Improving CE with PDM

The concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE) centers around the management of information so that the right information will be at the right place at the right time and in the right format. Product Data Management (PDM) aims to support a CE way of working in product development processes. In specific situations, however, it is hard to estimate the contribution of a particular PDM package to CE. This paper presents a method to assess the contribution to CE of a PDM package in a specific situation. The method uses the concept of information quality to identify the gap with CE information quality requirements. The contribution of PDM to bridge this gap is estimated. Decisions on improvement actions are supported to improve readiness for PDM as well as to improve CE. The method has been tested in a real-life situation

Introduction to TIPS: a theory for creative design

A highly intriguing problem in combining artificial intelligence and engineering design is automation of the creative and innovative phases of the design process. This paper gives a brief introduction to the theory of inventive problem solving (TIPS) selected as a theoretical basis of the authors' research efforts in this field. The research is conducted in the Stevin Project of the Knowledge-Based System Group of the University of Twente (Enschede, The Netherlands) in cooperation with the Invention Machine Laboratory (Minsk, Belarus). This collaboration aims at developing a formal basis for the creation of an automated reasoning system to support creative engineering design

Redesign of technical systems

The paper describes a systematic approach to support the redesign process. Redesign is the adaptation of a technical system in order to meet new specifications. The approach presented is based on techniques developed in model-based diagnosis research. The essence of the approach is to find the part of the system which causes the discrepancy between a formal specification of the system to be designed and the description of the existing technical system. Furthermore, new specifications are generated, describing the new behaviour for the `faulty¿ part. These specifications guide the actual design of this part. Both the specification and design description are based on YMIR, an ontology for structuring engineering design knowledge

Developments and challenges in the European pork sector

This paper aims to give insight into the structure of and variety in the European pork system and suggests topics for further research of the European pork sector. It provides an overview of the different types of pork chains, their quality systems. governance structures and supporting technology. The paper further describes the concentration and up-scaling found in all links of the chain in most of the countries investigated. Moreover, a development towards chain-wide quality management systems and new collaborative structures in the various chains can be recognised. However, there is also a trend towards development of pork chains that aim at high-quality production for regional and niche markets, in particular in Southern European countries. Although the paper tries to give a European picture, it focuses specifically on five countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Spain and Hungary. The paper concludes with major bottlenecks and opportunities for European pork chains, after which new research issues are raised

Towards a Supply-Chain Instrument to Monitor an Information Technology Implementation

Based on improved information performance, agro-food companies and supply chains want to enhance their production processes. It creates the necessity to implement additional information technologies. The implementation of information technologies is, however, a complex task because of the interaction between technology, organization, and processes. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the development of a prototype of an “Implementation-monitoring Instrument” for project managers to help monitoring and managing an information-technology implementation towards required information performance. A design approach has been used to build the Instrument. The Instrument development is based on a literature review of a variety of theories explaining the mutual interaction between organization and technology. Keeping in mind the goal of the Instrument, the “information-quality literature” and “cost-benefit literature” is consulted as well. We aim to deliver a useful management Instrument, which is a step plan that helps chain actors to find the bottleneck of an information-performance failure. The Instrument allows for in-depth analysis of organizational and technical elements within processes that could be responsible for the information-performance failure. It is expected, in first instance, to be useful for the Dutch organic pork supply chain and other meat supply chains implementing new information technologies. In the future, the usage of this instrument will be prospectively tested and evaluated in a Dutch organic pork meat supply chain and retrospectively in two other agro-food supply chains