Synchronised Web Applications for Product Development in the 21st Century

Abstract

Product development continues to be at the core of manufacturing industries and the heartland of global competition in the 21st century. The e-commerce technologies will have a profound impact on the practice and performance of product development. This paper examines the roles of web applications in collaborative product design and manufacture. The emphasis is placed not only upon the geographical and disciplinary dimensions, but also on the time dimension of collaboration. A case study is used to demonstrate how synchronised web applications can be used to facilitate collaborative product definition. The project team members share the common workspace that maintains the integrity and consistency of product and process information.

Web-based configure-to-order platform for collaborative development of customized products

“…The importance of achieving synchronized Web applications for product development has been observed in [8]. A concept of "F2B2C" e-Commerce has been put forward in [18].…”

“…In turn, the collaborative product development calls for the integration of Web-based services and collaboration across companies and their partners, as well as among different functional departments within a company [7]. As pointed out in [8,9], for geographically dispersed manufacturing partners, including customers, manufacturers, and suppliers, to achieve the satisfaction of the whole, it is imperative in practice to synchronize various Web-based applications within a coherent framework and to enable the unified information management of product lifecycle concerns over the Internet. In this regard, this paper develops a Web-based configure-to-order platform, with a particular application to injection molded parts, for collaborative customized product development.…”

An asynchronous and synchronous coupling approach in networked rapid product development

“…Process management, information management and information sharing are the key technologies. The Web [2] as an interface that is coherent and independent of the platform, thus making product data management based on the Web possible (such as PTC's winchill). A Web port supports the integration of product, process and protocol [3].…”

A Methodology for Developing Web-based CAD/CAM systems

“…Web-based approach allows reducing operating costs and improving agility, responsiveness and overall competitiveness of companies. At the same time, the task of Web-based CAD/CAM software development has a number of associated challenges, such as Internet connectivity and security, performance optimisation, collaboration and interactivity requirements [1][2][3][4][5]. Therefore, to exploit state-of-the-art Web technologies in the area of CAD/CAM efficiently a systematic approach is required.…”