An environment and an information service for global manufacturing

The market is going to change rapidly and the needs to bring the products just-in-time to the customer are stronger than ever. Alliances are founded on-the-fly to develop new complex products. Teams are no longer located in a common building, instead globalization means also distributing the tasks across locations, countries, and even companies. There are two major challenges to be solved in this scenario: having an information infrastructure to provide up-to-date information and an environment that is able to adapt to the needs of flexibility and portability. This paper introduces an environment for collaborative working and an alternative way of getting information.