CIVIL ENGINEERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ECC 3532

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

BIL NAME MATRIC NO.

1. Faris Murshidi bin Mohmmad Yusof 2170121
2. Jannatul Hasni binti Omar 2170125
3. Nureen Aisar Asila binti Mohd Norhisham 2170128
4. Vyasar Santhiran 2170131
5. Mohamad Shahril bin Nordin 2170144

Lecturer: Prof Madya Gs Ir Dr. Kapt Neza bin Ismail (B)

1.0 Introduction
Concurrent Engineering, sometimes called simultaneous engineering or parallel engineering,
has been defined in several ways by different authors. The most popular one is that by Winner
et al. (1988), who state that concurrent engineering “…is a systematic approach to the
integrated, concurrent design of products and their related processes, including manufacture
and support. This approach is intended to cause the developers, from the outset, to consider all
elements of the product life cycle from conception through disposal, including quality, cost,
schedule, and user requirements.”

In the context of the construction industry, Evbuomwan & Anumba (1998) define Concurrent
Engineering as an “…attempt to optimise the design of the project and its construction process
to achieve reduced lead times, and improved quality and cost by the integration of design,
fabrication, construction and erection activities and by maximising concurrency and
collaboration in working practices.” This is in sharp contrast with the traditional approach to
construction project delivery.

While Concurrent engineering is gaining acceptance, some implementation efforts have not
realised their full potential for reducing costs and reducing time for project development
efforts. This is due in part to weak planning to support the CE implementation (Componation
& Byrd, 1996). One method that has been used successfully to improve planning is to conduct
an organisation readiness assessment prior to the introduction of

Therefore, this paper reviews and compares the existing Concurrent Engineering (CE)
Readiness Assessment Tools and Models, checks their appropriateness for the Construction
Industry in the light of current practices within the industry and describes a new Readiness
Assessment Model for the construction industry.

Keywords: concurrent engineering, construction, design, project

2.0 Literature Review

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is described as integrated, concurrent product design related

processes, including manufacturing and support with the primary goals of client satisfaction
through cost and timetable reduction and product quality progression. A CE report shows that
it reduces the number of design changes by 50% by implementing CE in industries, reduces
design to production time by 40-70% and reduces scraping and rework by 75%.
Since the beginning of 20th century, CE philosophy has been discussed but it has only become
the main approach in product development in recent decades due to the rapid development of
science and technology and the increasing multidisciplinary nature of CE problems.

3.0 Content

Basic Principle of Concurrent Engineering

A set of basic principles have been synthesized from Concurrent Engineering concepts and of
general principles of tackling “wicked” problems. The five principles are: system thinking,
continual improvement, empowerment, inclusion, and reification.

1. System Thinking

System thinking is a conceptual framework to see the whole patterns and to help the team
effectively change them. There are three principles to support system thinking. They are
separation of concerns, co-evolution, and proto iteration.

The principle of separation of concerns is deeply ingrained in modern problem solving. The
application of this principle also is to break away from the linear thinking and organize around
an outcome rather than tasks. Such a simple change of mind-set can help to both compact
horizontal linear tasks, as well as to shrink vertical management hierarchy.

For the co-evolution principle, it suggests that many activities in system evolution are
interdependent and must be viewed as a whole. The requirements for large, unprecedented
systems cannot be fully understood until a substantial portion of the system is implemented.
Teams need to “co-evolve” the requirements and architecture rather than doing it sequentially.

The proto iteration principle suggests that iterative use of prototypes to understand a problem,
and hence, minimize the risk of major early commitment of development with unknown risks.
It uses multiple cycles of prototyping of building up experiences for better management
decision or goal definition.
 2. Continual Improvement

This principle encourages the team of do the right things and improve their performance to
make the better product. The main target is not only focusing on the improvement of final
product but also to improve the product during the processing. This principle might help any
company to reset the mindset from a firefighting mode of “we do not know why we have
problems with quality,” to the prevention mode of “we know why we do not have problems
with quality”.

3. Empowerment

This principle promotes trusting individuals and teams of having the ability to do the right
things. However, it brings disaster if empowering an individual or team without a common
alignment of purpose. There are two supporting principles that are visioning and localness.

First, a shared vision could help the team to have a mutual purpose to fulfill the company target.
Vision points to where one wants to be. Each individual that given responsibilities will have
the desire of connectedness and tied by the shared vision.

Second, localness is a normal practice in Concurrent Engineering to get and assemble

multidisciplinary teams physically meet and join together to enhance better communication.
However, this principle include much things rather than the physical location. It supports the
notion of permitting rapid decision making while maintaining balance between stability and
growth of an organization.

The above three principles support the empowerment principle in that visioning will help to
cancel the internal politics of an organization, and that visioning, together with localness, will
allow fast decision making without sacrificing the long term goals of the Organization.

4. Inclusion

Another principle of Concurrent Engineering is the formation of interdisciplinary teams with a

focus on the client. In the case of critical problems, expertise is normally scattered, and it needs
to get together to solve on the problems.

The principle of inclusion promotes a philosophy of locating the stakeholders, assigning their
role, and provides the communication channels among them.
 5. Reification

This principle promotes an open exchange of information, both to make the basis of judgment
clearly and to communicate reasons and rationale. The notion of openness, both to speak openly
without being afraid, and the capacity to continually challenge one’s own thinking, is critical
in breaking down the defensive game playing that is deeply planted in any company or
organization.

Application of Concurrent Engineering in Construction Project.

The construction process can be divide into two (2) major phase, the first one is pre-contract
and secondly is post contract. There are many activities included in these two major phase. In
the pre-contract, briefing, feasibility, sketch design, design, tendering, and etc. However, in
post contract, there are only construction and maintenance. As in the definition of concurrent
engineering, it is means that concurrent is simultaneously activities that can reduce cost,
improve quality and effective of time.

So, to find the way how to improve all these three (3) important aspect in construction project,
teamwork can be one of the application of concurrent engineering that can be used in project.
Teamwork is the combined action of a group, especially when effective and efficient aspect is
to be considered. In any construction project, teamwork in group of people who are responsible
to the project is really important. Everyone is responsible in their speciality. But in order of
concurrent engineering, each should understand each other to make all processes is going well.
As know that concurrent engineering in construction project is to maximize the number of
activities in one time and also to reduce cost of the project.

The formation of the team concept is an important feature that characterises the relationship
between various participants within construction project. However, team in the traditional
construction is not the same as the functional construction. Project team concept for traditional
construction involves owner, designers, and contractors engaged in a temporary organisation
for the purpose of executing the project task and guided by the requirements of the contact.
The main objectives of the formation of the team for a construction project are to facilitate the
communication and the co-ordination of works among the members. Communication is
achieved in a very formal way. It is more effective way to reduce cost and time of project.
Every one of the team member know their specific responsibility and do not take it easy.
The characteristics of teamwork concept used by Chrysler and Boeing (Backhouse and
Brookes, 1996) include:

 Bringing together people from all of the functions (various engineering field together
with marketing, sales and purchasing) involved in product development into what it
termed ‘platform teams).’

 Teams co-operating in every stage of the product’s development from conception

through to delivery.

 Personnel within the teams working concurrently by ensuring thet their particular
knowledge was taken into account by other members of the team at the first opportunity.

The behaviour of team need to be concentrated in the project construction. The behaviour can
affect the process of the construction. All the team need to be good in communication skills
and cooperate all the way of the development of the project. Concurrent engineering in
construction project very strict about the application of teamwork. This is good to improve the
quality and efficiency of the development.

Advantages of applying Concurrent Engineering in construction

There are many advantages that can be get by structural industry if Concurrent Engineering
being implemented. Nowadays, construction has get the positives outcome from
implementing the CE through designation of buildings. But the benefits get from these certain
or unintentional approaches toward CE.

The most important benefit of applying CE to construction is the CE philosophy's ability to s

upport process change. Building has suffered from the reversal of traditional practices, resulti
ng in many problems.Therefore, the industry urgently needs to realign the traditional way of
delivering the project with regard to the process of working and the structure of the teamwork
like manufacturing experience, the implementation of CE requires an institution to abandon st
andard work process training and exclusionary working methods.
Fragmentation and expertise in construction is a natural process.
But introducing CE principles will help to demolish the invisible wall that separates these fra
gmented functional organizations (groups) and pull them together into a solid cooperative tea
m that shares the same aims and goals of the project.
All the distinct expertise from different functional groups will appreciate the opportunity to p
articipate to built development with their inputs and queries.The ability to reduce lead time in
product development is another important benefit of applying CE to construction.Project lag
time in construction is very normal, so the industry should recognize CE as a strategy to mini
mize the problem.

Concurrent engineering, also known as synchronized engineering, is a method of designing a

nd building products in which project workers perform at the same time, not one after another
.For example, an auto manufacturer's design team can operate on a fresh car's form while engi
neers test their aerodynamics in the wind tunnel.While the original efforts at concurrent engin
eering may be challenging, there are several competitive benefits in the methods concerned.

1. Faster Time To Market

A significant benefit offered by concurrent engineering is that it enables businesses to market

their products in a much shorter time frame.
The workers in the prototype stage must wait until those in the design phase have completed t
heir tasks, those in the test phase must wait until those in the prototype phase are finished, an
d so on.All this waiting can delay the launch of the item. Concurrent engineering enables sim
ultaneous job for employees at several phases, shortening time for marketing.

2. Enhanced Quality

Concurrent engineering methods also allow employees and executives to uncover any manufa
cturing problems in the process sooner, leading to a product of superior quality.These method
s also decrease design revisions, unworkable prototypes and unnecessary testing in the shorte
st possible moment to reach the highest quality product.

3. Lower Development Costs

Design and creation procedures comprise the majority of a company's expenses connected wi
th developing a fresh product.Concurrent engineering can be used by managers as a strong in
strument to reduce these cost of early growth.
Since concurrent engineering methods reduce the time invested in the stages of design and pr
oduction, businesses can produce a product quicker, cheaper and better than their rivals.
4.0 Conclusion

In our opinion, Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a philosophy originated from manufacturing

and has great potential application to reengineer current work process in construction. CE is
more efficient and able to minimize the traditional problems face by the construction industry
for decades such as adversarial nature, high degree of fragmentation, poor quality and lack of
focus toward end-user and customer requirements for the project.

Even though CE is relatively a new philosophy to construction some aspects parallel to its
elements are actually already being practiced in construction especially within the Design and
Build (D&B) procurement and partnering approach. CE can be used as a strategy to capitalize
the existence of the highly fragmented and specialized nature of the industry to generate
diversity of knowledge in the design development.

The concept of teamwork used in CE principles is based on collaborative teamwork system or

more appropriately known in CE practices as Cross Functional Team (CFT). Meanwhile,
traditional construction process is developed based upon the separation of the design and
construction functions. Traditional construction process involves owner and/or his
representatives, designers and contractors engaged in a temporary organization for the purpose
of executing the project task and guided by the requirements of the contract. CE helps to
facilitate the communication and the co-ordination of works among the members. Traditional
procurement appears to induce "adversarial relationship and lack of teamwork". The teamwork
involve the owner; the designer; constructor (contractor); sub-contractor; customers; and
suppliers. It is crucial that the designers, schedulers and planners work together from the onset
to develop the project schedule reflective of concurrent engineering logic.

The reduction of lead time in manufacturing is important to enable the product to reach market
as soon as possible. CE is a logical approach to achieve a reduction in project delivery time
and cost. CE can reduce product development time accomplishment of project task because of
early involvement of team members and the ability to share more project information across
the functional boundaries. CE make construction project teams less fragmented, improve
project quality, reduce project time-scales, and reduce total project cost. There is need for
improvements to the way the construction supply chain (CSC) delivers projects, so as to
achieve client satisfaction and overall improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and
profitability.
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