Workflow Activity Task Controller: an Approach to Distribute Knowledge and Information in Collaborative Product Development

This paper presents a theoretical approach to workflow process management using well established PDM functions for controlling knowledge and information to support collaborative product development processes within the WWW. The new methodology is called Workflow Activity Task Controller (WATC) that can securely distribute design and manufacturing knowledge to support process planning with information exchange during the early stages of the product development phases. Most specifically, WATC uses the methods described herein to link the workflow management of a PDM system with a knowledge-based system and a process planning system. In addition, this framework is flexible and adaptive and can be extended to adapt to a specific company’s needs. The objective and the intention of the development are to improve information flows, promote sharing of design and manufacturing knowledge and subsequently to maximise effectiveness of product development activities and task efficiency

Linking design and manufacturing domains via web-based and enterprise integration technologies

The manufacturing industry faces many challenges such as reducing time-to-market and cutting costs. In order to meet these increasing demands, effective methods are need to support the early product development stages by bridging the gap of communicating early design ideas and the evaluation of manufacturing performance. This paper introduces methods of linking design and manufacturing domains using disparate technologies. The combined technologies include knowledge management supporting for product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, aggregate process planning systems, workflow management and data exchange formats. A case study has been used to demonstrate the use of these technologies, illustrated by adding manufacturing knowledge to generate alternative early process plan which are in turn used by an ERP system to obtain and optimise a rough-cut capacity plan

A novel approach to collaborative product development in the medical-equipment industry

In this study, we summarise the requirements for collaborative product development based on our investigation of the differences in the resources and tools that are needed for the various stages of collaborative product development and the needs of system users during these various stages. We proposed a user-oriented approach of collaborative product development for medical equipment and designed a collaborative product development system with the required functionalities to satisfy different areas according to their roles and workflow. The system we developed can drastically simplify the original complex and dispersed process of product development for intelligent medical equipment, thereby allowing the project team to develop new medical-equipment products and promote interactions among the research and development staff, clinical specialists, and the test participants successfully, thereby resulting in a user-oriented collaborative product development process

Coordination approaches and systems - part I : a strategic perspective

This is the first part of a two-part paper presenting a fundamental review and summary of research of design coordination and cooperation technologies. The theme of this review is aimed at the research conducted within the decision management aspect of design coordination. The focus is therefore on the strategies involved in making decisions and how these strategies are used to satisfy design requirements. The paper reviews research within collaborative and coordinated design, project and workflow management, and, task and organization models. The research reviewed has attempted to identify fundamental coordination mechanisms from different domains, however it is concluded that domain independent mechanisms need to be augmented with domain specific mechanisms to facilitate coordination. Part II is a review of design coordination from an operational perspective

A study of BIM collaboration requirements and available features in existing model collaboration systems

Established collaboration practices in the construction industry are document centric and are challenged by the introduction of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Document management collaboration systems (e.g. Extranets) have significantly improved the document collaboration in recent years; however their capabilities for model collaboration are limited and do not support the complex requirements of BIM collaboration. The construction industry is responding to this situation by adopting emerging model collaboration systems (MCS), such as model servers, with the ability to exploit and reuse information directly from the models to extend the current intra-disciplinary collaboration towards integrated multi-disciplinary collaboration on models. The functions of existing MCSs have evolved from the manufacturing industry and there is no concrete study on how these functions correspond to the requirements of the construction industry, especially with BIM requirements. This research has conducted focus group sessions with major industry disciplines to explore the user requirements for BIM collaboration. The research results have been used to categorise and express the features of existing MCS which are then analysed in selected MCS from a user’s perspective. The potential of MCS and the match or gap in user requirements and available model collaboration features is discussed. This study concludes that model collaborative solutions for construction industry users are available in different capacities; however a comprehensive custom built solution is yet to be realized. The research results are useful for construction industry professionals, software developers and researchers involved in exploring collaborative solutions for the construction industry

Characterisation of collaborative decision making processes

This paper deals with the collaborative decision making induced or facilitated by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on decisional systems. After presenting the problematic, we analyse the collaborative decision making and define the concepts related to the conditions and forms of collaborative work. Then, we explain the mechanisms of collaborative decision making with the specifications and general conditions of collaboration using the modelling formalism of the GRAI method. Each specification associated to the reorganisation of the decisional system caused by the collaboration is set to the notion of decision-making centre. Finally, we apply this approach to the e-maintenance field, strongly penetrated by the ICTs, where collaborations are usual. We show that the identified specifications allow improving the definition and the management of collaboration in e-maintenance

An approach to control collaborative processes in PLM systems

Companies that collaborate within the product development processes need to implement an effective management of their collaborative activities. Despite the implementation of a PLM system, the collaborative activities are not efficient as it might be expected. This paper presents an analysis of the problems related to the collaborative work using a PLM system. From this analysis, we propose an approach for improving collaborative processes within a PLM system, based on monitoring indicators. This approach leads to identify and therefore to mitigate the brakes of the collaborative work

3D scanning, modelling and printing of ultra-thin nacreous shells from Jericho: a case study of small finds documentation in archaeology

This paper springs out from a collaborative project jointly carried out by the FabLab Saperi&Co and the Museum of Near East, Egypt and Mediterranean of Sapienza University of Rome focused at producing replicas of ultra-thin archeological finds with a sub-millimetric precision. The main technological challenge of this project was to produce models through 3D optical scanning (photogrammetry) and to print faithful replicas with additive manufacturing. The objects chosen for the trial were five extremely fragile and ultra-thin nacreous shells retrieved in Tell es-Sultan/ancient Jericho by the Italian-Palestinian Expedition in spring 2017, temporarily on exhibit in the Museum. The experiment proved to be successful, and the scanning, modeling and printing of the shells also allowed some observations on their possible uses in research and museum activities

VALIDATING COOPERATIVE SYSTEMS SIMULATION AND REMODELING FOR PUMP COVER DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE

In order to integrate the manufacturing systems in virtual environment some changes must be made in manufacturing systems architecture. To support this environment, the basic infrastructure for the enterprise must to consider two main modules: The Internal Module, that represents the autonomous unit of a particular company and includes the manufacturing system, the complete structure of the company information (databases, information system etc.) and all the decision making processes;virtual enterprise, manufacturing systems, remodeling, simulation, cooperative systems