The integration of product data and workflow management systems in a large scale engineering database application

At a time when many companies are embracing business process re-engineering and are under pressure to reduce "time-to-market", the management of product information from creative design through to manufacture has become increasingly important. Traditionally, design engineers have employed product data management systems to coordinate and control access to documented versions of product designs. However, these systems provide control only at the collaborative design level and are seldom used beyond design. Workflow management systems, on the other hand, are employed to coordinate and support the more complex and repeatable work processes of the production environment. Most commercial workflow products cannot support the highly dynamic activities found both in the design stages of product development and in rapidly evolving workflow definitions. The integration of product data management with workflow management could provide support for product development from initial CAD/CAM collaborative design through to the support and optimisation of production workflow activities. This paper investigates such an integration and proposes a philosophy for the support of product data throughout the full development and production lifecycle.