A New Approach to CE by Multifunctional Mapping Process

This paper takes Concurrent Engineering (CE) and Multifunctional Designs (MFD) as mapping and inverse mapping process between every agent’s functional space and physical space. The mapping and inverse mapping algorithms are introduced and an example of shaft design is given to test the algorithms. Based on the new approach, some problems of CE such as negotiation and design tasks management can be dealt with more easily due to inverse mapping process.