Madefast

olitical, economic, and technological forces are changing the landscape of engineering. As the world's economies become more interconnected and more competitive, there is an increasing need for organizations to form joint design and manufacturing teams that collaborate for the life of a project and then disperse. For example, a new electromechanical product may involve a mechanical design group in Boston working closely with a control systems subcontractor in California and an OEM partner in Singapore. Similar challenges face defense contractors who need to respond rapidly to new requirements. The ARPA Manufacturing Automation and Design Engineering (MADE) program has been developing Internet-based tools, services, protocols, and design methodologies that will allow contractors to compose teams of specialists from different locations and organizations as project needs arise. As a practical test of what the MADE program has achieved, members of the MADE community undertook an ambitious exercise in Madefast: Collaborative Engineering over the Internet An exploration of collaborative capabilities when using the Web as a design tool. M a r k