Concurrent engineering in a high variety label printing environment

Here an attempt is made to use the principles of concurrent engineering in high variety label printing industry. The existing approach to label printing in the company is basically what is known as serial engineering approach. This approach leads to serious problems of high levels of work-in-process and increased requirements of cutter capacity. We attempt to make a case for the application of concurrent engineering by introducing the multifunctional team concept at the design stage which helps reduce WIP inventory as well as the cutting capacity requirements. For this purpose we develop a heuristic algorithm. The concurrent engineering approach and the algorithm are illustrated by an example.