| Abstract | Since the early 1990s, concurrent engineering has become a significant strategy to achieve better product quality, reduced product development time and cost. The aim of concurrent engineering is to address the insufficient or even absent manufacturability checks through detecting and considering conflicts and constraints at earlier design stages concurrently. With concurrent engineering, information and communication technologies augment the capabilities of the individual specialists, and enhance the ability of collaborators to interact with each other. From the late 1990s, globalization and keener competition have propelled more business changes. Wider collaboration across enterprise boundaries and industry spectrum are viewed as the catalyst for future business growth and profitability. To meet the requirement, R&D of collaborative engineering is towards supporting enterprise collaboration, with which collaborative activities are enabled not only among multidisciplinary product development teams within the same company, but also across the boundaries of companies with more active involvement of customers and different tiers of suppliers. For examples, large companies outsource their part or even whole manufacturing to explore new markets and affordable technologies globally; middle- or even small-size companies, such as those in the tooling and consumer electronic products sectors, participate in global product design and manufacturing chains based on advanced enterprise collaborative tools. |
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