Etude d'integration fonctionnelle du cycle de developpement des produits et des communautes de pratique virtuelle

Product development, subject to time constraints and system complexity, needs synchronous communication between different disciplines and locations in order to enable knowledge sharing.;Being well supported, informal information flow increases productivity during product realization. Therefore, manufacturing industries are exploring the use of Enterprise Social Media (ESM) functionalities.;This thesis explores the functional integration of formal information technologies such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software with informal technologies as ESM through an industrial case study. Reviewing literature, the candidate has identified a gap between Virtual Communities of Practice (VCoP) and product development, as well as the correlation of PLM solutions and noncontrolled ESM in the aerospace industry.;In order to disseminate a descriptive study of the current collaboration status, the author has undertaken online surveys for geodistant employees of the same department, semi-structured interviews and research among existing documentations. Subsequently, a Quality Functional Analysis is performed via two modified House of Quality matrices (PLM and ESM) to assign a convenient support for information transfer independently of its content maturity.;Users' needs are categorized, and for each category a choice of platform is made with further recommendation regarding the use of the function or the need of human intervention. VCoP form an integrated part of the solution where employees support the technical content. Thus, essential roles and responsibilities are presented to maintain existing CoP and develop new ones.;Finally, the candidate presents the limits of this research, gives recommendations for the manufacturing industry and suggests potential continuation of this study using PLM 2.0 with noncontrolled ESM tools.