Collaborative design of mechanical systems and components

To rapidly renew their product offering and reduce development times, companies need to react quickly and anticipate change. In the context of general competition imposed by trade liberalization and the quest for volume, manufacturers are driven to reduce lead times and costs, and increase the range and quality of products and services to meet consumer demands. A company's competitiveness depends on its ability to control the entire product life cycle. As a result, manufacturers no longer hesitate to collaborate and join forces to bring new products to market. They deploy "project platforms", such as Renault's, which bring together all development teams in a single location. But they also use software to manage the exchange of information remotely, including advanced solutions such as "virtual platforms" to centralize all project information. In particular, this new organization of work involves upheavals in relations between principals and subcontractors.

This remote collaboration and exchange between industrial companies takes place within the framework of the extended enterprise, which corresponds to close links between partner companies, particularly in the design, production and distribution of the products they produce together. In particular, collaborative design is an important element of the extended enterprise, since it involves the design of a mechanical system by several companies, using information and communication technologies to exchange remotely all the information contributing to the design of the product, in a context of simultaneous engineering.