Rapid Product Development: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Production Engineering (8th ICPE) Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan, August 10–20, 1997

Rapid Product Development is a spectrum of integrated actlYllles from initial requirements through research & development, design, simulation, modeling, analysis, prototyping, testing, production, deployment, training, maintenance, repair, disposal and recycling, along with many other intermediate and supporting elements such as quality, reliability, information integration and supporting infrastructures. This term distinguishes leading edge manufacturing technologies, processes, information systems and management practices from their more conventional predecessors in traditional manufacturing systems. The increased speed and flexibility of the new rapid product development processes correspond to greatly reduced time to market for new products, by changing the basic nature of product realization. It is therefore necessary to take account of aspects such as technology integration, cost, quality and time management, team work and business process organization and the supporting functions of data processing, to guarantee the rapid development of innovative products. Key technologies for Rapid Product Development include such topics as Rapid Prototyping, New Generative Manufacturing Methods, Design and Information Management, Virtual Prototyping and Reverse Engineering. This book is a collection of relevant papers which are related with these topics. It contains invited papers for technical trends of Rapid Product Development, and it also serves as a basis for further advanced researches.