Raymond E. Levitt
Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-4062, U.S.A.

1. THE PROBLEM: “DESIGN ENGINEERING PROCESSES AS ENGINEERING PRODUCTS”
Rapid development and delivery of high-performance, high- quality new products is the key to survival and success for many firms in today’s high technology, global marketplace. However, shrinking time to market for complex, high technology products can be extremely difficult and costly. Even the most successful engineering managers have experienced the escalating costs of overtime, coordination and re- work that are so common in fast-track, high technology, product development efforts; and they know the quality problems that can result when coordination breaks down in the face of aggressive—often “impossible”—development schedules.