A Web-based Platform for Customer Integration in the Decentralised Manufacturing of Personalised Products

In today's highly customer-oriented market, web-based approaches are the main enablers towards achieving a sufficient level of customer involvement during the design phase of new products. This research work, describes a novel software architecture that facilitates the ability to visualise and manipulate three-dimensional product design parameters under constraints. The manipulation is performed in real-time, over web, comprising Virtual and Augmented Reality functionalities. The approach integrates the customer into the supply chain of the personalised product manufacturing, as the design changes have a direct impact on the supply chain configuration. The software architecture and the description of the offered functionalities are presented, as well as the implementation tools and programming frameworks. The approach is tested on a case study from the automotive sector.