協同設計是一非常複雜的流程，將實際需求快速有效轉換成技術上與商業上可行之解決方案。在許多文獻中提出，維持企業競爭優勢最主要來自於新產品開發的知識。在快速變動的全球經濟環境，更多公司為了滿足客戶端的需求，在產品設計開發階段，即與供應商或客戶一起協同作業。不僅如此，有許多的業者花費更多心力與競爭者協同設計開發而非傳統上的成本競賽。衡量產品表現的指標如加速產品上市時間、提供更具創意的產品與客戶滿意度等，也是協同設計主要的核心價值。因此，分屬價值鏈中不同企業與不同職務的人若善用協同新產品開發作業，將有助於改善其核心設計流程。
之前的研究報告顯示，在產品的生命週期內，產品資料有效的交換與分享應用，對推動協同設計具關鍵性。本論文主要目的為提出協同設計開發模式與模版，有效整合供應商與客戶端的資源。鑑於產業別不同，其協同設計開發流程相異，本文將著重於PC電腦產業。此模版之建立過程主要來自於先前探討之文獻報告及實證研究。
為了檢視所提出之供應商早期參與之模式與其模版，本研究使用某案例公司來說明其相關步驟與過程。同時，亦提供情境模式以說明供應商早期參與模式與模版之應用。

Collaborative design is a very complex process which effectively converts needs into a technical and commercial solution. As discussed in many papers, the knowledge of developing new products and services is the primary source of sustainable competitive advantages of a company. In a rapidly changing global economic environment, many companies work with their suppliers or their customers in order to design the service or product that can meet their customers’ needs better. Even some competitors have been working on collaborative design rather than traditional cost competition. Dramatic improvements of the performance indicators like faster time to market, more innovating products delivered, and better customer satisfaction are the potential value for collaboration. The collaborative design is therefore an important issue for a group of companies belonging to different positions of the value chain to improve their core design processes.
Previous study has shown that the efficient exchange and sharing of product data through out the lifecycle is critical to the collaborative design. The main purpose of this research is to present how supplier involved in the early design phase and propose the templates so that early supplier involvement through collaborative design can be implemented more effectively. Since different industries have totally different collaborative design processes, this study places the focus on PC industry in order to develop more specific and powerful templates.
To verify the feasibility of the proposed approach, a prototype system is implemented. An illustration is used for the steps in applying templates. The scenario analysis also provides for a better understanding of this approach.

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