This volume contains case studies, theoretical papers and project development reports on one of the greatest challenges facing the new digital enterprises: the life cycle approach to management and production. Main issues discussed in the book include CAD/CAM/CIM/CAE, intelligent manufacturing, and control and robotics applications.

Cooperative working environments and their development are becoming increasingly important and ever more frequent in different industrial sectors and this book provides a scientific approach for managing Team Engineering. Meta-cognitive knowledge and networks are identified as the key resources enabling engineering teams to work effectively and to reduce engineering time and this book illustrates how computer support can aid cooperative work within the context of practical methodologies and examples. The fields covered in the book include: State-of-the-art research in cooperative learning tools; Practical examples and methodologies illustrating the implementation of cooperative networks; and An interdisciplinary approach to team engineering. This valuable new book is sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and will be essential reading for researchers, engineers, technical managers involved in the development of advanced applications for engineering and manufacturing, and software design and engineering.

This volume contains the edited technical presentations of PROLMAT 2006, the IFIP TC5 international conference held on June 15-17, 2006 at the Shanghai University in China. The papers collected here concentrate on knowledge strategies in Product Life Cycle and bring together researchers and industrialists with the objective of reaching a mutual understanding of the scientific - industry dichotomy, while facilitating the transfer of core research knowledge to core industrial competencies.