Communication and Cooperation Analysis in a Concurrent Engineering Experiment

The concurrent engineering approach seems to be a new way to minimise cost and delay for product design. However, few experiments using distributed skills are described in the literature. This paper describes a concurrent engineering experiment involving four French academic laboratories, to design an automated assembling bank for an aeroplane fuselage. The chosen concurrent design process is described first. Then, all the communications accomplished within the 2 years of the project and their protocols are described. From their study, the cooperation involved is modelled and analysed using the concept of the cooperation graph. This experiment produces advice on how to succeed in a concurrent engineering project.