Internet-Based Collaborative Design for an Injection-moulding System

Nowadays, the globalization of the manufacturing enterprises requires collaboration across frontiers. In order to attain effective collaboration, the information about the product life cycle must be captured and administrated in a way that supports the decision taken during the product development. In this context, the manufacturing process information needs to be shared between manufacturers. This paper introduces the SPEED (Supporting Plastic enginEEring Development) system designed to facilitate the sharing of injection-moulding information between interested parties via the Internet. Both the architecture and the functionality of the SPEED system are presented and described in this paper through a case study. The evolving issues are addressed. Finally, closing remarks and conclusions of the system are presented.