International Journal of Latest Research in Engineering and Technology (IJLRET) ISSN: 2454-5031 www.ijlret.com || Volume 03 - Issue 03 || March 2017 || PP. 47-62 www.ijlret.com 47 | Page Relationship between Nominal Group Techniques and Concurrent Engineering: A Review Godwin Oghenewiroro Odu Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Delta State University, Abraka, Oleh Campus, Nigeria. Abstract: Recent emphasis on concurrent engineering illustrates the need to integrate all aspects of design, marketing, finance, and production simultaneously into engineering decision-making processes. Most concurrent engineering efforts focus on improving communication by collocating and dedicating development teams. One such way of achieving team spirit is to use nominal group technique as one of the best decision- making techniques to facilitate the joint work among team members in order to reach consensus, assigning importance that reflects each individual member’s preferences. To resolve the need for effective group decision- making techniques in dealing with team-oriented characteristics, there is need to take a look at the relationship between the nominal group technique and concurrent engineering in achieving group consensus without creating conflicts. Keywords: Concurrent engineering, Group decision-making, Nominal group technique, Consensus, Design team, Product development process 1.0 Introduction Nominal Group Technique (NGT) is a structured brainstorming technique that is used to produce a large number of ideas pertaining to an issue while ensuring that all the group members have equal participation in the development of ideas. Nominal group technique can also be regarded as an interview technique where participants work in the presence of each other but write ideas independently rather than stating them verbally (Macphail 2001). Nominal Group Technique, or NGT, is a weighted ranking method that enables a group to generate and prioritize a large number of issues within a structure that gives everyone an equal voice. The tool is called nominal because there is limited interaction between members of the group during the NGT process (Clark & Stein 2004; Recreation and Tourism Research Institute 2007; WBI Evaluation Group 2007). The nominal group technique is a narrowing and decision-making method that allows the input of all group members while it minimizes group debate. This is an especially useful tool when there might be people who will dominate the group or others who have a hard time expressing their opinions (EducationWorld, 2013). Nominal group technique is usually applied to identify problems and generate solutions to these problems. This technique in which individuals work in the presence of others without significant interaction, has been used to cure many of the problems that formal group discussion encounter; they include ineffective idea generation, unequal participation in discussion, groupthink, domination by more powerful participants, and ineffective conflict resolution (Evan et al. 2004). A team can use nominal group technique when it needs to create a list of options and rank them, using nominal group technique effectively, neutralizes the domination of the loudest person, or the person with the most authority, over the decision making process (Rafikul 2010). The nominal group technique is based on social-psychological studies of decision sciences, management science studies of aggregating group judgments, and social work studies of problems surrounding citizen participation in program planning. The nominal group technique (NGT) was first developed and conceptualized by Andre Delbecq and Andrew Van de Ven in 1968, which was evolved from organizational planning research and evaluation in education and health organizations as a means to make committee decision-making more effective as part of creative problem solving. Actually, the nominal group technique, as discussed by Delbecq et al. (1975), has been applied primarily to group decision making (problem-identification, problem-solving processes) in two general types of situations – intra- organizational group decision making and soliciting expert or citizen views as input for public policy formulation due to the fact that there are no available data that will help in the decision making. Many researchers have equally applied the technique in education, and the common focus centered on group decision making. The technique has been extensively applied in health, but the core factor is also in group decision making. Even in market research, and social and governmental organization, it was also applied to group decision making and used for primary data collection. However, in design, the issue of nominal group technique has not been reported in the literature. This is due to the fact that designing is a dependent factor in concurrent engineering.