Multisite PLM Platform - Enterprise Information Systems Design, Implementation and Management: Organizational Applications - page 459

may be in different places as well. Integrated
concurrent product development is realized by le-
veraging modern information and communication
technology (ICT) to coordinate people, processes,
tools and technologies. Companies (SME more
often) and medium-sized suppliers are looking for
an inexpensive way for geographically dispersed
teams to jointly develop products together over
the Internet. Traditional CAD/CAE functionalities
nowadays are very often dispersed.
How can design actors manage an efficient
inter-relationship (different people relationships)
to attend the collaborative design process final
objective?
Considering the scenario of collaborative
design, a key characteristic is linked with the
human relationship development in the context
of their professional evolution (including their
learning needs, too). For this reason there have
been consider the development of the collaborative
distributed design environment that is related to
the actors-conceptor behavior (that have to be an
efficient desired behavior) oriented to the design
process objectives' attending (the final design
solution accepted by each actor involved in the
process that better satisfied customer/user).

members (73 PhD, 37 PhD. students, 9 researchers
and 2 master students) from 9 research centers,
localized in different universities of Timisoara,
Bucharest, Iasi, Brasov, Bacau, Suceava, Sibiu
and Oradea and a national research institute.
The project partners have decided to share their
competencies and knowledge in the field of in-
tegrated product and process engineering. The
project proposal is based on the idea of linking
the Romanian scientific research to the European
research using the bridge created by the participa-
tion of the Politehnica University of Timisoara, by
the Integrated Engineering Research Centre, the
leader of the proposed project, in the European
Network of Excellence (NoE) Virtual Research
Lab for a Knowledge Community in Production
(VRL-KCiP, www.vrl-kcip.com).
The specific strategic objectives followed by
the creation of the INPRO network were:

• Setting up a manufacturing knowledge

base in the field of product and processes
integrated engineering;

• Increasing research activities performance,

stimulating excellence for facilitating the
access to the EU research programs;

• Enhancing of the human resources educa-

tion process by including the young PhD.
students in the joint research activities and
by assure the access to the disseminating
activities in the INPRO network and the
connection with VRL-KCiP NoE;

brief description of the research
organizational context

These were strong arguments that determine the
establishment of the National Research Network
for Integrated Product and Process Engineering
(INPRO). The idea behind such network was to
overcome fragmentation by applying the network
principle to research.
The INPRO network project attend strategic
objectives for excellence in research, development
and innovation through critical mass concentration
at national level of human and materials resources
of high value in the field of integrated products
and process engineering in Romania and link them
at the European Research Area's priorities, objec-
tives and specific activities. The project joint 121

• Facilitating motilities inside the INPRO

network (at the national level) and the
VRL-KCiP NoE (at the European level);

• Better valorization of the existing material

research base and research cost reduction
by creating the possibility to common use
of the partners' extant infrastructure;

• Managerial skills development in the

scientific research field and increasing
the capacity for new financial resources
identification.