Analysis of Telecooperation in the German Automotive Industry

Abstract : In times of increasing globalization and high customer demands, product development in the automotive industry is becoming more and more decentralized. Consequently, cooperation between enterprises must be enhanced and deepened. This cannot be handled by conventional telecommunication technology alone. An increase in work efficiency and productivity can be reached by telecooperation, i.e. computer-supported teamwork. This paper compares conventional cooperation processes and telecooperation in the framework of an extended efficiency analysis. It could be shown that telecooperation reduces both costs and time of cooperation processes and enhances the subjectively-felt quality of information and work results.