Virtual Organisation in Cross Domain Engineering

Abstract

In order to be able to develop new products in a growing competitive environment the modern SMEs face a number of challenges: how best to design and innovate, how to understand constantly shifting customer needs, how to produce the products that meet those needs within tight budget and time constraints. Forming networks through co-operation between different companies (virtual organisations) has become an important business strategy for SMEs to respond to these challenges. The paper discusses new approaches to support cross-domain engineering and cross-enterprise collaborations with help of a modular framework, providing an integrated view of the relevant information. The result of the research carried out is a partly implemented framework for intercultural and cross-domain collaboration, based on the ontology-supported common understanding between the partners within a virtual organisation.