Social computing : a future approach of product lifecycle management

Industrial challenges in the automotive industry are more and more focused around the optimization of the development process which requires new integrated instruments of communication and collaboration. To face challenges of business communication and collaboration, the industrial multi-firm research project “FuturePLM” applies a series of methodologies in industrial and scientific environments. First, relevant topics were elaborated within an expert panel followed by qualitative interviews to gather the industrial as-is situation of product development. Afterwards, scenario planning was applied to create possible pictures of product development in the future. The key is seen in the analysis of the gap between the asis situation and possible future scenarios. Some of these gaps include aspects such as the proposition to integrate Web 2.0 technologies in the daily business environment of product development (social networking, micro blogging, etc.), as well as the analysis of other upcoming topics with high relevance (e.g. complexity management, representation of data or implementation strategies). However, the major focus is the consideration of human behaviors. The goal is the identification of opportunities and threats, as well as the development of concepts and solution approaches to establish a sustainable strategy for future-oriented product development and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). -- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) ; Social PLM ; product development process ; scenario planning ; corporate social computing ; knowledge management ; representing of data and information