A WEB BASED FRAMEWORK SUPPORTING COLLABORATION IN THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS

Despite the rapid evolution of technology and more specifically of the web and the services provided, the weakness of an immediate transformation of data exchange in the manufacturing world still exists. The need of promoting the collaboration between designing and manufacturing systems is driving towards the need of independent and reliable systems. This paper presents a framework based on the usage of Web Services technology along with the eXtensible Markup Language (XML), the SOAP protocol and the UDDI registries in an attempt to facilitate the communication between designers of prismatic parts and manufacturing companies. This electronic interaction is independent of any specific CAD/CAM software and provides an easy, fast and more economical way of manufacturing a workpiece. 1