Traceability and management of dispersed product knowledge during design and manufacturing

Product development processes comprise highly creative and knowledge-intensive tasks that involve extensive information exchange and communication among geographically distributed teams. Due to the geographical and institutional separation between the different systems involved in the product lifecycle, product knowledge sharing is becoming a key issue in the information systems of extended enterprises. This paper addresses the issue and challenges of product knowledge traceability during the product development. The aim of this research effort is to enhance the sharing and use of product knowledge acquired during the development process using traceability information.A standardized approach is proposed to trace and share product knowledge and key constructs to support traceability during the product development process are identified and formalized. This research effort is based on the premise that an important step towards achieving product knowledge sharing is providing traceability across various product knowledge elements that are used in product development phases, i.e. design and manufacturing. Two disjointed but complementary case studies illustrating the benefit of traceability are presented. The potential role of traceability is described, first to support the decision making process during engineering change management (ECM), and second to support product-oriented modelling for knowledge sharing and exchanging to meet the quality requirements. The proposed approach has been implemented using the MEGA Suite tool and applied to each of the case studies and could be integrated to PLM systems currently in use.     

A product lifecycle management methodology for supporting knowledge reuse in the consumer packaged goods domain

The present globalized market is forcing many companies to invest in new strategies and tools for supporting knowledge management. This aspect is becoming a key factor in the industrial competitiveness for the presence of extended enterprises that normally deal with huge data exchange and share processes. This scenario is due to the presence of partners geographically distributed over the entire globe, that participate in different steps of the product lifecycle (product development, maintenance and recycling). At present, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) seems to be the appropriate solution to support enterprises in this complex scenario, even though a real standardized approach for the implementation of knowledge sharing and management tools does not exist today. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to develop a knowledge management operative methodology able to support the formalization and the reuse of the enterprise expertise acquired while working on previous products. By focusing on consumer packaged goods enterprises and on the concept development phase (which is one of the most knowledge intensive phases of the whole product lifecycle), this research work has developed a new systematic methodology to support knowledge codification and knowledge management operations. The new methodology integrates the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and the Teoriya Resheniya Izobreatatelskikh Zadatch (TRIZ). Also, a case study on the problem of waste disposal has been conducted to validate the proposed methodology.     

Agile product line planning: A collaborative approach and a case study

Agile methods and product line engineering (PLE) have both proven successful in increasing customer satisfaction and decreasing time to market under certain conditions. Key characteristics of agile methods are lean and highly iterative development with a strong emphasis on stakeholder involvement. PLE leverages reuse through systematic approaches such as variability modeling or product derivation. Integrating agile approaches with product line engineering is an interesting proposition which – not surprisingly – entails several challenges: Product lines (PL) rely on complex plans and models to ensure their long-term evolution while agile methods emphasize simplicity and short-term value-creation for customers. When incorporating agility in product line engineering, it is thus essential to define carefully how agile principles can support particular PLE processes. For instance, the processes of defining and setting up a product line (domain engineering) and deriving products (application engineering) differ significantly in practices and focus with implications on the suitability of agile principles. This paper presents practical experiences of adopting agile principles in product line planning (a domain engineering activity). ThinkLets, i.e., collaborative practices from the area of collaboration engineering, are the building blocks of the presented approach as they codify agile principles such as stakeholder involvement, rapid feedback, or value-based prioritization. We discuss how our approach balances agility and the intrinsic needs of product line planning. A case study carried out with an industrial partner indicates that the approach is practicable, usable, and useful.     

软件产品线度量及应用研究

软件复用是提高软件生产力、软件质量的最有潜力的领域,软件产品线实质上是最高级别的软件复用.软件产品线对当前的软件密集性项目的管理提出了新的挑战,它需要管理者有超越单一产品的战略考虑,需要有组织性的预见、调查、规划和指导.一直以来软件过程管理和改进的重要思路是:在软件产品开发管理实践中应用软件度量技术,即通过分析软件过程和产品的相关属性,从而为管理决策实践提供客观的数据支持.针对软件产品线管理的一些关键目标,提出了一些重要的度量技术思路,分析了相应的度量指标,满足了软件产品线各层次管理角色的不同的信息需求.     

Risks to Effective Knowledge Sharing in Agile Software Teams: A Model for Assessing and Mitigating Risks

We present an empirically grounded and theoretically informed model for the assessment and mitigation of risks to effective knowledge sharing in agile development. The model is anchored in empirical insights from four agile projects across two software companies and in extant research on risk‐strategy analysis and knowledge sharing in software development. We develop the model as part of the long‐standing tradition of presenting risk management models dedicated to specific issues in software development and confirm its practical usefulness in one of the software companies studied. The model offers concepts and processes to assess a project's knowledge sharing risk profile and articulate an overall resolution strategy plan to mitigate the risks. The results highlight how different knowledge sharing risk management profiles can lead to different project performance outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of research opportunities that the results offer software development scholarship. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

Integration verteilter Produktmodelle durch Semantic-Web-Technologien

Product development is the most knowledge intensive business process in industry. Product models have a special role in supporting knowledge and information exchange. Interdisciplinary engineering processes and distributed tools generate distributed and heterogeneous product models with numerous internal dependencies and relationships. Neither Knowledge Management Systems nor Product Life Cycle Management Systems support the maintenance of these relationships sufficiently today. This paper suggests an approach to describe and manage internal relationships of the product model and to ensure its consistency by using Semantic Web technologies. Ontologies are applied to specify the relationships semantically.     

Knowledge reuse in manufacturability analysis

This paper describes a set of modelling guidelines for the improved reuse of manufacturing knowledge in decision support systems. The work draws on research into product and manufacturing knowledge models, and uses a case study based on a simplified jet engine combustion chamber casing to illustrate the proposed guidelines. The paper describes three principles of reuse, i.e., the separation of information from knowledge, the separation of product knowledge from manufacturing process knowledge, and the correct classification of manufacturing knowledge. Whilst the first two principles were found to be well established in the research literature, guidance on how to apply classification hierarchies for optimum reuse was found to be insufficient. The guidelines presented in this paper therefore provide improved guidance on how to classify manufacturing knowledge for optimum reuse.     

Design process and data models to support the design of sustainable remanufactured products

The need for increased levels of reuse and remanufacturing is driving the need for sustainable design of remanufactured products. It is acknowledged that design for remanufacturing benefits the environment. However, it seldom integrates eco-design approaches as it requires ‘life cycle thinking’ with closed-loop life cycles. The objective of this paper is to support eco-design of remanufactured products with design process and data models structuring the activities to be performed and providing the support required. We consider the development of two activities in particular: definition of the target, and environmental analysis. The first activity exploits the concept of RPP (Remanufacturable Product Profile), building on the criteria that are crucial for a successful remanufactured product. The second one exploits the life cycle brick concept that associates each product component with a specific life cycle and related environmental impacts. The models proposed are exploited in a case study concerning the design of remanufactured truck gearboxes.     

基于语义网的产品配置知识表达及检索

基于语义网的产品配置知识表达,通过产品配置本体为产品配置领域知识建模,有效地描述产品配置知识库,解决信息检索和信息集成在语义模糊、语义异构等难点上的困扰;强调配置知识的共享和重用;提供异构系统间数据共享和数据交换的途径．从知识本体的角度出发,详述构成产品配置本体的部件集、部件属性集、配置关系、评价规则集合．文中介绍了一个基于语义网的产品配置知识的原型系统SWB及其检索部分的体系结构,并给出其查询语言的巴克斯范式(BNF)描述．最后给出一个SWB上的查询实例．     

一种MAS构件知识复用动态演化模型

为提高企业的知识利用效率,增强企业创新能力,针对企业现有知识和系统,提出将企业知识管理的业务逻辑与知识处理事务分开,建立了基于多智能体和构件知识的知识复用模型,设计了知识管理业务逻辑的规则模型和智能体的活动行为模型,讨论了基于多智能体的规则协调模式,有效地支持知识的动态复用和知识使用过程的动态重组,增强知识管理系统的分布式处理能力和规模可扩展能力.在分布式构件库系统中,智能体通过协作联合完成任务要求.每个智能体拥有自己的知识库,并且具备学习能力,能够更新其知识库以保持执行结果的有效性.     

Representing variability in a family of MRI scanners

Promoting software reuse is probably the most promising approach to the cost‐effective development and evolution of quality software. An example of reuse is the successful adoption of software product families in industry. In a product family context, software architects anticipate product variation and design architectures that support product derivation in both space (multiple contexts) and time (changing contexts). Product derivation is based on the concept of variability: a single architecture and a set of components support a family of products. Modern software product families need to support increasing amounts of variability, leading to a situation where variability engineering becomes of primary concern. Variability is often introduced as an ‘add‐on’ to the system without taking the consequences for more than one lifecycle phase such as design or architecture into account. This paper (1) suggests a Variability Categorization and Classification Model (VCCM) for representing variability in the software lifecycle and (2) discusses a case study of a large‐scale software product family of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners developed by Philips Medical Systems. The study illustrates how variability can be made an integral part of system development at different levels of abstraction. VCCM has been applied to the scanner family as an analysis tool. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于功能本体的设计知识共享平台

为弥补制造业中设计知识在共享和重用方面的缺陷,提出一种基于功能本体的设计知识共享策略。使用功能本体实现现有产品结构到其功能的映射,利用功能分解树表达产品的设计原理。首先,介绍了功能本体的基本框架;然后,分析了功能分解树在产品设计中的作用;最后,通过实现一个家电领域设计知识共享平台,验证所提出的共享策略的可行性。实验结果表明,该策略能有效实现制造业设计知识的信息检索、共享和重用,可以缩短产品的开发周期。     

Prioritizing agile benefits and limitations in relation to practice usage

In recent years, there has been significant shift from rigid development (RD) toward agile. However, it has also been spotted that agile methodologies are hardly ever followed in their pure form. Hybrid processes as combinations of RD and agile practices emerge. In addition, agile adoption has been reported to result in both benefits and limitations. This exploratory study (a) identifies development models based on RD and agile practice usage by practitioners; (b) identifies agile practice adoption scenarios based on eliciting practice usage over time; (c) prioritizes agile benefits and limitations in relation to (a) and (b). Practitioners provided answers through a questionnaire. The development models are determined using hierarchical cluster analysis. The use of practices over time is captured through an interactive board with practices and time indication sliders. This study uses the extended hierarchical voting analysis framework to investigate benefit and limitation prioritization. Four types of development models and six adoption scenarios have been identified. Overall, 45 practitioners participated in the prioritization study. A common benefit among all models and adoption patterns is knowledge and learning, while high requirements on professional skills were perceived as the main limitation. Furthermore, significant variances in terms of benefits and limitations have been observed between models and adoption patterns. The most significant internal benefit categories from adopting agile are knowledge and learning, employee satisfaction, social skill development, and feedback and confidence. Professional skill-specific demands, scalability, and lack of suitability for specific product domains are the main limitations of agile practice usage. Having a balanced agile process allows to achieve a high number of benefits. With respect to adoption, a big bang transition from RD to agile leads to poor quality in comparison with the alternatives.     

A methodology for evolutionary product design

this paper describes a function-based approach for conceptual design support in the context of evolutionary product development. The main objective is to improve a designers productivity by the effective reuse of existing design information in design alternative identification, evaluation, and modification. An integrated evolutionary design methodology, EPD, is presented. The proposed methodology divides the whole process into three inter-related phases: information recovery, information management, and information reuse. The detailed steps in each phase are elaborated, and various techniques are employed to improve information reuse efficiency. A case study on commercial electrostatic air cleaner was used to illustrate the whole process of product evolutionary design. The proposed methodology will have a positive impact on the future development of the conceptual design support system.     

Decision-enabled dynamic process management for networked enterprises

Enterprises in today’s networked economy face numerous information management challenges, both from a process management perspective as well as a decision support perspective. While there have been significant relevant advances in the areas of business process management as well as decision sciences, several open research issues exist. In this paper, we highlight the following key challenges. First, current process modeling and management techniques lack in providing a seamless integration of decision models and tools in existing business processes, which is critical to achieve organizational objectives. Second, given the dynamic nature of business processes in networked enterprises, process management approaches that enable organizations to react to business process changes in an agile manner are required. Third, current state-of-the-art decision model management techniques are not particularly amenable to distributed settings in networked enterprises, which limits the sharing and reuse of models in different contexts, including their utility within managing business processes. In this paper, we present a framework for decision-enabled dynamic process management that addresses these challenges. The framework builds on computational formalisms, including the structured modeling paradigm for representing decision models, and hierarchical task networks from the artificial intelligence (AI) planning area for process modeling. Within the framework, interleaved process planning (modeling), execution and monitoring for dynamic process management throughout the process lifecycle is proposed. A service-oriented architecture combined with advances from the semantic Web field for model management support within business processes is proposed.     

A framework for collaboration moderator services to support knowledge based collaboration

Knowledge sharing is a major challenge for collaborative networks and is essential to improve the productivity and quality of decisions taken by both collaborative networks and their member organisations. A critical aspect of effective knowledge sharing within virtual organizations (VOs) is the identification of the most appropriate knowledge for reuse or exploitation in a particular context, as this requires efficient tools and mechanisms for its identification, sharing or transfer. Additionally, partners need to be aware of when knowledge needs to be shared, the implications of doing so and when their decisions are likely to affect other partners within the collaboration. Therefore, tools and methods are needed for identification, acquisition, maintenance and evolution of knowledge and to support effective knowledge sharing which includes awareness of possible consequences of actions and increased awareness of other partner’s needs during the collaboration. The Collaboration Moderator Services (CMS) are designed to address these issues relating to knowledge based collaboration by providing a set of functionalities to raise users’ awareness of opportunities, problem areas and lessons learnt from and during collaborations. This paper presents the system architecture and specifications of the CMS within the context of the SYNERGY system, whose purpose is to offer interoperable service utilities to help enterprises plan, setup and run complex knowledge collaborations. The CMS are designed to support both individual organizations and collaborations as a whole throughout the VO lifecycle and the different functionalities provided by CMS to achieve this are discussed in this paper.     

Integrating business and software development models

Developing the right products the right way is challenging, not least in software product development. It requires sound business decisions as well as good engineering practices. Various software development life-cycle models can be mapped to business decision models by mapping business decision gates and major development milestones. Two well-known life-cycle models have been mapped to the ABB Gate Model, a business decision model for product development projects that was developed to ensure that released products could be successfully deployed into the marketplace.