The book focuses on methods and tools for collaborative and integrated design. It presents recent advances in the field and contains 40 selected papers among all presented at the CIRP Design Seminar held in Grenoble, France, in May 2003. Design has become the key industrial stage for innovative products in a globalized market. New industrial organizations and philosophical trends raised integration and collaboration in design to success factors for product design methods.

The present book is of interest to engineers, researchers, academic staff, and postgraduate students interested in integrated design and manufacturing, technology management, information system for engineering, tools for co-operative design and design theory.