Product design data modelling for review process management

Recently, some web-based tools have been proposed to support both individual designer and design teams in the management of information and in assisting concurrent distributed design activities. The rationale which is often underlying such proposal is to enhance design-manufacturing engineering or product data management (PDM) systems for managing product development as a single integrated business process. The focus of this paper is on presenting a logical model which can drive the conception of tools for supporting the distributed management of design data of mechanical products (DDDM: Design Data Distributed Management). How the model can be fruitfully used to support individual/group technical activities and group organisational activities, especially in the product design review phases during the product development process, is discussed. The main functionality and the client/server architecture of one of these tools is also described, and, lastly, a case of study is reported in order to explain how the model can be applied.