858: Reshaping Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Evolution of Boundary Objects in the Industrial Metaverse (15855)

Promoted as the next generation of the Internet and a technology that will fundamentally change our daily lives, the Metaverse has become one of the biggest technology trends of our time. For the manufacturing industry in particular, the Industrial Metaverse has the potential to radically change the way machines, equipment and processes are designed by enabling a real-time 3D collaboration space. This has significant effects on the characteristics and implications of traditional CAD-based boundary objects, virtual artefacts such as 2D or 3D models that are used in interdisciplinary collaboration. In an individual case study, we therefore observed the use of NVIDIA's Omniverse, a metaverse-enabled real-time 3D collaboration tool, for interdisciplinary factory planning at BMW. Through expert interviews with 22 employees, observation of 8 collaboration sessions and a descriptive survey of 35 engineers, we were able to deepen our understanding of how boundary objects evolve in the Industrial Metaverse and thus shape interdisciplinary collaboration. We propose that the Industrial Metaverse enables boundary objects to create a shared, socio-interactive and dynamically evolving 3D collaborative space that extends beyond existing boundaries between engineering disciplines. Furthermore, we propose that these enhanced characteristics greatly facilitate interdisciplinary understanding, negotiation and decision-making, ultimately supporting collaboration processes. Our case study provides a first insight into understanding this emerging phenomenon and highlights the need for further research.

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