CE-NET: The initiative towards the Concurrent Enterprise Foundation

This paper describes a set of expectations, visions and achievements in establishing the foundation of the Concurrent Enterprise as a result of the CE-NET initiative over the last 18 months. It provides an historical path of the Concurrent Engineering NETwork of Excellence (CE-NET) activities conducted during meetings, workshops and conferences as well as an illustration of the different CE information databases for existing CE related projects, CE tools and Who’s who in CE. The two major CE-NET targets that constitute “Concurrent Enterprising” and “R&D Support Network” are briefly explained. It also presents the future activities for the next 6 months and introduces the CE-NET second phase challenges within the next Millennium.