Implementation and use of collaborative product development systems

Abstract

To an increasing extent, manufacturing and development activities today take place in geographically dispersed units. As a response to this, web-based IT tools, such is Collaborative Product Development (CPD) systems, are introduced, to facilitate collaboration in the resulting product development networks. This study investigates the adoption, use and effects of such systems, as well as why and how they are implemented. The results from case studies and a survey to Swedish manufacturing firms in 2003, first of all, show that the adoption of CPD is rather limited. Furthermore, this study indicates that companies undertake only limited changes to organisational structures and processes when implementing these systems, which limits their possibilities to realise their potential benefits. It is also revealed that CPD implementations have focused on internal efficiency rather than on involvement of external parties, and that most of the companies neither measure changes to a great extent nor do they follow it up if expected results are achieved.