Study on Collaborative Product Development and Digital Engineering Tools

Abstract

Today, product development is characterized by cross-company collaboration and an intensive exchange of product data. Engineers typically apply a multitude of digital engineering tools and act in diverse engineering processes. In a current study, the "culture" of today's collaborative product development was investigated in significant detail. The questions are: How do engineers work today? Which tasks play a major role in their daily business? How much time is remaining for core engineering tasks like design, calculation and design validation? How do engineers assess their workplace (environment)? Where are opportunities for enhancement of processes and digital engineering tools? In total, 1,401 engineers answered the questionnaires. Details of the study and selected findings are presented in this paper. Interesting findings are related to collaborative engineering and engineering design, Product Data and Lifecycle Management (PDM/PLM), virtual product creation, information and process management, and new media in engineering design.

Improving the Usability of Collaboration Methods and Technologies in Engineering

“…Additionally the collaboration can be done locally or across long distances, it can be with or without the use of digital tools. Then there is also the difference of collaboration inside companies which happens intensively and the collaboration with partners and suppliers which is performed less intensively [1] and is also shown in figure 1. This increases the complexity of collaboration management which only needed to supply meeting rooms and a telephone number to allow collaboration.…”

“…It does not address collaboration during concept development, production or selling. [1]. Communication, coordination and negotiation happen intensively in the industry.…”

Taskradar: Task Visualisation and Monitoring Within Automotive Product Development Lifecycle Using Semantic Technologies

“…It assumes that adequate tools, standards and technologies when involved into the product lifecycle can help the manufacturers to increase their product quality and competitiveness as well as to improve the maintenance. This approach leads to remarkable improvements [5,15].…”

“…Car manufacturers are doing their business globally with a large number of suppliers and retailers. Product development relies on cross-company collaboration and implies intensive communication of product data [15]. Such exchange, however, is still carried in face to face meetings.…”

Is Onto Wiki useful as Collaborative Working Tool for Engineers?

“…Intensive changes on product within engineering working process need a high communication and consolidation effort (Müller et al 2012). This is still carried out in meetings and does not interact directly with engineering artefacts affected by these decisions.…”