Concurrent engineering and design for manufacture in the medical device industry

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is an approach to product development in which engineers work on design and manufacturability at the same time. The ultimate goal of concurrent engineering is to reduce the time-to-market while improving quality. This thesis goes into details about the tools necessary to achieve successful product development in the Medical Device Industry. The novelty of this thesis is not in the tools themselves but rather in the way that they are applied to the medical device industry. The need for the CE approach is of utmost importance because of the vast competition in the medical device industry. The times now require changes. These changes are depicted in detail early in this thesis. This latter suggests that manufacturing is to be perceived like another science. The axiomatic approach to manufacturing answers these needs. A new way of designing a product and collecting data is relevant. It is known as the technique of Quality function Deployment (QFD). Finally, all these tools are managed with the phase approach to management. I sincerely think that this thesis will constitute an invaluable tool for managers and engineers in the medical industry