Multisite PLM Platform - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 458

Figure 1. Johansen matrix (after: Johansen, 1998)

also whether they are operating (prepared, ready
for the collaborative process) at the same time or
not. By this 3D matrix, there can be considering
whether participants are in the same company or
group (Chen et al, 2005).
In the collaboration domain, enterprises are
usually only concerned the security of data flow;
however, the collaboration systems' architecture
and their patterns should also be taken into consid-
eration. Very often, in the domain of one enterprise,
the design platforms, such as operation systems,
types of network, development tools, database
systems, CAD software, etc. are usually hetero-
geneous, whilst configurations and facilities are
often different from company to company. This
will result in different architectures and different
system functionalities for collaborative design.
As shown in Figure 2, based on the time-
coordinate, we define synchronous and asyn-
chronous collaboration. Considering the data
location, modeling kernel and functionalities of
collaborative design, the tasks can be centralized
or distributed. For the participants of collaborative
design, it can be inter-enterprise, intra-enterprise
or extra-enterprise. Due to the different patterns
of collaboration models, it may result in different
architectures and solutions for the realization of

distributed collaborative design frameworks and
finally, environment (Chen et al, 2005).
Collaborative design issues are due to: different
groups of people, often with different expertise
in accord with the product life cycle phases (like
design engineers, technological design engineer,
manufacturing engineer, marketing experts, distri-
bution experts, accouters or economist specialists,
service and maintenance specialists, recycling
specialists etc.) and that can belong to different
enterprises, at different places, but having to work
together in a specific product design process.
Designing complex products (such as aircrafts
or automobiles) requires a tremendous collection
of expertise, knowledge, technology and tools.
Design resources are often distributed. Participants

Figure 2. Co-design patterns in 3-dimension