The PACE Project - An Introduction

In recent years, Concurrent Engineering (CE) has become an important paradigm in product development and a widely accepted concept within the industrial and academic arena. However, how to implement CE is often unclear. In the BriteEuram project PACE, a holistic infrastructure for the planing and implementation of CE is being developed. This paper outlines the problems and needs addressed in the PACE project. It describes the major developments of the proposed approach, consisting of three elements: the Knowledge Platform, an information system about Concurrent Engineering; the Workbench, a set of decision support tools for CE; and the Implementation Framework, a stepwise guide for the introduction of CE. The Knowledge Platform is presented in detail.