Using the ICT in the Collaborations for Aerospace Product Design: a

case study

Angelo Corallo, Mariangela Lazoi, Giuseppina Passiante

Università del Salento (Italy)

Aerospace products are complex and require the involvement of cross

functional and extended teams composed by members involved in different
company functions or coming from external organizations to integrate their
knowledge and share risks and costs. Often, members are not located in the
same building, city or region and wide distances need to be covered with the
use of ICT system web-based. During the product design activities, the
collaborations and communications are very intensive and the use of ICT
systems is essential to concretely design a product that meets the customer
needs and it is feasible in terms of cost and time. CAX technologies, product
data management tools and synchronous and asynchronous communication
tools are used among the team members.

The realized case study explores the use of ICT in the collaborations with
external and internal actors to design or re-design an aerospace product. The
case study is a single one and investigates the practice in an Italian
aerospace company in reference to its network of actors involved in the
product design activities. The data have been collected with the use of a
questionnaire composed of open-ended questions, accomplished by directors
and managers following a snowball sample techniques. For exploring the
communication content emerging from the interviews, the data have been
analyzed with the use of the content analysis. A dictionary emergent from the
data, together with a coding book and form, and other content analysis tools
are described and aims to increase the reliability of the findings. Triangulation
techniques of the data are also used.

The main role of collaborations among organizational units and with the
customers/partners is emerged and the related features and ICT uses are
highlighted. Insights in the managerial practice are based on a proposed
evaluation technique of the collaborations types during the product design.

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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 2, Issue 4, The 1st

Collaborative Innovation Networks Conference - COINs2009. Edited by
Kenneth Riopelle, Peter Gloor, Christine Miller and Julia Gluesing.

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