Werner Dankwort Livres

Prof. Dr. Josef Hoschek founded these meetings with the objective of creating a forum, where managers and specialists from industry (especially automotive) and ITvendors, and experts from Universities and research institutes can exchange their expert knowledge and their innovative ideas for the future. To keep up with the fine tradition of the workshop and to honour the founder of it, this 5 th workshop was held in remembrance of Prof. Hoschek, since he passed away in 2002. The authors of the presentations and discussions published in this volume come from various countries: Europe, Israel, USA, and Japan. The papers cover the following issues: Industrial processes and workflow, product definition, IT-aspects, methods, tools, fundamentals, PLM, as well as strategic and legal aspects. The purpose of this workshop was to increase the information flow between competing enterprises and companies, with the common intention that sharing knowledge will bring advantages to all of us. The atmosphere of mutuality was reflected in the published talks, the common objectives were discussed and even solutions for common problems or challenges were pointed out.

In addition to the classical needs, competition on the global market requires from industry product innovations: quality, time to market, reduction of costs (Q, T, C). The modern process networks of product development and manufacturing passing the borders of countries and including several companies could not work without an extensive use of information technology. This is going far beyond the former idea of Computer Aided Design. Thus the 3'd Workshop on Current CAx-Problems did not focus on functionalities or methods aiding design like in the first two workshops but on „Digital Products - Living Data is the Future“: problems of the virtual simulation of the entire industrial process, starting with the development of a product and covering the complete life cycle. The workshop aimed at bringing together the three groups: industry (mainly automotive manufacturers), system suppliers, and fundamental research. During the workshop, communication between these three groups had to be intensified, and especially also among competing companies of the same branch to pave the way for concerted actions, which are essential for all in the future.