8 research outputs found
Methods for the capture of manufacture best practice in product lifecycle management
The capture of manufacturing best practice knowledge in product lifecycle management systems has significant potential to improve the quality of design decisions and minimise manufacturing problems during new product development. However, providing a reusable source of manufacturing best practice is difficult due to the complexity of the viewpoint relationships between products and the manufacturing processes and resources used to produce them. This paper discusses how best to organise manufacturing best practice knowledge, the relationships between elements of this knowledge plus their relationship to product information. The paper also explores the application of UML-2 as a system design tool which can model these relationships and hence support the reuse of system design models over time. The paper identifies a set of part family and feature libraries and, most significantly, the relationships between them, as a means of capturing best practice manufacturing knowledge and illustrates how these can be linked to manufacturing resource models and product information. Design for manufacture and machining best practice views are used in the paper to illustrate the concepts developed. An experimental knowledge based system has been developed and results generated using a power transmission shaft example
Manufacturing knowledge sharing in PLM: a progression towards the use of heavy weight ontologies
The drive to maximize the potential benefits of decision support systems continues to increase as industry is continually driven by the competitive needs of operating in dynamic global environments. The more extensive information support tools which are becoming available in the PLM world appear to have great potential but require a substantial overhead in their configuration. However, sharing information and knowledge in cross-disciplinary teams and across system and company boundaries is not straightforward and there is a clear need for more effective frameworks for information and knowledge sharing if new product development processes are to have effective ICT support. This paper presents a view of the current status of manufacturing information sharing using light-weight ontologies and goes on to discuss the potential for heavyweight ontological engineering approaches such as the Process Specification Language (PSL). It explains why such languages are needed and how they provide an important step towards process knowledge sharing. Machining examples are used to illustrate how PSL provides a rigorous basis for process knowledge sharing and subsequently to illustrate the value of linking foundation and domain ontologies to provide a basis for multi-context knowledge sharing
Enabling interoperable manufacturing knowledge sharing in PLM
Traditional approaches to integrated information sharing fall far short of meeting the requirements for the seamless sharing of knowledge to support enterprise activities through the product lifecycle. Recent advances in ontological approaches to manufacturing knowledge organisation is showing promise that a step change in knowledge sharing capability can be achieved from the application of rigorous logic based languages, combined with methods for modelling context relationships. This paper discusses the issues involved in providing an interoperable manufacturing knowledge sharing environment and proposes a manufacturing foundation ontology as a key requirement for interoperable manufacturing knowledge sharing
Towards the ontology-based consolidation of production-centric standards
Production-centric
international
standards
are
intended
to
serve
as
an
important
route
towards
information
sharing
across
manufacturing
decision
support
systems.
As
a
consequence
of
textual-based
definitions
of
concepts
acknowledged
within
these
standards,
their
inability
to
fully
interoperate
becomes
an
issue
especially
since
a
multitude
of
standards
are
required
to
cover
the
needs
of
extensive
domains
such
as
manufacturing
industries.
To
help
reinforce
the
current
understanding
to
support
the
consolidation
of
production-centric
standards
for
improved
information
sharing,
this
article
explores
the
specification
of
well-defined
core
concepts
which
can
be
used
as
a
basis
for
capturing
tailored
semantic
definitions.
The
potentials
of
two
heavyweight
ontological
approaches,
notably
Common
Logic
(CL)
and
the
Web
Ontology
Language
(OWL)
as
candidates
for
the
task,
are
also
exposed.
An
important
finding
regarding
these
two
methods
is
that
while
an
OWL-based
approach
shows
capabilities
towards
applications
which
may
require
flexible
hierarchies
of
concepts,
a
CL-based
method
represents
a
favoured
contender
for
scoped
and
facts-driven
manufacturing
applications
Extending product lifecycle management for manufacturing knowledge sharing
Product 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
Exploiting unified modelling language (UML) as a preliminary design tool for Common Logic-based ontologies in manufacturing
This paper proposes a particular method which utilises the unified modelling language (UML) as a design visualisation tool for modelling ontologies based on the Common Logic knowledge representation language. The use of this method will enable Common Logic ontological concepts to be more readily accessible to general engineers and provide a valuable ontology design aid. The method proposed is explored using the knowledge frame language (KFL) which provides constructs to facilitate ontology building and is built on Common Logic. The major constructs of KFL are briefly defined and a description of how each construct may be represented in UML is given. Examples are presented showing how the constructs may be modelled in UML and a Common Logic-based implementation founded on a UML design is illustrated and discussed. The manufacturing domain is utilised as an experimental basis for demonstrating the proposed method
Reference ontologies for manufacturing based ecosystems
There is a clear need for improved semantic communication to support information sharing across engineering groups and their systems in manufacturing industry. This work presents the progress towards the development of a reference ontology for a manufacturing eco-system, focusing particularly on the design and manufacture of aerospace parts. A case
study will be presented which illustrates how knowledge, captured from a manufacturing engineer's perspective, can be shared back into the product design process through the use of reference ontologies and appropriate mapping mechanisms
An exploration of foundation ontologies and verification methods for manufacturing knowledge sharing
This paper presents the current status of the Interoperable Manufacturing Knowledge Systems (IMKS) research project. It sets the work into the context of Model Driven Architectures, explores the value of a manufacturing foundation ontology in the context of the design and manufacture of machined components and illustrates potential routes to knowledge verification across domains. It argues for a foundation ontology combined with specialized domain ontologies as well as verification methods combined with query mechanisms. It goes on to illustrate how the level of effective knowledge sharing can be assessed across multiple product design and manufacturing domains