The process of coordinating the various design projects involved in the lifecycle of a product to eliminate problems due to lack of communication and compatibility between different areas of concern, such as design and manufacturing. When the projects run concurrently, the objective is to prevent incompatibilities in their results. When the projects are displaced in time, the objective is to keep upstream projects from making choices that would unduly increase the difficulty of downstream projects. It looks at design as the process of assembling information about any and every aspect of an artifact; these aspects covering the life cycle of the artifact from its creation, through its use, to its disposal and after effects. Simultaneous engineering helps designers incorporate various life-cycle issues (e.g., functionality, manufacturability, reliability) at the early stages of design. Sometimes simultaneous engineering is called concurrent engineering.
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