Abstract
Success of the design process hinges on efficient communication between the various functions involved. Traditionally this communication has been ‘paper based’ with information passing between sales, design, production and manufacture to describe the complete history of the product. This complex interaction between the functions depends on the availability at each stage of the most up-to-date and accurate information. The paper based system has many shortcomings in this respect particularly the inability of the designer to assess interactively the effect of any changes he may make on the cost, delivery, quality and performance of the product. The use of computer aided design as a central part of the computer aided engineering system allows a company greatly to improve communications during a project by giving the engineer a way of providing accurate information more quickly to each adjacent function while receiving feedback on the effectiveness and suitability of the product in a fraction of the time.
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