOOLS AND THEIR DEMONSTRATION IN PHASE II, IN A COST-EFFECTIVE MANNER.