Tracking of design changes for collaborative product development

Market demands are moving manufacturing from mass production to mass customization. To quickly respond to customer needs, product development teams have to work together in a collaborative design environment. This paper presents a product data driven approach to tracking of design changes in a collaborative design environment. In this research, design processes are analyzed to identify, product data for tracking design changes. The relationships between product data are established using predecessor-successor, master-subordinate, and geometric constraint relationship types. Forward tracking and backward tracking are designed and implemented to identify impacts of a design change. A prototype system has been implemented to verify the effectiveness of the approach. Finally, a milling machine fixture is used as a design example to show how this approach works. The proposed approach provides a fundamental mechanism to promptly notify other designers of design changes in a collaborative design environment.