Integrated product relationships management : a model to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning

The paper describes a novel approach to product relationships management in the context of concurrent engineering and product lifecycle management (PLM). Current industrial practices in product data management and manufacturing process management systems require better efficiency, flexibility, and sensitivity in managing product information at various levels of abstraction throughout its lifecycle. The aim of the proposed work is to manage vital yet complex and inherent product relationship information to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning. Indeed, the definition of the product with its assembly sequence requires the management and the understanding of the numerous product relationships, ensuring consistency between the product and its components. This main objective stresses the relational design paradigm by focusing on product relationships along its lifecycle. This paper gives the detailed description of the background and models which highlight the need for a more efficient PLM approach. The proposed theoretical approach is then described in detail. A separate paper will focus on the implementation of the proposed approach in a PLM-based application, and an in-depth case study to evaluate the implementation of the novel approach will also be given

Proposal of an Eco-design Framework based on a Design Education Perspective

AbstractIn order to overspread a successful sustainable design of products and services, it is necessary to educate engineering designers at university and along life. Although literature already provides eco-design processes, frameworks, methods and tools, it does not seem to take into consideration the need for a progressive education to eco-design practice. This research proposes a framework based on six fundamental dimensions fractioned into multiple levels: Choice and management of criteria; Modeling of life cycles; Management of the eco-design process; Levels of calling into question of products and services; Integration of industrial stakeholders; Integration of civil stakeholders. The eco-design framework is finally illustrated through its usefulness in describing tools and supporting eco-design education trajectories

Reverse logistics network design: A holistic life cycle approach

When aiming for a more sustainable world, enterprises such as aircraft and automobile industries are highly interested in lightweight components and solutions. Among these solutions are aluminum wrought alloys that offer high potentials for dramatic weight reduction of structural parts. Nevertheless, the production of virgin aluminum is highly energy consuming. Major energy reduction may be achieved if recycled aluminum is used. The aim of the European project SuPLight is to address new industrial models for sustainable lightweight solutions - with recycling in high-end structural components based on wrought alloys. This article addresses the issue of designing the reverse logistics network assuring the needed volume of recycled aluminum for the production of L-shaped front lower control arms for personal cars. It details the developed method and demonstrator for designing a reverse logistics network based on a life cycle assessment

Multiple viewpoint modelling framework enabling integrated product-process design

Nowadays, companies have to cope with numerous constraints at organisational and technical levels in order to improve their competitiveness edges such as productivity, efficiency, and flexibility. Integrated product-process design becomes more and more complex to manage because of increasingly customized products related to various stakeholders and concerns geographically distributed. It is still represents a huge challenge, especially in the early phases of product development process. In such a context, the management of information within integrated product-process design highlights needs in a consistent engineering model that enables product lifecycle management (PLM) integration. The paper presents a novel multiple viewpoint framework called multiple viewpoint assembly oriented, considering product design and assembly process domains in the broader context of concurrent engineering and PLM. The proposed framework describes the consistency, the propagation of information change, and mechanisms of views generation among the product lifecycle stages in order to support assembly oriented design philosophy. A new modelling language called System Modeling Language is used to describe the proposed model from a systems engineering point of view. The implementation of the model in a Web-service called PEGASUS as an application for PLM systems is describe

Ontology Building of Manufacturing Quality Knowledge for Design Decision Support

This work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 70472066, 70771091), the project of Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, China (No. Z142008A001), the NPU Foundation for Humanities, Social Science, and Management Science Development (No. RW200817), which are gratefully acknowledged.International audienceManufacturing knowledge on product quality is a kind of typical knowledge for supporting design decisions. In order to clearly identify and understand design decisions and their knowledge needs on manufacturing quality, an ontology of design decisions and manufacturing quality knowledge is developed. The methodology and tool used for the development of the proposed ontology is firstly introduced. The design decisions are organized along with five main design phases ranging from planning and task clarification, conceptual design, embodiment design to detail design. The knowledge needs of different design decisions, especially on the manufacturing quality knowledge, are analyzed through competition questions. Then, the ontology is built in the form of a hierarchical structure through the proposed methodology and ontology editor. Based on the developed ontology, further instances of the classes in the ontology can be filled as detailed knowledge, and can be accumulated for further construction of knowledge base

PLM-based approach for collaborative design between OEM and suppliers : case study of aeronautic industry.

To achieve different assembly operations on the aircraft structure, the aeronautic OEM needs to create and manage various fixture tools. To cope with these needs, the OEM begun to adopt the supplier integration into the tooling development process. This paper presents a conceptual PLM-based approach to support new business partnership of different suppliers. The new business partnership aims to improve the role of supplier in the different tasks of design, configuration and fabrication of the tooling. The use of the PLM concepts is proposed to enhance the collaboration between OEM and the equipment's suppliers. UML models are proposed to specify the structure of the PLM solution. These models describe the relation between the aircraft assembly project, and the tooling design process

Ingénierie système et modélisation hydroacoustique appliquées aux composants hydrauliques de puissance

Les moyens numériques pour la modélisation et la simulation dont la montée en puissance est allée de pair avec celle de l'ordinateur prennent une place de plus en plus importante dès le début du processus de développement du cycle en V d'un système ou d'un produit. L'utilisation de la simulation numérique dans le milieu industriel au cours du processus de développement peut avoir plusieurs intérêts tels que l'aide au dimensionnement d'un système, la vérification d'un dimensionnement, la comparaison entre plusieurs solutions mais aussi pour la phase de validation. En effet, elle permet un gain sur les coûts et les délais en permettant soit de s'affranchir de prototypes physiques soit en permettant d'atteindre les spécifications du système dès la réalisation du premier prototype physiques par l'utilisation de prototypes virtuels. L'utilisation des systèmes hydrauliques est largement répandue pour les engins mobiles Off-Road et On-Road pour sa réputation de technologie mature fournissant une puissance massique inégalable. Ce type de technologie possède néanmoins deux inconvénients identifiés qui sont l'efficacité énergétique et le bruit généré lors du fonctionnement. Dans ce contexte, notre travail s'oriente sur l'analyse, la modélisation et la simulation d'un ensemble de composants constituant une transmission hydraulique en prenant en compte les pulsations de débit et de pression (phénomènes hydroacoustiques). Ainsi, notre projet de recherche est focalisé sur la modélisation du bruit fluidique dans une transmission hydrostatique. Le but de cet article est d'effectuer un premier état de l'art des connaissances dans ce domaine ainsi que des perspectives de ces travaux avec les verrous à lever

Hydroacoustic modelling applied to hydraulic components: a test rig based experiment

The exponential increase in computation power has allowed the development of numerical simulation methods. Numerical simulation is widely used in the industries at all stages of the development process: the design aid, comparison between several solutions, validation. Virtual prototyping and optimization methods enable to meet requirements from the first physical prototype. Hydraulic power transmission, which is a mature technology providing an unrivalled specific power, is widespread for Off-Road and On-Road vehicles. Nevertheless, this kind of technology has two identified weaknesses which are energetic efficiency and noise generated during the operation. In this context, our research project focus on the analysis, the modelling and the simulation for a component set constituting a hydraulic transmission taking into account the flow and pressure ripples (hydroacoustic phenomena). Thus, our project deals with the fluid borne noise modelling applied to a hydrostatic transmission. From the state-of-the-art on hydroacoustic spread laws, this paper introduces an original method for the transition from frequency to temporal domain allowing an analysis of the unsteady behavior of hydraulic system. Then, this method is applied to characterize the hydroacoustic behavior of a rigid pipe using a simulation software. Finally, the experimental means used are presented, as well as a correlation between measurement and computation applied to a rigid pipe

Web-based Collaborative Engineering Support System: Applications in Mechanical Design and Structural Analysis

The diversity in software used to support collaborative design and concurrent engineering requires the implementation of new technologies in order to ensure the integration between the various activities of the product development process. Most of the time, companies can not afford to spend the time and the funds required to enhance their IT and software resources. This is often the case of small and medium companies. Nowadays, in mechanical design, the needs for product data sharing between Computer Aided Design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA) activities have been fairly increased even for small companies. This article aims at presenting Teamproject software, an asynchronous Web Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) oriented toward the sharing and viewing of 3D data (CAD and FEA) based on Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Regarding the collaborative design and concurrent engineering approaches, this software increases the information access and its availability to expert and non-expert users in a remote mode

Mise en oeuvre de la simulation numérique dans la conception intégrée de pompes hydrauliques

L'hydraulique de puissance joue un rôle majeur dans l'ensemble des systèmes mécaniques nécessitant des puissances massiques élevées. Son champ d'application s'étend à de nombreux domaines tels que les transports de biens et de personnes, les travaux publics, les machines agricoles ainsi que les machines-outils. L'augmentation du prix de l'énergie, les contraintes environnementales ainsi que les exigences du marché mondial imposent aux fabricants d'équipements hydrauliques de produire des composants toujours plus compétitifs et de plus en plus performants. Face à ces exigences l'innovation est primordiale. La recherche et le développement ayant pour vocation la mise en ?uvre de solutions nouvelles ainsi que la compréhension des phénomènes physiques constituent la véritable pierre angulaire de la discipline. Les générateurs de débits, plus particulièrement les pompes à pistons font l'objet de nombreuses études dans le but d'améliorer leurs performances. Ces dernières sont dédiées à la caractérisation de l'évolution des différents paramètres physiques influencés par les conditions de fonctionnement. Elles concernent également la modélisation de leurs comportements ainsi que l'optimisation de la conception de certains de ses composants. Le développement conventionnel d'une pompe fait appel à la méthode expérimentale essais-erreurs avec itérations successives longues et couteuses. L'intégration de la simulation numérique très en amont permet une optimisation des produits par prototypage virtuel tout en réduisant considérablement le coût et le temps de développement. Le travail mené se situe au carrefour de ces deux méthodes de conception dans le but d'améliorer les performances des pompes hydrauliques à pistons. Il s'agit d'observer de quelle façon est mise à profit l'utilisation de la simulation numérique pour la conception de produits nouveaux. A partir des connaissances relatives aux caractéristiques d'une pompe hydraulique à pistons obtenues lors d'essais physiques, l'objectif est de modéliser le comportement de cette dernière. Ce modèle permet d'identifier les paramètres qui influencent de manière plus ou moins significative les performances de la pompe étudiée. Ces derniers constituent le socle sur lequel un travail d'investigation pourra être mené. Ce travail s'inscrira dans un processus de simulations auquel les plans d'expériences numériques permettront d'aboutir aux configurations optimales d'un nouveau produit