Empowering Product Co-creation Approaches Through Business Interoperability Concepts: The Toy Industry Case

Although 99% of toy manufacturing companies are SMEs, the toy market is dominated by a limited number of massive global brands. Therefore, SMEs should enhance their current business model in a way that would give them a competitive advantage. This paper presents work from the European-funded research project ToyLabs that aims to build on this identified need to establish a new, collaborative value chain for product development in the toy industry, with business interoperability playing a key role in this quest. The methodology engages toy manufacturers, FabLabs, toy safety experts and end customers in the product design workflow to create new, safe customer-centred and market-targeted toys that are ready to be certified and put into production. For achieving the goals of this approach, the methodology behind the ToyLabs platform focuses on the incorporation of cross-sectorial business process interoperability capabilities that aim to create a common vocabulary, understanding and a communication gateway for the identification of potential partners even from sectors that were previously unrelated to the toy industry and the exchange of requirements and specifications between them.