Concurrent engineering (CE), a new design methodology, enhances an organization’s productivity through the universal integration of all systems in the organization. The primary goal of CE is to reduce the lead-time, or the total time from designing a product to releasing it into the market, while creating better designs as well. The Institute for Defense Analysis provides an excellent definition of CE:

Concurrent Engineering is the systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of products and related processes, including manufacturing and support. This approach is intended to cause the developers to consider all elements of the product life cycle from conception through disposal, including quality, cost, schedule, and user requirements. (Concurrent Engineering Resources on the Web)

Multidisciplinary teams destroy the hierarchal barriers that exist in more traditional manufacturing settings. In old styles of thinking, all the different parts of a company are divided, separated, and often do not work well together. Each department has its own agenda that often is not in line with other agendas on the project. Obvious flaws exist in the old methodologies that lead to lengthy lead times and enormous amounts of redesign. For example, lets take a look at the construction of a ship under the old method. Say, for instance, that three engineering departments were working separately on the electrical layout, the ductwork, and the water pipes. Each department could easily design the perfect system, but without collaborating, not one will work as planned. Pipes will be running where wires need to go, and both will be blocked by ductwork. These are tremendous flaws in the engineering department alone! When all three take their drawings to the ship to begin installation they will quickly learn that they will have to go back and make costly, time consuming engineering changes. Had the three departments worked coherently from the start they could have saved a great deal of time, money, and effort. It is easy to see that cross-functional teams will help considerably in developing a more manufacturable product, and, in the best cases, they will help reduce lead times drastically.

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