Teamwork wins

Companies wanting to improve teamwork among staff in different locations are increasingly using collaboration techniques. A variety of technologies to support this are now commercially available, including synchronous meeting solutions, co-modelling systems, visualisation software and digital mock-up.

These tools use web technology and the internet to allow people, regardless of location, to interact, resolve problems and work together online. This is much faster and more effective than using teleconferences, faxes, and email and is also more economical and efficient than getting everyone together for face-to-face meetings.

This means collaboration techniques take a few minutes to resolve problems that otherwise would require days because of communication difficulties. This is especially true when synchronous visual-collaboration meeting tools are used to help people in different locations simultaneously view the same CAD model on their desktops, discuss it interactively online through pointers and annotations, and resolve issues in real-time.

One manufacturer described a design project where two weeks of traditional communication between its US facility and the company's design centre in Europe had not produced a solution to a problem. Then a synchronous collaboration meeting was implemented and a solution was reached in two half-hour online sessions.