2. Digital design chain

2.1 Extended collaborative design

Computers and networks, now as vital to companies as their telephone lines or even their power supply, have given rise to what we call the digital design chain (figure 2 ). At the start of this chain, we find a large computer database that constitutes the "brain" of the system. This is followed by a "backbone" that extends from the database throughout the company.

When designing an industrial product, the digital design chain enables us to move from the abstract – the first ideas of the product – to the concrete – the product ready to be sold. We start...