Web service architecture for collaborative product lifecycle management in virtual enterprise

To satisfy new market requirements, manufacturing industry has shifted from mass production that takes advantage of scale of production, to quality management that optimizes internal enterprise functions, and e-manufacturing era that leverage intellectual capital via collaborative innovation. In the same time, the product itself is becoming the most important asset for sustainable business success. Consequently, the effectiveness, efficiency and innovation for the development of product across the whole product lifecycle are becoming key business factors for manufacturing enterprise to obtain competitive advantages for survival. To address such issues, a new business model called collaborative product services in virtual enterprise for collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM) is proposed in this paper. The architecture of this new model is developed based on the framework and the application of web services for collaborative product services in virtual enterprise. Indeed, it is hoped that this architecture will lay the foundation for further research and development of effective product lifecycle management in a virtually collaborative enterprise environment.