Approach to integrate product conceptual design information into a computer-aided design system

Commercial computer-aided design systems support the geometric definition of product, but they lack utilities to support initial design stages. Typical tasks such as customer need capture, functional requirement formalization, or design parameter definition are conducted in applications that, for instance, support ?quality function deployment? and ?failure modes and effects analysis? techniques. Such applications are noninteroperable with the computer-aided design systems, leading to discontinuous design information flows. This study addresses this issue and proposes a method to enhance the integration of design information generated in the early design stages into a commercial computer-aided design system. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach adopted, a prototype application was developed and two case studies were executed

An Empirical Analysis on the Benefits of Production Information Sysem for Japanese Manufacturing Companies

We empirically analyzed the linkage from computer-based information technologies utilized for production activities to the perceived benefits of production information systems, further to the competitive performance of each manufacturing plant, after presenting our research framework and a series of hypotheses. A database used for the analysis includes forty-six manufacturing plants located in Japan from three industries (machinery, electrical & electronics, and automobile). Information technologies we took up include computer aided design (CAD), computer aided engineering (CAE), computer aided processes planning (CAPP), local area networks (LAN) linking design and engineering stations, computer or direct numerical control (CNC/DNC), flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), automated retrieval and storage, material requirement planning (MRP), just-in-time (JIT) software, simulation tools, statistical process control (SPC) software, database for quality information, and electronic data interchange (EDI) linkages among others. The benefits of production information systems were measured in terms of manufacturing cost reduction, decrease in inventories, quality improvement, lead time reduction, increase in flexibility to changing product mix and production volume, new product introduction time reduction and so on. We found that there were several information technologies which did not necessarily show the hypothesized effects, and there were considerable unexpected or secondary effects upon the benefits of production information systems. Furthermore, some important benefits of production information systems, particularly manufacturing cost reduction and increase in flexibility, didn’t lead to the improvement in the corresponding competitive performance indexes

Requirements analysis in the implementation of integrated PLM, ERP and CAD systems

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system implementation is a major investment when the technology is used in manufacturing companies. This paper provides an analysis of the requirements for the integration of PLM systems with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems incorporating the design aspects of Computer Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) within the product development process. PLM implementation deals with various existing product data and information generated over years both from CAD and ERP systems. Data integration is very challenging and has important impact on future decisions while creating new processes. The information management plays very important role not only in PLM implementation but also in the way this will be used in future production. Therefore it is very important to analyse how product information is transferred to PLM system. It also need to be investigated that what, when and how the data will flow from and to PLM systems

Design and implementation of a prototype to include security activities as part of application systems design

M.Com. (Information systems)This study has its origin in the growing need for information systems to be classified as 'secure'. With the increasing use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools in the design of application systems for commercial use, the risks that exist in terms of information security have become more prominent. The importance of considering security during the analysis and design of an information system, in other words, on a logical level, is increasing daily. Usually security features are added to existing application systems on an ad hoc basis. Security design activities should become such an integrated part of systems analysis and design activities on a logical level, that a complete integration of the two fields, security and computer aided software engineering, can be achieved. The aim of this dissertation is to study the literature to discover existing approaches to this integration, and to extract the strengths from them and expand on those strengths in order to compile an approach that is completely implementable in the form of a prototype data flow design tool (DFD tool). The proposed approach to the secure analysis and design of an application system of a logical level, which is presented in Chapter 4, is designed in conjunction with H.A.S. Booysen [Booysen, Kasselman, Eloff - 1994]. Existing CASE-tools have also been studied by the author to determine their current capabilities, especially in terms of security definition activities, but also in terms of their support to the systems analyst during the analysis and design phases of the project life cycle when developing a target application system

The role of Computer Aided Process Engineering in physiology and clinical medicine

This paper discusses the potential role for Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) in developing engineering analysis and design approaches to biological systems across multiple levels—cell signalling networks, gene, protein and metabolic networks, cellular systems, through to physiological systems. The 21st Century challenge in the Life Sciences is to bring together widely dispersed models and knowledge in order to enable a system-wide understanding of these complex systems. This systems level understanding should have broad clinical benefits. Computer Aided Process Engineering can bring systems approaches to (i) improving understanding of these complex chemical and physical (particularly molecular transport in complex flow regimes) interactions at multiple scales in living systems, (ii) analysis of these models to help to identify critical missing information and to explore the consequences on major output variables resulting from disturbances to the system, and (iii) ‘design’ potential interventions in in vivo systems which can have significant beneficial, or potentially harmful, effects which need to be understood. This paper develops these three themes drawing on recent projects at UCL. The first project has modeled the effects of blood flow on endothelial cells lining arteries, taking into account cell shape change resulting in changes in the cell skeleton which cause consequent chemical changes. A second is a project which is building an in silico model of the human liver, tieing together models from the molecular level to the liver. The composite model models glucose regulation in the liver and associated organs. Both projects involve molecular transport, chemical reactions, and complex multiscale systems, tackled by approaches from CAPE. Chemical Engineers solve multiple scale problems in manufacturing processes – from molecular scale through unit operations scale to plant-wide and enterprise wide systems – so have an appropriate skill set for tackling problems in physiology and clinical medicine, in collaboration with life and clinical scientists

The environment power system analysis tool development program

The Environment Power System Analysis Tool (EPSAT) is being developed to provide space power system design engineers with an analysis tool for determining system performance of power systems in both naturally occurring and self-induced environments. The program is producing an easy to use computer aided engineering (CAE) tool general enough to provide a vehicle for technology transfer from space scientists and engineers to power system design engineers. The results of the project after two years of a three year development program are given. The EPSAT approach separates the CAE tool into three distinct functional units: a modern user interface to present information, a data dictionary interpreter to coordinate analysis; and a data base for storing system designs and results of analysis

A simplified analysis of propulsion installation losses for computerized aircraft design

A simplified method is presented for computing the installation losses of aircraft gas turbine propulsion systems. The method has been programmed for use in computer aided conceptual aircraft design studies that cover a broad range of Mach numbers and altitudes. The items computed are: inlet size, pressure recovery, additive drag, subsonic spillage drag, bleed and bypass drags, auxiliary air systems drag, boundary-layer diverter drag, nozzle boattail drag, and the interference drag on the region adjacent to multiple nozzle installations. The methods for computing each of these installation effects are described and computer codes for the calculation of these effects are furnished. The results of these methods are compared with selected data for the F-5A and other aircraft. The computer program can be used with uninstalled engine performance information which is currently supplied by a cycle analysis program. The program, including comments, is about 600 FORTRAN statements long, and uses both theoretical and empirical techniques

Analytics Use Cases for Mass Customization – A Process-based Approach for Systematic Discovery

Nowadays, mass customization (MC) is shaped by the application of digital technologies like computer-aided design, computer aided manufacturing, and distribution planning. Within a MC process, various data is created, which can be used to gain knowledge about past and future business activities by means of modern data analytics methods. The paper at hand applies design science research and presents a process-based approach for identifying potential analytics use cases for MC. For this purpose, a generic MC process is derived from previous literature and a systematic analysis is carried out using the work systems method. The resulting artifact offers a differentiated view on customers, products, activities, participants, technologies, and information as well as on the information flows within the MC process. It enables manufacturers to identify valuable opportunities for analytics and to optimize current MC processes. Furthermore, it can be used to develop a systematic process for the discovery and evaluation of analytics use cases and novel business models in the future

Integration of design tools and knowledge capture into a CAD system: a case study

onceptual design phase is partially supported by product lifecycle management/computer-aided design (PLM/CAD) systems causing discontinuity of the design information flow: customer needs — functional requirements — key characteristics — design parameters (DPs) — geometric DPs. Aiming to address this issue, it is proposed a knowledge-based approach is proposed to integrate quality function deployment, failure mode and effects analysis, and axiomatic design into a commercial PLM/CAD system. A case study, main subject of this article, was carried out to validate the proposed process, to evaluate, by a pilot development, how the commercial PLM/CAD modules and application programming interface could support the information flow, and based on the pilot scheme results to propose a full development framework