Inductive approach for the specification of a generic PLM system in an extended enterprise context.

For several years, digital engineering has increasingly taken an important place in the strategic issues of mechanical engineering companies. Our proposition is an inductive approach that enables the specification of a PLM system dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the field of mechanical engineering. This approach aims to provide assistance for costing, development and industrialization of products. It is based on the capitalization, reuse and extension of experts‟ knowledge. Our research starts with an immersion in SMEs to extract the main needs in terms of collaborative work, technical processes and technical data management. Based on each specific solution proposal, a generic solution is built at the conceptual level. In this paper we will present and justify the inductive process based on three case studies and the synthesis for the specification of a generic PLM system in the framework of an extended enterprise in the mechanical engineering field.