Product to process lifecycle management in assembly automation systems

Presently, the automotive industry is facing enormous pressure due to global competition and ever changing legislative, economic and customer demands. Product and process development in the automotive manufacturing industry is a challenging task for many reasons. Current product life cycle management (PLM) systems tend to be product-focussed. Though, information about processes and resources are there but mostly linked to the product. Process is an important aspect, especially in assembly automation systems that link products to their manufacturing resources. This paper presents a process-centric approach to improve PLM systems in large-scale manufacturing companies, especially in the powertrain sector of the automotive industry. The idea is to integrate the information related to key engineering chains i.e. products, processes and resources based upon PLM philosophy and shift the trend of product-focussed lifecycle management to process-focussed lifecycle management, the outcome of which is the Product, Process and Resource Lifecycle Management not PLM only

A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry

This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies

Reconciling Function- and Affordance-Based Design

Traditional engineering design methods are based on Simon\u27s (1969) use of the concept function, and as such collectively suffer from both theoretical and practical shortcomings. Researchers in the field of affordance-based design have borrowed from ecological psychology in an attempt to address the blind spots of function-based design, developing alternative ontologies and design processes. This dissertation presents function and affordance theory as both compatible and complimentary. We first present a hybrid approach to design for technology change, followed by a reconciliation and integration of function and affordance ontologies for use in design. We explore the integration of a standard function-based design method with an affordance-based design method, and demonstrate how affordance theory can guide the early application of function-based design. Finally, we discuss the practical and philosophical ramifications of embracing affordance theory\u27s roots in ecology and ecological psychology, and explore the insights and opportunities made possible by an ecological approach to engineering design. The primary contribution of this research is the development of an integrated ontology for describing and designing technological systems using both function- and affordance-based methods

Cost optimization in requirements management for space systems

2021 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.When producing complex space systems, the transformation of customer needs into a realized system includes the development of product requirements. The ability to generate and manage the requirements can either enable the overall system development or drive significant cost and schedule impacts. Assessing practices in the industry and publications, it is observed that there is a substantial amount of documented approaches to address requirement development and product verification, but only a limited amount of documented approaches for requirements management. A complex system can have tens of thousands of requirements across multiple levels of development which, if not well managed, can lead to hidden costs associated with missed requirements and product rework. With current space system projects being developed at a rapid pace using more cost constrained approaches such as fixed budgets, an investigation into more efficient processes, such as requirements management, can yield methods to enable successful, cost effective system development. To address the optimal approach of managing requirements for complex space systems, this dissertation assesses current practices for requirements management, evaluates various contributing factors towards optimization of project costs associated with this activity, and proposes an optimized requirements management process to utilize during the development of space systems. Four key areas of process control are identified for requirements management optimization on a project, including utilization of a data focused requirements management approach, development (and review) of requirements using a collaborative software application, ensuring the requirement set is a consolidated with an appropriate amount of requirements for the project, and evaluating when to officially levy requirements on the product developers based on requirement maturation stability. Multiple case studies are presented to evaluate if the proposed requirements management process yields improvement over traditional approaches, including a simulation of the current state and proposed requirements management approaches. Ultimately, usage of the proposed optimized set of processes is demonstrated to be a cost effective approach when compared against traditional processes that may adversely impact the development of new space systems