Title: Concurrent engineer-to-order operation in the manufacturing engineering contracting industries

Authors: Chin-Sheng Chen

Addresses: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA

Abstract: This paper presents the concurrent Engineer-To-Order (ETO) concept. ETO is a Make-To-Order operation that starts with a product specification and finishes with delivery of a customised product. By synchronising the production activities in a product development process, a concurrent ETO operation can effectively improve and assure the product development lead time. This paper defines its relevance to other contemporary manufacturing operation concepts and proposes a concurrent ETO operation framework. It details the interactions among the sales, production, engineering, and manufacturing operations with a focus on hierarchical planning, incremental scheduling, and operation control.

Keywords: concurrent engineering; simultaneous engineering; hierarchical planning; incremental scheduling; operation control; enterprise systems; make-to-order; MTO; engineer-to-order; ETO; product development; lead times; manufacturing engineering contracting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2006.009049

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2006 Vol.1 No.1/2, pp.37 - 58

Published online: 21 Feb 2006 *

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