An approach for efficient collaboration in virtual product development environments

The benefits of Concurrent Engineering, being an accepted and widely applied approach especially in the automotive industry, are commonly known. Also, the supportive application of Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems in Concurrent Engineering environments has proven to be effective. Yet, the efficient planning and implementation of the mentioned approaches as well as the coordination and technical support of collaborating departments in industry turn out to be difficult. The intensive analysis of processes and interviews with engineers of the cooperating company show that the inherent potential is not completely exploited, so methods need to be defined to tap the full potential. The core problems addressed are time and cost consuming processes due to inefficient communication, organisation and coordination between embodiment design (CAD) and simulation (CAE) departments. To overcome the shortcomings in the application of existing approaches, a systematic approach was defined, which allows for a systematic definition of efficient collaboration between interdisciplinary departments. The considered problem domains hereby are the product itself, being scope of all activities in the company (product domain), the involved departments and engineers (people domain), the relevant information flows and sources (data and tools domain), and finally the process designed to coordinate all activities (process domain). The empirical data for the shown example resulted from a close collaboration with one of Germany's largest manufacturers in automotive industry. The collaboration of Concurrent Engineering departments was coordinated in terms of a comprehensive product model, human resources, information exchange, and processes.