Cooperative product engineering. A new understanding of engineering interaction

Cooperative product engineering. A new understanding of engineering interaction. Many companies today lack a comprehensive set of tools for pre-planning the business activities of tomorrow, and in some cases are also unaware that new business areas will require strategic planning. This situation calls for an expanded understanding of the engineering interaction that takes account of all relevant influencing factors on the way to successful market performance. This paper introduces the Cooperative Engineering Priority Scheme (VA KPE) and the most important elements of cooperative engineering as basis for an approach to a new way of looking at the engineering interaction. The VA KPE is a project within the Research for the production operations of tomorrow scheme and is sponsored by Germany s Federal Ministry for Education and Research. © 2000 Carl Hanser Verlag. All rights reserved.