analysing collaboration in a worlwide company co-design network
Résumé
In a worldwide context of development of new products and/or services, networks of actors are activated during the first phases of co-design projects both from the actors in an informal view and from the management to define the company partners. We study the different aspects of co-design and informal networks, and then we introduce an approach for analysing the actors' network structuring. We apply it through an industrial case study in a worldwide company producing energy. This industrial case explores the structuring then the management of actors' networks involved in a process of constructing a technical and financial proposal to potential customers. This leads to the identification of several dimensions influencing actors' network use and leading. Dimensions such as project organisational structure, concurrent engineering techniques, groupware-like and knowledge-based systems support and enhance such networks. The research aim is to develop a global framework for supporting the management of co-design networks, and integrating these dimensions.