VE4PD: A distributed information system for collaborative product development

Due to increased competition in today's global environment, companies are embracing Collaborative Product Development (CPD) as a path to success in new product development. CPD is an engineering process that involves decision-making through iterative communication and coordination among product designers throughout the lifecycle of the product. The high level of collaboration and communication of a CPD environment requires a robust Distributed Information System. In this paper, we review existing research related to CPD and propose an information framework termed VE4PD based upon the integration of Web services and agent technologies to manage the CPD process across the product lifecycle. VE4PD maintains the information consistency and enables the proactive information update to facilitate a faster and more efficient CPD. In addition. the use of agent technology helps to leverage the integration of server applications and client applications. An implementation system is developed to validate the application.