International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

With transition to the 21st century, there are radical changes that influence on every aspect of the business, including how goods and services are produced. With the launch of Internet and high-speed communication, the market has indeed become global and fragmented. Customers require smaller quantities and more personalized products. Traditional production, with its broad approach and static organizational style, can no longer compete in global markets. Customers are now looking for more flexibility, shorter delivery times and more diverse products and services. The flexibility of an enterprise makes it possible not only to adapt to the rapidly changing environment but also to the opportunities it provides. The flexible enterprise is able quickly to reorganize its people, management, technology, equipment and operational philosophy to produce products and services tailored to customer needs or new markets. Flexibility is a strategic solution for survival in today’s market conditions. Small and medium-sized enterprises are doomed to operate flexibly.

The modern stage of development is associated with increasing requirements to products and need for sustainable growth, as well as with strive for effective application of technical achievements, industrial and information technologies. The new production concepts require fundamentally new ways for technological construction. The application of the global information networks allows intensification of production and significant improvement of manufactured product quality. The present paper follows the development of Concurrent Engineering (CE) and systemizes its development directions as a whole complex integrated process. It attempts to clarify and determine the place of CE at the stage of general digitalization of project and production activities in an industrial enterprise. Special attention is paid to new software products and their compatibility to the requirements of modern production reality, such as digitalization, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

The place and role of CE in the new world of smart technologies is not only a subject of scientific research but also a huge challenge for its practical utility.