Towards agile enterprise rights management in engineering collaboration

Abstract

Product data contains one of the most valuable assets of a company-intellectual property (IP). Knowledge-based engineering techniques are applied today in order to improve the product development. Thus, company specific product and process know-how is integrated into CAD data as formula, material specification, manufacturing information and so on. Furthermore, essential information, e.g., process knowledge is available in non-CAD documents. The context of cross-company product development necessitates the exchange of data with different companies, for instance, competitors. Exchanging data in such a network increases the risk of know-how being theft. The internet and sovereign privacy laws have been on a collision course for long time now, with growing tensions arising in all jurisdictions. Thus, appropriate organisational and technical protection concepts and means are necessary. This paper presents intelligent ways to protect know-how without preventing the intended information flow. It presents practical methods and processes for; planning, implementing and using enterprise right management (ERM) in a cross-company context. Furthermore, this paper defines essential prerequisites to broaden ERM in the automotive industry.