Accelerated technological innovation coupled with intensified worldwide competition drive the ongoing integration of analysis with design from the conceptual phase through final prototyping. The phenomenon dramatically redefines the roles and job profiles for designers, analysts, and engineers. Seven leading commercial companies with significant representation in the automotive sector joined with two leading Defense firms in the collaborative research program concentrating on the Super Designer and Up Front Simulation, organized by D. H. Brown Associates, Inc. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with each participant assessed organizational issues, cultural barriers, performance metrics, knowledge management tools and tradeoffs, and CAE data management from the perspective of each individual company. At a subsequent on-site meeting, the availability of documentation defining the individual positions accelerated the development of a mutual understanding among the research partners, and deepened their perspective. This short summary highlights several conclusions available publicly as of December, 2001 in the ongoing program.
