Research on a collaborative mould portal

Large companies are looking for information and communication technology to manage their resources, and also expect partners, including suppliers, to quickly adopt appropriate technologies and business strategies. The mould industry is an important support industry during the product development process, and a link, between product designers and manufacturers. The paper presents a collaborative application portal (CAP) for mould industry to provide an application platform for collaborative product design, product data management, manufacturing information management and e-business services. A multi-tiers architecture and some pivotal technologies including of MVC development mode, information exchange, user management and security for portal, are used to construct this portal. Supporting collaborative activities between mould companies and its customers, suppliers and partners are illustrated. A portal of mould industry in Singapore, www.diemoldonline.net, is introduced as an application case.