17 Research Issues on Collaborative Product Design and Development

1.1 What is collaborative product design and development Collaborative product design and development (CPD) is also known as collaborative product definition management (cPDM). It is about business strategy, workflow and collection of software applications that facilitates different vendors to work together on development/design of a product. The early participation of vendors in the design process is considered critical in order to improve the product quality and reduce the development cycle time. CPD is becoming more valuable because of the increasing coordination and management complexity of organizational information, responsibilities, schedules, deliverables, product information, and business process. As outsourcing and globalization increase the number of design chain participants, a CPD speeds up the decision-making of trusted partners, employees, suppliers, and customers in design chains. Design chain is a subset of supply chain. The major collaborative activities between suppliers and manufacturers are design activities. Therefore, how to manage the design flow in a design chain is as important as how to manage the material flow in a supply chain.