Implementation of a generic concurrent engineering environment framework for boatbuilding

Boatbuilding is a growth market with global competition and tight profit margins. Concurrent engineering is not presently prevalent within the boatbuilding industry and yet this is a technique that has found much success in other industries. A methodology has, therefore, been developed to aid design in the leisure boatbuilding industry. This environment uses collaborative engineering and automated communication to aid the passing of direct communication between all members of the design team. This paper determines the characteristics of importance within boatbuilding and relates these to a framework concurrent engineering environment aimed specifically at this industry. The current work focuses on the structural and production subsystems in an attempt to improve design for production. The use of concurrent engineering tools has been highlighted with an example.