Assisted management of product data: A PDM application proposal

Virtual organisations and product modelling represents domains with significant developments since mid 1990's. Various techniques developed under the scope of Mechanical Engineering Systems leads to the need of an integrated multi-view model concept. The paperwork presents the findings of a study for a PDM application proposed to be used for virtual organisations. Models of product, organisation and document were developed based on the STEP framework, considering the information view. The concepts of mereology and meronymy were implemented for more accuracy in product structure definition and collaborative work covers the entire product life-cycle being important characteristic of virtual organisations.