Co-ordinated engineering: design innovation through operational collaboration

Operational Collaboration Model (OCM) has been developed to provide net based, location and discipline independent solution for the exchange of design technology, service and information. Its development was preceded by the exploration of the state-of-the-art in the collaborative engineering design to provide the theoretical basis for the research, and the research of the current practices in European maritime sector. The OCM is facilitated through the Technology Collaboration Platform which provides the distributed integrated design capabilities and European Maritime Collaboration Platform which supports the collaborative capabilities for knowledge exchange. OCM allows for a variety of different modes of collaboration, provided by the integrated design framework. Six case studies are to be used for demonstration in engineering design environment and testing are currently in the initial stages of execution, and aim to demonstrate the capabilities of the model but also identify areas for improvement and potential issues in its implementation. Once thoroughly tested and validated in the maritime sector the OCM will be fit for wider implementation in engineering design community.