Domain-specific portal for the precision component and tooling industry in Singapore: needs analysis and a test-bed implementation

This paper presents the observations and implications of Internet-based collaborative design and manufacturing in Singapore for targeted domain-specific areas—more specifically, the die and mould industry. Based on a survey, the issues faced by local companies are summarized and possible solutions are proposed. To promote the use of Internet for collaborative design, manufacturing and business in the local manufacturing industry, a test-bed domain-specific portal has been developed to facilitate collaborations among companies with their customers, suppliers and partners. Various technologies for value-added collaboration services are investigated and developed. These aim to facilitate business collaboration, such as partner selection, order process collaboration and collaborative planning, as well as engineering collaboration, such as collaborative product and tooling design and rapid prototyping over the Internet. The architecture of the e-manufacturing portal is presented and the collaborative technologies are introduced.