Smart Factories: Mitarbeiter-zentrierte Informationssysteme für die Zusammenarbeit der Zukunft.

With the success of social media PLM vendors started to explore the possibilities of this new form of networking and communication capabilities. After a first hype it seems that the topic has been ranked down in the priority list of the vendors or has even a negative connotation. Despite that certain existing pain points of PLM systems can be solved efficiently with social media concepts. This article analyses the value of social media components in a PLM context. It illustrates a smart application of selected social media principles in CONTACT’s CIM Database PLM. The article provides insight into the concept validation and software engineering process of the new component called Activities which is currently being tested in the field. General experiences and findings will be discussed.