Dr. S.X. Huang National CIMS Center TSINGHUA University Feb. 15, 2008 Web-based Engineering Portal for Collaborative Product Development (CPD)

Contents Challenges of CPD Visions of the paper Related technologies and works Solutions for CPD  Reference processes of CPD  Engineering Collaborative Portal Use case

Changes of Business partners customers suppliers contractors subcontractors other... competition between companies competition between complex value chains / supply chains communication between companies by mail, phone, fax,... support of business transactions by the use of networked information- and communication technologies market positioning predominantly by core competencies customer loyalty by individual support profit by optimization of internal production processes profit by efficient use of intellectual propertiy / know-how available within the whole supply chain local bindings / local supply markets market globalisation Intra- integration - intentional distance with suppliers Inter- integration of business partners as early as possible 1990‘s today‘s

Challenges for Collaborative Product Development Increasing number of co-operating partners involved in the product development process Dynamic combination of partners Distributed product development  in time  in quality  in budget producertool-supplier (manufacturing facilities) component supplier customer Task Solution Process

Challenges for Collaborative Product Development

Factors influencing CPD Data quality, Data Management Information Exchange and sharing Processes and Workflow "Time-To- Market" Multi- discipline Protection of Intellectual properties Cultural Differences Acquisition and use of knowledge Costs producertool-supplier (manufacturing facilities) component supplier customer

Objectives To provide an overall framework based on Internet technologies supporting common product development processes between dislocated partners  Locate and evaluate potential suppliers / engineering partners in different cultural areas  Initiate contact with potential partners supported by a Cultural Repository and a repository of Best Practices  Establish a common computer-aided engineering process, safeguarding each partner‘s intellectual property and considering cultural characteristics To interconnect heterogeneous Systems  Providing a central point of access on a (virtually) integrated product information model  Sharing & connecting product information stored in various PDM/ERP systems transparently through an integrated view  Providing mechanisms in order to define classified or unnecessary information in order to hide information.  Linking together the partner‘s individual engineering processes for a comprehensive, and integrated supply chain

Vision of Research Collaboration Portal Specification of Requirements (Products, Partners) Evaluation of potential Collaboration Partners Search for appropriate Collaboration Partners Exchange / Sharing of Product Data during the Collaborative Process Integration of Processes and Data Respect Cultural Differences

Related Work Enterprise modeling Workflow management Integration platform Service science

Enterprise modeling

Architecture of enterprise modeling Information Viewpoint Function Viewpoint Organization Viewpoint Resource Viewpoint Product Viewpoint Process Viewpoint Req. Analysis System Design System Implementation System Maintenance Enterprise Model Constructor Ref. Model Viewpoint Instantiation Life Cycle

Workflow management Structure of CIMFLOW (Developed by us)

Integration Platform

Service science Our researches:  service modeling  service composition  service workflow Service Science, short for Services Sciences, Management, and Engineering (SSME)  Definition 1: The application of scientific, management, and engineering disciplines to tasks that one organization beneficially performs for and with another (‘services’)  Definition 2: The study of service systems. Evolution & Design: Interactions & Value Coproduction: Specialization & Coordination:

Solutions for CPD Business Solution IT Solution

Business Solution

Search Partners

Establish Collaboration

Engineering Development

IT Solution

The application service (AS) layer provides functionalities to access private information sources of the enterprises involved in a collaboration, like PDM-systems, ERP-systems, etc. The connection between portal and the application systems is realized with SOAP. Therefore an adapter must be implemented for every application, which assumes the mapping between the enterprises’ applications and SOAP.

IT Solution The infrastructure layer provides the basic data service and integration service for CPD. All data flows within portal are supported by the infrastructure. The data service manages distributed data sources and offers a transparent view on the data for the portal services. The integration service provides the interaction mechanism between portal components.

IT Solution Request & Navigation Component (RNC): The Request and Navigation Component offers functionalities to find a relevant partner, initiate contact with the found partner, and establish collaboration by defining universal conditions and arranging competences and responsibilities. Check of Collaboration Partners Component (CCP): The CCP is utilized to support the collaboration initiation. It is divided into three services: partner matching, evaluation of Matching Results, and evaluation of Offers during Negotiation. Process Management Component (PMC): PMC provides functionalities for modeling and executing the CPD processes. The process models are saved in the portal in a certain process definiton format, which can be interpreted by the workflow engine, which coordinates the execution of these business processes.

IT Solution Specification Modeler Component (SMC): SMC lets users define and manage product requirements. It further provides functionality for the checking of consistency and completeness of requirements and product properties. Visualization & Validation Component (VVC): VVC allows users to define different views on engineering data and to validate the data. The data is only shared by involved partners. Cultural Repository Component (CR): In order to override the problems in different cultural backgrounds and differences in language and education, a cultural repository is foreseen. Its is request-based advisory systems and literature databases.

IT Solution UI service layer: In portal, the UI service will be provided for browsing available information resources or navigating through networked data structures. The UI services interact with the other services via HTTP or SOAP.

User Interface of the portal To register an enterprise and login in the portal

User Interface of the portal To create new user

User Interface of the portal To define the products and services of enterprise

User Interface of the portal To match the requirements

User Interface of the portal To manage requirements

User Interface of the portal To define collaborative processes

User Interface of the portal To share and exchange of data

User Interface of the portal To access culture repository

Case Study Scenario Description: The scenario selected in this paper is about the collaborative development of a new variant of a car in Mercedes-Benz. There is an existing type: Mercedes-Benz “A- Class A 210”. The new variant should be bullet proofed. Only parts, concerning the bullet resistance have to be modified. In this scenario only the left rear door is modified. The scenario demonstrates the whole development process beginning with the search for a new supplier for a window motor and ending with a certified prototype of a bullet proofed.

Case Study Stakeholders in the scenario * OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturer. SUP: Supplier. BOA: Official Board

Case Study Scenario Steps: 1.User login and registration, 2.Search for a new supplier, matching of possible suppliers, 3.Sign the contract, 4.Define a new product by using a template, 5.Definition of initial requirements, 6.Consistence check, 7.Start of the development process 8.Definition of detailed requirements, 9.Consistence checking, CAD visualization 10.Data exchange (using the security tool for CAD data, DMU, simulation) 11.Testing, release, 12.End of development project

Contributions of the portal * SP: Searching Partner, CE: Collaboration Establishment, CPD: Collaborative Product Development

Supported by Dragon-- Development of an InteRActive EnGineering Portal for Open Networks ( ImportNET---Intelligent modular open source Platform for intercultural and cross-domain SME Networks (

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