Collaborative Engineering - Main features and challenges of cross-company collaboration in engineering of products and services

Though methodologies will change engineering, it will stay crucial for the economic success of products and services. However, the success criteria are changing increasingly. Not only the price, quality and functionality are key factors, rather the prerequisites for future business models are increasingly being created by providing accompanying services and novel possibilities for product enhancement. Strictly speaking, engineering has to prepare the basics for such business models. In a forecast study on behalf of the German Ministry of Economics the authors asked for trends, opportunities and challenges in future engineering. Based on literature analysis and expert interviews success factors and upcoming trends were identified. Collaborative work was identified as a key element in future engineering. Collaboration currently exists widely in the field of research and development, i.e. in the more pre-competitive field. This is often described by the keyword open innovation. The model of collaboration is aligned with equality. Regional innovation clusters provide e.g. such an ecosystem geared towards equality and long-term strategic cooperation, which has proven economically successful in recent decades. Bringing all these methodologies together - engineering accompanying the whole life cycle, collaboration along the value-added chain, and new information-driven business models - this results in a new culture of cross-company collaborative engineering as a key enabler. It turned out that it is still too early for a detailed strategic roadmap for the concrete implementation of cross-company collaborative engineering. Nevertheless, the status quo and foreseeable steps to create the precondition for successful cross-company collaborative engineering can be well described. Thus, the extended digital twin becomes the key element of success for the widespread use of cross-company collaborative engineering. The digital twin will only be able to fulfil its key function as a virtual image for the engineering by means of an extension in order to bring together all the levels and not only the technical ones.