The computer aided design concept in the concurrent engineering context

Modern design concepts are focused on the product life-cycle, such that all the aspects of designed systems and their corresponding dependencies are considered. These conditions are fulfilled by the concurrent engineering (CE) approach, which creates a new context for design and management according to which the life-cycle design is performed by functional and disciplinary heterogeneous teams. This results in a new concept for computer aided design (CAD) that must support system life-cycle analysis and design. Defining the CE context for electronics, this paper determines the main elements of the CE-CAD concept, and the basic functional architecture of the corresponding environment in creating a total product design, highlighting, as a result, the concept of a virtual 'world' distributed manufacturing enterprise.