Web-based Knowledge Management Methods for Collaborative Product Development WM CHEUNG and PG MAROPOULOS Design and Manufacturing Research Group, School of Engineering, University of Durham, UK. JX GAO and H AZIZ Enterprise Integration, School of Industrial and Manufacturing Science, Cranfield University, UK. SYNOPSIS As the use of web-centric technology matures, one of the most widely used data exchange formats is XML (Extensible Markup Language). This is due to the fact that XML-wrapped data can be used and understood by any application that is XML-enabled. This paper reports the application of XML for web-based knowledge management in Collaborative Product Development between design and manufacturing functions. Another aspect of this paper is to emphasise the implementations of a “Manufacturing Knowledge Know-how System” as opposed to a “Design Knowledge-Based System” in product development. 1. INTRODUCTION In today’s highly competitive industrial environment, the design and analysis of manufacturing and process plans for complex products requires a very high degree of ‘know- how’ (1), (2). Suitable tools are required to store this vital information, and make it available for re-use on a company-wide basis. Effective management of this knowledge from discipline to discipline is a requirement to realize the expected cost, schedule, and quality benefits. During the course of this research, several problems and technology shortcomings have been identified. Firstly, there is lack of use of modern technologies in the early design and manufacturing phases. Secondly, there is low of efficiency in information distribution to support product development activities despite the fact that manufacturing knowledge is recognised as one of the greatest assets for a company involved in product development. However, little progress has been made towards using it in a distributed and collaborative product development process. There have been a number of researchers whose aim was to develop knowledge-based process planning systems to improve the product development process (3), (4). None of the systems, however, are currently exploiting advanced tools such as a Web-centric PLM system for storing the appropriate manufacturing ‘know-how’ to support process planning by utilizing Web-based technologies such as XML. The main