Advanced Design and Manufacture to Gain a Competitive Edge

Manufacturing industry has been one of the key drivers for recent rapid global economic development. Globalisation of manufacturing industries due to distributed design and labour advantage leads to a drive and thirst for technological advancements and expertise in the fields of advanced design and manufacturing. The globalisation of manufacturing industries leads to a thirst for rapid advancements in technological development and expertise in the fields of advanced design and manufacturing. In this scenario, both industry and academia have an urgent need to equip themselves of the latest knowledge and trends relating to design and manufacture. Advanced Design and Manufacture to Gain a Competitive Edge collects together papers from the 2008 International Conference on Advanced Design and Manufacture (ICADAM). This conference solicits both cutting edge fundamental research and recent industrial application papers, with a goal towards bringing together from all over the world design and manufacture practitioners from academia, government organisations and industry. Recent advancements, emerging trends and new challenges in the fields of design and manufacturing are covered, with a particular focus on the understanding of the impact of distributed team-based design and manufacture on research and industrial practices for global companies. The proceedings of ICADAM 2008 is divided into two volumes: Global Design to Gain a Competitive Edge: An Holistic and Collaborative Design Approach based on Computational Tools and Advanced Design and Manufacture to Gain a Competitive Edge: New Manufacturing Techniques and their Role in Improving Enterprise Performance. Manufacturing industry has been one of the key drivers for recent rapid global economic development. Globalisation of manufacturing industries due to distributed design and labour advantage leads to a drive and thirst for technological advancements and expertise in the fields of advanced design and manufacturing. This development results in many economical benefits to and improvement of quality of life for many people all over the world. This rapid development also creates many opportunities and challenges for both industrialists and academics, as the design requirements and constraints have completely changed in this global design and manufacture environment. Consequently the way to design, manufacture and realise products have changed as well. More and more design and manufacture tasks can now be undertaken within computer environment using simulation and virtual reality technologies. These technological advancements hence support more advanced product development and manufacturing operations in such a global design and manufacturing environment. In this global context and scenario, both industry and the academia have an urgent need to equip themselves with the latest knowledge, technology and methods developed for engineering design and manufacture.