A contribution to engineering data sharing in discipline spanning global environments

Abstract

In any product development process, team collaboration is a key to success. Especially, multidisciplinary and global teamwork is vital in finding a comprehensive solution in product development. But inherent gaps between the participating disciplines and cultures cause disputes and misunderstandings when collaborating. This paper shows the challenges in interdisciplinary and intercultural teamwork, which have to be overcome in order to advance an integrated product development process. The purpose of this research is to improve mutual accommodation in multidisciplinary and international teamwork with the support of modern information technology and technical product documentation.

Keywords:

• product development
• global engineering
• interdisciplinary and intercultural teamwork
• technical product documentation

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the European Social Capital funding programme and Investment Bank of the state of Hesse for their financial support.