Development of an internet-based collaborative design platform

Abstract

The design and implementation of a proposed platform for collaborative design on the Internet are described. Such services are useful in design and manufacturing activities that would enable companies to plug in and participate through an information-sharing and communication architecture known as hub-and-spokes. This form of architecture has tremendous value as it has become increasingly evident that in the downstream stages of logistics, supply chain management and marketplace formation, the rise of exchanges in Business-to-Business commerce is tellingly indicative of the changing nature of economics of business collaboration. The proposed platform is one with potential of overcoming the tremendous amount of difficulties in enabling companies to collaborate in product development as current technologies in computer-aided design/manufacturing do not fully provide access to geometry and related non-geometric data. Demonstrative examples may be found in the capabilities to perform design and assembly modeling, as well as enable fixture design as a case scenario. Issues in furtherance of such a platform and its requisite performance and functionality criteria on the Internet are discussed and the future role of an application service provider model is proposed.