Abstract
Traditional product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions focus mostly on the product data management and design house-keeping aspects to maintain complete and consistent product information during product R&D. Thus, PLMs are not necessarily keen on supporting quick-to-market and mass-customization. This research overcomes the current PLM deficiency by enabling the modularized product design for assembly (MDfA) and collaborative design process (CDP). With the concepts of MDfA and CDP in mind, we design and develop a plug-in system for PLM, called advanced production quality planning (APQP) hub, to enhance the efficiency of automotive supply chain (e.g., a tier-1 system manufacturing company, SMC, and its suppliers), which assume both design and production responsibilities for the primary manufacturing company (i.e., PME). Finally, the operations among PME's automotive supply chain are studied to show the benefits of APQP hub in the realization of modularized collaborative design. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.