Traditionally, engineers faced with the task of designing a new, complex system or structure - a car, an aircraft or a satellite - work sequentially, one step at a time, passing the design from engineer to engineer. This is inefficient and consumes time and resources.<br /><br />For more than a decade, many of ESA's sophisticated spacecraft have been designed with the help of the CDF, making use of very advanced iterative techniques - hence its title 'concurrent'.<br /><br />Concurrent engineering puts all related engineers, with all their brain power and required tools together with the final user representative - or customer - in the same location at the same time. This allows for iterative design at a fast pace, with customer and designers agreeing requirements and taking decisions in real time to ensure the best design for the right cost and an acceptable risk.<br /><br />This process has been developed and honed so it is now common to produce a risk assessed conceptual space mission design complete with various options and including scheduling, testing and operations in a matter of weeks.
