Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Stark is University Professor and Director of the Chair of Industrial Information Technology at the TU Berlin (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Transport Systems, Department of Machine Tools and Factory Management) since 2008. Besides his additional leadership responsibility as Director of the division "Virtual Product Creation" at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology until 2021 he serves as active member in the acatech research council Industrie 4.0, as board member of the prostep ivip association and as member in national and international academic societies (WiGeP, CIRP, Design Society).

He previously worked in the automotive industry for nearly 14 years: first as a system engineer in the area of car body development for roughly four years, and then as Technical Leader / Manager of C3P (CAD, CAM, CAE, Product Information Management) and Digital Engineering in various national and international positions(including responsibility for digital methods for Ford, Jaguar/Land Rover, Volvo and Mazda).

Presents technical publication with a unique combination of scientific/technological information

Offers an understanding of, and outlook on, how PLM and virtual product creation technology can be used

Addresses the changes needed in order to avoid fundamental breakdowns in running information technologies

Motivation and approach.- The big picture - Information technology in enterprises.- Virtual Product Creation (VPC)- what is it?- The technology history of Virtual Product Creation.- The role of Virtual Product Creation for Engineering and PLM- evolving from IT.- The traditional approach of Virtual Product Creation in industry and its flaws.- The major technologies of Virtual Product Creation (CAID, CAD, CAM, CAE, PDM/BOM, DMU, VR, AR, Digital Factory).- The hidden demands of the engineering community.- Best practices of integrating Virtual Product Creation into mainstream engineering.- The challenge of modifying Management Leadership behavior towards Virtual Product Creation in enterprises.- The role and future of IT/PLM vendors.- Outlook to future Virtual Product Creation solutions.