A Design Environment for Product Knowledge Management and Data Exchange

This paper reports on a distributed design environment under development for product knowledge management and information exchange. The system is able to use the company’s existing base of knowledge and to push the manufacturing knowledge higher up into the design chain to reduce the need for costly and time consuming reworks and engineering changes. The design environment uses a knowledge based system Protégé and enables data/knowledge exchange through International Standards for Product Model Exchange (ISO STEP) and the Resource Description Framework

How will smart city production systems transform supply chain design: a product-level investigation

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.This paper is a first step to understand the role that a smart city with a distributed production system could have in changing the nature and form of supply chain design. Since the end of the Second World War, most supply chain systems for manufactured products have been based on ‘scale economies’ and ‘bigness’; in our paper we challenge this traditional view. Our fundamental research question is: how could a smart city production system change supply chain design? In answering this question, we develop an integrative framework for understanding the interplay between smart city technological initiatives (big data analytics, the industrial Internet of things) and distributed manufacturing on supply chain design. This framework illustrates synergies between manufacturing and integrative technologies within the smart city context and links with supply chain design. Considering that smart cities are based on the collaboration between firms, end-users and local stakeholders, we advance the present knowledge on production systems through case-study findings at the product level. In the conclusion, we stress there is a need for future research to empirically develop our work further and measure (beyond the product level) the extent to which new production technologies such as distributed manufacturing are indeed democratising supply chain design and transforming manufacturing from ‘global production’ to a future ‘city-oriented’ social materiality

PRODUCT LIFECYCLE DATA SHARING AND VISUALISATION: WEB-BASED APPROACHES

Both product design and manufacturing are intrinsically collaborative processes. From conception and design to project completion and ongoing maintenance, all points in the lifecycle of any product involve the work of fluctuating teams of designers, suppliers and customers. That is why companies are involved in the creation of a distributed design and a manufacturing environment which could provide an effective way to communicate and share information throughout the entire enterprise and the supply chain. At present, the technologies that support such a strategy are based on World Wide Web platforms and follow two different paths. The first one focuses on 2D documentation improvement and introduces 3D interactive information in order to add knowledge to drawings. The second one works directly on 3D models and tries to extend the life of 3D data moving these design information downstream through the entire product lifecycle. Unfortunately the actual lack of a unique 3D Web-based standard has stimulated the growing up of many different proprietary and open source standards and, as a consequence, a production of an incompatible information exchange over the WEB. This paper proposes a structured analysis of Web-based solutions, trying to identify the most critical aspects to promote a unique 3D digital standard model capable of sharing product and manufacturing data more effectively—regardless of geographic boundaries, data structures, processes or computing environmen

A methodology for engineering design change analysis using system modelling and knowledge management technologies

In the current fiercely competitive market, engineering design change management in manufacturing companies is a critical factor for business success. Recognised as inevitable in product development, engineering changes may significantly influence lead time, development cost and product quality of new product development. It has been recognised that the earlier change issues are addressed, the greater product lifecycle costs can be saved. In this thesis, three main industrial requirements have been identified in engineering design change management, including: (i) a lack of formal methods to analyse the impacts of design changes on both functional requirements and physical components; (ii) a lack of methods to trace design change propagations; (iii) a lack of methods for conflict resolving in design change management. It is also identified that there is a lack of systematic method for reusing design knowledge to solve design conflicts. The literature review carried out in this project also confirms that there were no unified and systematic methods proposed to meet these industrial requirements. This thesis reports a methodology and tool to meet these requirements and help designers trace, analyse and evaluate engineering changes occurring in the product design phase. A modelling method is employed to enhance the traceability of potential design changes occurred between the functional requirements domain and physical structure domain of design. Based on functional and physical models, a matrix-based method is developed to analyse change propagations between components and help find out design conflicts arising from design changes. A knowledge based method has been proposed to resolve design conflicts by reusing previous design change knowledge. A web-based distributed system has been developed to implement the proposed methodology. An engineering design change example from the collaborating company has been used in a case study to help understand the methodology and prove its usefulness

A multi-agent approach for design consistency checking

The last decade has seen an explosion of interest to advanced product development methods, such as Computer Integrated Manufacture, Extended Enterprise and Concurrent Engineering. As a result of the globalization and future distribution of design and manufacturing facilities, the cooperation amongst partners is becoming more challenging due to the fact that the design process tends to be sequential and requires communication networks for planning design activities and/or a great deal of travel to/from designers' workplaces. In a virtual environment, teams of designers work together and use the Internet/Intranet for communication. The design is a multi-disciplinary task that involves several stages. These stages include input data analysis, conceptual design, basic structural design, detail design, production design, manufacturing processes analysis, and documentation. As a result, the virtual team, normally, is very changeable in term of designers' participation. Moreover, the environment itself changes over time. This leads to a potential increase in the number of design. A methodology of Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control (IDMC) is proposed to alleviate some of the related difficulties. This thesis looks at the Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control, in the context of the European Aerospace Industry, and suggests a methodology for a conceptual framework based on a multi-agent architecture. This multi-agent architecture is a kernel of an Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control System (IDMCS) that aims at ensuring that the overall design is consistent and acceptable to all participating partners. A Methodology of Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control is introduced and successfully implemented to detect design mismatches in complex design environments. A description of the research models and methods for intelligent mismatch control, a taxonomy of design mismatches, and an investigation into potential applications, such as aerospace design, are presented. The Multi-agent framework for mismatch control is developed and described. Based on the methodology used for the IDMC application, a formal framework for a multi-agent system is developed. The Methods and Principles are trialed out using an Aerospace Distributed Design application, namely the design of an A340 wing box. The ontology of knowledge for agent-based Intelligent Distributed Mismatch Control System is introduced, as well as the distributed collaborative environment for consortium based projects

A process-based approach to engineering design knowledge reuse

Manufacturing enterprises are under increasing pressure to produce products of higher quality at lower cost in shorter time frames if they are to remain competitive. Engineering design support methods can help companies to achieve these goals. One such approach is ,,design knowledge reuse. Industrial requirements have been identified as (i) the ability to rapidly create product variants; (ii) the ability to capture and re-use design knowledge, and; (iii) the capability to support the design effort across a distributed enterprise. The research aim is developed to assist the manufacturing enterprise in meeting the industrial requirements in the following way: a design solution to a new product requirement can be supported using an application package that is developed for a specific product domain. The application package consists of knowledge about previous products and projects, and procedures for using the knowledge to achieve a new solution. An initial investigation showed that design reuse in practice is lacking in specific areas: access to relevant and contextualised captured design knowledge; the relationship between design reuse and the product development process; integrated engineering and business objectives. Literature gaps were also identified. They include: (i) knowledge reuse for the whole product life cycle (particularly early design); (ii) integrated product and design process models; (iii) a 'how-to' element of the product design process. The aim of this research is to provide a method for reusing engineering design knowledge. The research method is 'interview case study', which supports a flexible approach and enables the research to develop according to the findings. The research was carried out with four companies, one of which took part in a detailed case study, providing case data to develop, populate and validate the proposed system. The outcome of the research is a proposal for a process based engineering design reuse method. The method consists, of a combination of product, process and task knowledge to support the design process. Product knowledge is represented using a product ontology. Process knowledge is represented using the Design Roadmap method. Task knowledge is represented using a template developed to record the critical aspects of the task, including 'how-to' knowledge. Case studies are used to validate the proposed framework and the developed prototype system. The proposed design knowledge reuse framework is applicable to a range of industries in which mature, complex products are developed.Ph

A process-based approach to engineering design knowledge reuse

Manufacturing enterprises are under increasing pressure to produce products of higher quality at lower cost in shorter time frames if they are to remain competitive. Engineering design support methods can help companies to achieve these goals. One such approach is design knowledge reuse. Industrial requirements have been identified as (i) the ability to rapidly create product variants; (ii) the ability to capture and re-use design knowledge, and; (iii) the capability to support the design effort across a distributed enterprise. The research aim is developed to assist the manufacturing enterprise in meeting the industrial requirements in the following way: a design solution to a new product requirement can be supported using an application package that is developed for a specific product domain. The application package consists of knowledge about previous products and projects, and procedures for using the knowledge to achieve a new solution. An initial investigation showed that design reuse in practice is lacking in specific areas: access to relevant and contextualised captured design knowledge; the relationship between design reuse and the product development process; integrated engineering and business objectives. Literature gaps were also identified. They include: (i) knowledge reuse for the whole product life cycle (particularly early design); (ii) integrated product and design process models; (iii) a ‘how-to’ element of the product design process. The aim of this research is to provide a method for reusing engineering design knowledge. The research method is ‘interview case study’, which supports a flexible approach and enables the research to develop according to the findings. The research was carried out with four companies, one of which took part in a detailed case study, providing case data to develop, populate and validate the proposed system. The outcome of the research is a proposal for a process based engineering design reuse method. The method consists of a combination of product, process and task knowledge to support the design process. Product knowledge is represented using a product ontology. Process knowledge is represented using the Design Roadmap method. Task knowledge is represented using a template developed to record the critical aspects of the task, including ‘how-to’ knowledge. Case studies are used to validate the proposed framework and the developed prototype system. The proposed design knowledge reuse framework is applicable to a range of industries in which mature, complex products are developed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Challenges Facing Education in Engineering Drawing Practice

The Engineering Drawing has traditionally communicated the technical product specification (TPS) evolving to reflect technologies such as 2D and 3D-CAD as well as the full ISO Geometrical Product Specification (GPS). Although Model Based Definition (MBD) or Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) omit the use of drawing to communicate the TPS they lend themselves ideally to ISO-GPS methods. The methods present an opportunity to ensure Design and Engineering students are equipped with knowledge and understanding of GPS relevant to conventional TPS as well as PMI/MBD. A survey of industry experts indicated expectation of good knowledge and understanding of the underlying GPS methods alongside traditional elements such as orthographic projections and line-types and a fair or good understanding of PMI/MBD application. New materials and delivery structures were developed and implemented for the level 4 Design Media Unit; lectures were translated to seminars where the lecture element focused upon examples rather than rules with students applying the techniques using simple paper sketches. Throughout the series a simple scotch-yoke assembly was utilised, with rapid-prototyped physical working models and components distributed for students to work with; this provided familiarity of function, fit and form throughout the five week programme. The CAD tutorials utilised pre-modelled components identical to those used during the lectures. Students applied the methods practiced during the seminar and reinforced learning outcomes; students evaluated and recorded the appropriate fit, orientation and form tolerances to ensure system functionality with “worse-case” stack up. All components were considered together in order to maintain design intent and functionality

Synchronous communication in PLM environments using annotated CAD models

The connection of resources, data, and knowledge through communication technology plays a vital role in current collaborative design methodologies and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, as these elements act as channels for information and meaning. Despite significant advances in the area of PLM, most communication tools are used as separate services that are disconnected from existing development environments. Consequently, during a communication session, the specific elements being discussed are usually not linked to the context of the discussion, which may result in important information getting lost or becoming difficult to access. In this paper, we present a method to add synchronous communication functionality to a PLM system based on annotated information embedded in the CAD model. 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