Early problems identification in collaborative engineering with different product data modelling standards

Abstract

Since activities during collaborative projects in global engineering teams depend greatly on efficient exchange of current and accurate data, establishing procedures for successful data exchange is needed for effective product design and realisation projects. The work found in this study benefits a collaborative engineering strategy for testing available software applications, and their neutral exchange file types, which will be used in a bigger project among stakeholders in the product design or manufacturing phase. A collaborative methodology for future larger scale projects that would be done with a team, who has access to different software, has been tested on a smaller example in this study using a cordless hand drill reverse engineering project. This research aimed to establish a model for the start-up and testing of a virtual collaborative tool set-up for a future engineering collaboration on product design and realisation projects. A real case study was considered in this project to simulate a real situation, not uncommon for modern design and manufacturing projects, especially while collaborators are from mid-sized companies and working for a larger supplier. The proposed approach is a possible solution to accelerate the identification of possible problems in data conversion as early as in the design phase.