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SPRING/SUMMER 2000 ARCHIVES Last Updated May 30, 2000 FEATURE: NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK 2000
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Around the Clock: Continuous Collaborative Design | |||
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Time-to-market is a big issue for any manufacturing company in today's highly competitive environment. Market globalization has given rise to the emergence of global companies with expertise distributed all over the world. The concept of a 24-hour design process may now be viable. A pilot study called "24-hour Around the World Around the Clock" was funded by BMW and involved the Technical Universities of Munich and Darmstadt in Germany and Clemson University. "This project aimed at developing the methodology to perform 24 hours distributed collaborative design," according to Georges Fadel, associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson. "We wanted to test and develop methodologies and tools for distributed collaborative design while simultaneously developing a novel design concept." Three teams of senior students located in Clemson, Darmstadt and Munich, designed a variable stroke one-Cylinder Test-bed Engine. The project was initiated and carefully orchestrated by Mr. Heiko Gierhardt, a Ph.D. candidate at the Technical University of Munich and a BMW employee. The initial expectations were that the students would encounter and solve major communication hurdles, but that the design itself would not be developed in sufficient detail because of that. Fadel and Gierhardt were surprised and pleased to see that the students were able to overcome the communications bottleneck, and produce a detailed solution practically ready for production. Teaming issues were monitored by "coaches" (graduate students), faculty and a social scientist, and various interventions helped the members understand where they were in the team formation stage and how to resolve problems. One significant observation was the need to break away from the localized team paradigm and instate a global team spirit. "We are currently in discussion with international companies to continue this kind of design experience," offered Fadel. "We are eager to enrich the educational experience of our graduates to better prepare them for the challenges they will face when leaving the University." Contributors to the pilot study include: Mr. Heiko Gierhardt, Prof. Dr. Udo Lindeman, Mr. Hans Dieter Gaul, Mr. Daniel Fuchs, Mr. Christian Steuer, Mr. Florian Holzer (TU Munich) Barbara Bumeder (Technische Hochschule Munich) Ms. Christiane Baumann (University of Munich), Prof. Dr. Rainer Anderl, Mr. Thomas Ott (TU Darmstadt), Dr. Joel Greenstein and Mr. Jonathan Meier (Clemson University), our industrial partner and all the students involved.
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Earnest is published by the College of Engineering and Science at Clemson University for the alumni and friends of the College. Subscriptions are free upon request. Send any comments/questions to:
Ron Grant (email: ron.grant@ces.clemson.edu) |
