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We argue in this paper that Concurrent Engineering of Product, Process, Facility, and Organization (CE4) is now both possible and beneficial As quality has started to become a commodity, time to market has become the major issue for many kinds of businesses In some industries such as semiconductors in which product and process development have become rapid and competitive, developing the factory and bringing it on-line have started to become bottleneck steps in the product development cycle CE4 extends the tradition of concurrent engineering of product and manufacturing process it is now possible to start to design the product, manufacturing process, manufacturing facility, and the managing organization simultaneously Like traditional concurrent design of product and manufacturing process (CE2), CE4 probably depends primarily on setting the management objective and providing the management support However, CE4 can build on a number of technical foundations symbolic product and process models, support for extensive coordination among design professionals doing product, process, facility, and organization design, and analytical tools to allow designers to do what-if studies of their individual land integrated designs Engineers now routinely use some of these analytical tools, such as simulation models of devices, processes, buildings, and facilities We suggest adding organizational analysis tools, integrating all of these tools, and using them concurrently We suggest that benefits of CE4 will include significantly improved time to market and potentially improved product cost and quality

This paper describes an analysis of Product Data and Information Technologies (PDIT) which are available to support processes in Large Scale Engineering (LSE), particularly those which are construction related. Three main areas are addressed: supporting environment; systems and technologies; and application software. On‐going and future developments in these areas are considered. The findings from each of the PDIT areas examined are presented, together with their potential opportunities for exploitation within LSE in construction. The perceived barriers to the adoption of such technologies are also addressed. Considerations are given to the most significant emerging technologies within the IT industry and the potential impact these may have on the business needs within LSE. The work was undertaken within the User Reference Project ESPRIT 20876—eLSEwise—European Large Scale Engineering Wide Integration Support Effort.

Many organizational approaches and technological opportunities are available or under development to improve the integration of design and construction. The opportunities offered by information technology are especially promising. Combining organizational approaches with state‐of‐the‐art technologies in a systematic manner will allow firms to derive the full benefits of computer‐aided design for construction. The present paper describes a framework that helps researchers and practitioners approach computer‐aided design for construction systematically. The framework identifies six interactions between design and construction. It is based on frame‐works for design for manufacture and on an analysis of current building practice. Design for manufacture has proven most effective when integrated into a cyclical product development process. The present framework serves as a road map for the building industry to formalize its information flows, to integrate design for construction into its linear facility delivery process and to approach a more cyclical delivery process.

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