Design information system infrastructure to support collaborative design in a large organization

In collaborative design in large organizations, many design tasks are executed concurrently by different groups or departments. Many of these tasks influence each other. Collaborative design can be facilitated by an information system that allows each group to post the status of their respective tasks so that other groups can follow their progress, obtain parameters/specifications required in their own tasks, and avoid conflicts incompatible solutions. This paper examines the functional requirements for such a Design Information System (DIS), considers alternative solutions, and describes an implementation of such a system. The proposed solution includes a hybrid model for the representation of design information at several levels of formalization and granularity. Both Product Data and Design Procedures (processes) are supported through some common pre-defined design elements (primitives), but the system can be extended to include new user-defined elements. The user interface implementation utilizes the World Wide Web and public domain browsers. The system is currently undergoing field testing in an on-going collaborative design project.