An Internet-enabled Integration of Concurrent Engineering with Co-design

In this paper,the Web-based integration methodology and framework have been developed to facilitate collabora- tive and concurrent engineering design in distributed manufacturing environments.The distributed concurrent engineering and co- design are discussed as key components in the mechanism.The related integration system is presented,which includes four function- al modules:co-design,Web-based visualization,manufacturing analysis and look-up service.It can be used for a design team geo- graphically distributed to organize a collaborative and concurrent engineering design effectively.In particular,the collaborative mechanism incorporated with Java-based and Internet-enabled technologies can generate extended strategies for design and planning. Thus,the proposed integration architecture enables the system to be generic,open and scalable.Finally,for the trend of global manufacturing,a case study of Internet-enabled collaborative optimization is introduced and a discussion on teamwork capability is made.