ICT Tools for Collaborative Product/Process Design and Innovation Process

Abstract

The modern approaches for product/process development and innovation in industry require involvement of many different teams in extended enterprise (EE) context. The increasing trend of globalized industrial environments and a radical increase in number of product variants in modern industry (e.g., build-to-order) requires new forms of collaboration among teams involved along product/process innovation life cycle (e.g., design, planning, production scheduling, manufacturing, after sales services, etc.), as well as seamless knowledge and experience sharing among these teams, often distributed geographically and in time. The chapter focuses upon information and communication technologies (ICT) support for collaborative innovation. It discusses how so-called Collaborative Working Environments (CWE) support collaboration among teams in industry enabling more effective innovation processes. The chapter addresses design/improvement/reengineering of product/process and innovation processes in general. First, general aspects of collaborative work in industry are examined, aiming to identify common collaboration features that can be supported by CWE. Then an ICT platform for collaborative product/process design is discussed. The approach is extended to collaborative innovation process in EE context. Several CWE solutions supporting collaborative product/process development and innovation process are described. Specific aspects related to the ICT support for collaborative innovation in small and medium sized enterprises (SME) driven Extended Enterprises are discussed.