From design for test to concurrent engineering

It is argued that design for testability will not be enough by itself in the 1990s and that the entire design philosophy must change from a serial approach to a parallel one of concurrent engineering. An outline of previous approaches is presented, exploring what has and has not worked and what is still not working. The author identifies the fundamental changes that must occur in systems engineering and the impact that design for testability, design for quality, design for manufacturability, and design for serviceability will have on the acceptance by the services of new systems designs. The concurrent engineering environment and some of the computer-aided engineering tools needed to successfully implement it are described. Some examples of the impact concurrent engineering on development times, production costs, and overall life-cycle costs are examined