Continuous Innovativeness Supported by Integrated Computer-based and PLM Solutions

Motivating product designers and research groups to think "outside the box" is of special interest for companies and research centres willing to remain competitive even in times of crisis. It is proven that those leaders which realized that the continuous innovativeness is a result of in-crossed creativity support and sustained quality are more prepared for changes and bring their companies to success. Innovation management has significantly changed towards approaches that support innovation process especially the early phases in which creativity is more than needed. Approaches towards Product Lifecycle Management are changed also. In the advent of Web.2.0 these approaches have become increasingly computer-based enabling access to large user communities evolving into open or semi-open Enterprise 2.0 platforms. The parallel development of tools that could support innovative (creative) thinking based on off-line so-called Classical methods and IT solutions which claim to be collaborative and support idea generation brings to doubts about the choice of most suitable solutions. On the other side, companies are more eager to use solutions which can follow the different business processes including product lifecycle and that can aid their innovative capacity by being closer to customers. In this research an integrated solution is suggested that includes ideation and collaborative tools cross-used with PLM solutions which could support continuous innovativeness. Existing concepts and approaches on computer-based solutions for innovation and PLM are presented, with a focus on the "creative" phases such as product design that elevates the success of the products. The overview is made with a scope to underline the necessity of integration of the pragmatic aspects of creativity into solutions having features recognized with literature and test analysis that could support mainly creative thinking and knowledge sharing in companies