Digitalization opens up new options for collaboration. This also applies to the engineering process, a key function for the economic success of products, processes and services. This kind of division of labor, which has proven itself many times over in the area of R&D, is now being transferred to the competitive phase of value creation.

However, this form of collaboration raises many questions that need to be rethought in advance and then regulated amicably and contractually. They are described in the study "Collaborative Engineering | Basic features and challenges of cross-company collaboration in the engineering of products and accompanying services", which was compiled by the accompanying research of the PAiCE technology program funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi ). The study is based on individual and group interviews with over 30 experts from industry and research.

For whom is collaborative engineering attractive?

Collaborative development is particularly interesting for suppliers whose products have to meet high requirements in terms of technical quality, networking, durability, maintainability and expandability or reconfigurability, or who offer associated services. Examples of sectors include mechanical and plant engineering, medical technology and the aviation industry, including suppliers.

Collaborative engineering plays a special role in the implementation of new or future business models and services that need to be considered in the engineering phases. This gives German industry in particular, which is strongly characterized by SMEs, the opportunity to better position its special competencies in global markets or to implement them in complex product-service systems.

What are the risks and how can they be eliminated?

Although the technical challenges are far from being solved, they can be described well and therefore planned for: these include cross-company networking architectures and suitable data exchange formats, as well as data consistency in the event of latency effects. Non-technical issues are therefore of greater importance, if not the key role, especially in global (non-European) markets. They can make the difference between commercial success and failure. This includes aspects such as documentation and the protection of remuneration claims and copyrights in the international legal area. There is still no clear idea of which legal requirements need to be observed. One reason for this is the currently still inconsistent international jurisdiction: liability and data protection are regulated nationally and have so far been little internationalized - which can lead to particular risks in export business. In order to be able to collaborate successfully in the long term, companies must formulate clear development goals in advance and, above all, correctly assess the effort involved in initiating and planning the collaboration. This is all the more important as it can prove to be one of the biggest hurdles. It must be determined in advance who owns the knowledge gained within the collaboration: there is not (yet) a blueprint for dealing with newly acquired knowledge comparable to patent law, which has been continuously developed over the last 150 years. Ultimately, therefore, only the contractual regulation is legally binding.

At the beginning of the collaboration, it must also be clearly defined how data can be assigned to an authorized company. However, the partners must bear in mind that such contractual regulations can jeopardize the business models of weaker players such as SMEs in the event of an asymmetrical distribution of power and ultimately call value chains and system business models into question. Especially when companies of very different sizes work together, this aspect must be examined right from the start.

Another key role is played by collaboration management, which must be aligned with the common goals of the stakeholders and take into account the individual interests of the partners at all times: its essential main task is to define the implementation plans. Personal relationships and forms of communication play an important role here, and the regional proximity of the partner companies can also be a positive factor.

The key to success: the extended digital twin

Cross-company collaborative engineering still involves a lot of manual initiation and coordination work and the IT interfaces are sometimes too complex, meaning that the added value is not yet fully effective. This is why an expansion of the digital twin concept is particularly important: in future, it will also map key aspects beyond the technical specifications. For example, it will enable the simulation of business models, take into account information on the authorship and expertise of individuals, establish collaborative business and participation models and take into account nationally applicable regulations and laws.

The prospects for cross-company collaborative engineering are therefore excellent!

Dr. Matthias Künzel, Dr. Tom Kraus, Sebastian Straub LL.M., Institute for Innovation and Technology of VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH; accompanying research of the BMWi technology program PAiCE / ag