Concurrent engineering of mechatronic products in virtual enterprises: Selection and deployment of a PLM system for the machine tool industry

The development of mechatronic products requires the integration of different technical disciplines by personnel who reside in separate locations, a fact that is particularly evident for the case of virtual enterprises. Concurrent engineering of these products can be enhanced significantly through the use of sophisticated data management and visualization tools such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The key benefit of a PLM system is its ability to facilitate the coordination of the activities among geographically distributed team members. This paper describes models and procedures that were developed and implemented during the selection and configuration of a PLM environment for machine tool design and construction in a virtual enterprise. The experiences from this case, particularly the bottlenecks and how they were addressed are discussed in detail. Finally, recommendations for better deployment of PLM for similar conditions are presented.