A network perspective on the visualization and analysis of bill of materials

A Bill of Materials, or Product Structure, is a diagrams that lists all the components and parts required to produce one unit of a finished product, or end part. It is often represented as a tree structure with hierarchical relationships among different components and materials. In this paper, we introduce two procedures to convert single and multiple bills of materials into networks. These procedures allow us to leverage the potentialities of network analysis, providing new perspectives in terms of representation and extractable informative content, and thus gaining insights into the criticalities of parts and components. We conclude interpreting some network measures and their outcomes in terms of practical implications in industrial management, e.g. product functional design and, above all. variety reduction programs

Extending product lifecycle management for manufacturing knowledge sharing

This article was published in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B - Journal of Enginering Manufacture [© Sage] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0954405412461741Product lifecycle management provides a framework for information sharing that promotes various types of decisionmaking procedures. For product lifecycle management to advance towards knowledge-driven decision support, then this demands more than simply exchanging information. There is, therefore, a need to formally capture best practice through-life engineering knowledge that can be fed back across the product lifecycle. This article investigates the interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems concept. Interoperable manufacturing knowledge systems use an expressive ontological approach that drives the improved configuration of product lifecycle management systems for manufacturing knowledge sharing. An ontology of relevant core product lifecycle concepts is identified from which viewpoint-specific domains, such as design and manufacture, can be formalised. Essential ontology-based mechanisms are accommodated to support the verification and sharing of manufacturing knowledge across domains. The work has been experimentally assessed using an aerospace compressor disc design and manufacture example. While it has been demonstrated that the approach supports the representation of disparate design and manufacture perspectives as well as manufacturing knowledge feedback in a timely manner, areas for improvement have also been identified for future work