Advanced product development integration architecture: an out-of-box solution to support distributed production networks

This paper presents novel collaboration methods implemented using a centralized client/server product development integration architecture, and a decentralized peer-to-peer network for smaller and larger companies using open source solutions. The product development integration architecture has been developed for the integration of disparate technologies and software systems for the benefit of collaborative work teams in design and manufacturing. This will facilitate the communication of early design and product development within a distributed and collaborative environment. The novelty of this work is the introduction of an ‘out-of-box’ concept which provides a standard framework and deploys this utilizing a proprietary state-of-the-art product lifecycle management system (PLM). The term ‘out-of-box’ means to modify the product development and business processes to suit the technologies rather than vice versa. The key business benefits of adopting such an approach are a rapidly reconfigurable network and minimal requirements for software customization to avoid systems instability.     

Technology solutions for product lifecycle knowledge management: framework and a case study

Information technology has promoted our society gradually into knowledge economy from product economy. Value creation requires more and more knowledge and information to support enterprise activities. Knowledge management (KM) as an activity has already existed, and will make the organisation and individual have stronger competition strength, and make better decisions. In order to respond to the industrial trend towards knowledge management, this paper investigates and proposes a framework for product lifecycle knowledge management that utilises product maintenance data across the lifecycle of the product. A case presented in this paper is a maintenance knowledge service system to prove the framework method.     

Establishment of critical success factors for implementation of product lifecycle management systems

The present study has been undertaken with the purpose of investigating the critical success factors for the implementation of product lifecycle management (PLM) systems in manufacturing companies. Two exploratory case-based studies were conducted followed by a generalised study to establish the critical success factors for PLM systems’ implementation in manufacturing firms. Hybrid multi-criteria decision-making methods were employed to identify the causal factors and prioritise them for the implementation of PLM systems in an automotive and aerospace firm. The priority of the factors has also been confirmed by executives from broader PLM domain through a confirmatory t-test. The identified critical success factors can be utilised as directive guidelines by manufacturing organisations for the successful implementation of PLM systems. Most researchers have studied only the technological aspects of PLM, while very few have discussed the success factors to PLM implementation. The present study is highlighting PLM as a management concept, supporting PLM systems implementation in organisations, and discussing the critical success factors for effective PLM systems implementation.     

Application support to product variety management

Offering a large variety of products at competitive prices and reasonable delivery times is a complex managerial challenge that many companies have to address. Software vendors responded to this challenge by developing and proposing various solutions, such as product configuration (PC) systems, product data management (PDM) systems and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. The relative newness, complexity and mutual interdependencies among these systems make it difficult to understand how they—individually and as a whole—actually support a firm in managing its product variety. Precisely these complexities, ultimately, add to the risks of software selection, leading companies to make inconsistent choices or to implement the wrong systems. Starting from this theoretical and practical concern, the present paper provides a conceptualization of the essential functions of PC, PDM and CRM systems, discussing how these functions help a company to manage its product variety and how they relate to each other. This paper proposes that two core data structures of PC systems—namely the sales and technical configuration models—are essential elements of the information management infrastructure of a company offering a large variety of products, because they enable a number of important product variety management functions also present within PDM and CRM systems.     

Ontologies in the context of product lifecycle management: state of the art literature review

The use of ontologies in the context of product lifecycle management (PLM) is gaining importance and popularity, while at the same time it generates a lot of controversy in discussions within scientific and engineering communities. Yet, what is ontology? What challenges have been addressed so far? What role does ontology play? Do we really need ontology? These are the core questions this paper seeks to address. We propose to conduct a comprehensive study of the concept of Ontology firstly in its domain of origin, Philosophy, and secondly in information science. Based on the understanding of this concept and an in-depth analysis of the state of the art, seven key roles of ontology are defined. These roles serve as a framework describing the general state of research on the use of ontologies in the context of PLM.     

Managing product reliability in business processes ‘under pressure’

Product reliability is often seen as a product attribute. Models with different degree of sophistication analyze and predict the reliability of a product as a function of the internal structure (such as components and their relation). The practical relevance of these models, in relation with the (business) processes in which the related products are actually used, is not often addressed. Different types of reliability issues, however, can be relevant for products in different industrial contexts. This paper will present a classification model to describe different business processes, based on the degree of product innovation. It will also propose a taxonomy that can be used to classify different types of reliability problems. As this paper will demonstrate, only certain combinations of reliability problems are relevant for certain business processes. It will also show that, given certain technology trends, some combinations will become more relevant in the future. The final part of this paper will demonstrate that especially for these combinations many of the existing reliability analysis and prediction methods can be considered inadequate.     

全生命周期产品和过程模型集成技术研究

制造业的产品和过程集成技术体现在各个不同的层面,为此,研究了全生命周期产品和过程模型的集成技术。采用面向对象方法,构建全生命周期虚拟产品模型,对全生命周期的产品信息进行表达,并对全生命周期的涵义进行阐述。虚拟产品模型由实体对象和联系对象组成,它是一个动态模型,在产品全生命周期中不断进化。通过面向对象Petri网模型(OPN),描述产品全生命周期的各种过程。在虚拟产品模型和OPN模型的基础上重点讨论产品模型和过程模型的集成技术,并结合实例进行研究。产品和过程模型集成为产品信息的重用和追溯提供支持。     

Computerized product process: Measurement and continuous improvement

Product development has until recently been considered pure art instead of being a controllable process. However, the current competitive environment has forced companies to take a closer look in the way new products are being developed. A key element in this assessment is the development of a set of metrics, which describe the whole product development process. This article explores the data-based opportunities for continuous improvement in the product development process emerging alongside the increasing utilization of networked Information Technology (IT) applications. Based on data from information systems in the case-study companies, three different product process visualizations are presented. Each visualization is discussed both from the viewpoint of its explanatory power as well as its limitations.The results of the case-studies clearly indicate that the computerization of the engineering and design processes is generating new ways of measuring, understanding and improving product development. The appropriate measures combined with open communication and a learning environment can be used to create a cycle of continually improving the product development process.     

Manufacturing perspective of enterprise application integration: the state of the art review

Manufacturing enterprise today has become a matter of effective and efficient application of information technology and knowledge-based engineering. Several new manufacturing paradigms such as virtual enterprise (or extended enterprise) and mass customization have resulted in a highly distributed and autonomous manufacturing system. On the one hand, this will increase the competitiveness of a firm in terms of quickly meeting dynamic changes in the market; on the other hand, this will also increase the difficulty of integrating different information and knowledge systems residing in each member firm. This integration is also called enterprise application integration (EAI) (here the term application means information systems or software systems for supporting manufacturing or service activities). The methodology for EAI has been studied for at least a decade; but no satisfactory solution has been found from a practical viewpoint. EAI is becoming even more difficult due to the boom in various enterprise information and knowledge systems (and also to ever increasing competition in the technical software market). The study presented in this paper conducted a critical analysis of existing solutions to EAI. We consider EAI as having two generic issues: semantic integration and syntactic integration. The main problem of semantic integration reduces to the general problem of enterprise or business modelling. The main problem of syntactic integration reduces to the general problem of software architecture of enterprise applications which enables interoperability between any two EAs. While the first issue is studied in the manufacturing field, the second issue is studied in the computing engineering field. In this paper, both issues are put together under the context of EAI and studied. The result of the study, together with our experience with one Canadian manufacturing firm, has led to the identification of several issues to be addressed in the future. We also outline possible ways to approach these issues.     

Financial and product market integration: Responses of Japanese firms

Abstract and Key Results

Identification of the domain of opportunities for a market of resources for virtual enterprise integration

In the aggressive and competitive business environment of today, enterprises are expected to achieve competitive advantages in synergy, under the format of reconfigurable global networked structures, such as the virtual enterprise (VE) organizational model, integrating the optimal resources (products, operations, services) for each of the functions that the enterprise undertakes, in order to produce a product that meets the market requirements. The literature shows that several Internet-based tools can be used to enable some activities of VE integration. However, as we demonstrate, these do not support the reconfiguration dynamics required by this organizational model. Alternatively, the authors propose the market of resources (MR) as an environment to fully support VE integration, coping with its intrinsic requirement of high reconfigurability. Based on a demonstrator developed for the MR and on cost models traducing VE integration, one for the (traditional) Internet-based tools and the other for the MR, to support an analytical simulation, the paper validates the thesis that the traditional tools cannot support agility and dynamics, presenting the MR as a VE enabler, and identifying the domain of situations where the utilization of the MR reveals increased efficiency in terms of search and selection time and cost—designated as opportunities domain.     

Semantic annotations for semantic interoperability in a product lifecycle management context

The interoperability among a variety of systems, in or across manufacturing enterprises, has been widely accepted as one of the important factors that affect the efficiency of production. Many research works, related to the interoperability at different levels, have been carried out to tackle the information exchange, transformation, discovery and reuse. One of the main challenges in these research works is to overcome the semantic heterogeneity in the exchanged information between enterprise applications along the life cycle of a product. As a possible solution to support the semantic interoperability issue, semantic annotations have gained more and more attention. This paper identifies several existing drawbacks and proposes a formal semantic annotation approach to support the semantic enrichment of models in a product lifecycle management context.     

面向产品全生命周期的标准件库研究与实现

设计数据是制造企业产品生命周期管理中的源头数据,设计数据的标准化、规范化很大程度决定了整个PLM系统的应用效果。据此,研究了在设计过程中物料信息的产生及在PLM系统中的传递过程以及设计工具软件与PLM系统的单一数据源理论,提出了面向产品全生命周期管理的标准件库系统的构建与实现方法;以及实现设计工具软件与PLM系统协同应用的方法。基于该理论及方法在SOLIDWORKS的软件平台上开发实现了面向产品全生命周期的标准件库系统,所开发系统已在某制造企业的设计部门得到应用,效果明显。     

The integration of product and process models for design

A structural correspondence is demostrated between product and process models through the definition of generic units, called roles. Relationships and communication between roles are discussed as are the types of knowledge required for design. The blackboard and prototype frameworks are presented as implementation strategies that could integrate product and process models for design.     

A knowledge-centric CNC machine tool design and development process management framework

To cope with the increasingly competitive and demanding markets, CNC machine tool company needs a new form of development that focuses on two core competency factors: ‘process’ and ‘knowledge’. This study presents a knowledge-centric process management framework for the CNC machine tool design and development (D&D) with the integration of process and knowledge. Requirements for the framework are generated based primarily on the nature of the machine tool design practice. The proposed framework consists of process integration model, process simulation, process execution and knowledge objects management modules. Each of these modules is elaborated to support the knowledge-centric machine tool development process management. Finally, the prototype development is presented. Results of this study facilitate the knowledge integration in CNC machine tool D&D, and thus increase machine tool development capability, reduce development cycle time and cost, and ultimately speed up the effectiveness and ensure the excellent machine tool development.     

Standardised product development for technology integration of additive manufacturing

ABSTRACT

The implementation of additive manufacturing (AM) as an industrial production process poses extraordinary challenges to companies due to the far-reaching differences to conventional processes. In addition, there are hardly any standards and guidelines or methodical process models for the relatively new technologies that enable the reproducible and target-oriented use of AM. In order to solve this problem, five industrial companies together with the Paderborn University are researching as part of the ‘OptiAMix’ research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). This paper focuses on the development of an ideal process chain. Reference processes of the OptiAMix partners were analysed, norms and standards from conventional production were adapted and implemented and procedure models developed OptiAMix were integrated. The resulting AM Product Development Process was then applied and validated with the aid of a previously developed integration methodology using an example component from the automotive industry.     

Knowledge integration and sharing for complex product development

Product development is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive process that involves extensive information and knowledge exchange and sharing among geographically distributed teams and developers. How to best integrate such heterogeneous product knowledge has become an extremely important knowledge management (KM) subject associated with product development. Product development knowledge integration and sharing is becoming a key issue in the enterprise KM. This paper addresses the challenges of product development knowledge integration and sharing during product development. The aim of this research work effort is to develop a method to enhance the integration and sharing of product knowledge during the development phase. This study presents a systematic approach to developing knowledge integration and sharing for product development. The proposed approach includes the steps for designing a framework of product development knowledge sharing, developing representation model for product development knowledge, designing product development knowledge sharing process, designing product development knowledge integration ontology, developing knowledge integration and sharing method for product development based on ontology, and implementation of product development knowledge integration and sharing method. The proposed method could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge integration and sharing among product developers in the product development process.     

集成化并行系统过程管理模型与参数控制方法

应用Markov理论研究了集成化并行系统过程管理机制,分析了客源无限状态下的过程分布规律、生灭过程方程及过程管理模型。基于实际应用系统多参数、多情况的复杂性特征,引入了系统控制系数,提出了过程管理的三种类型动态概率分布规律及其算法,实现了系统的精准控制。通过应用实例介绍了多参数的控制方法、核心机制及其应用系统平台。     

A method for comparing flexibility performance for the lifecycle of manufacturing systems under capacity planning constraints

The objective of this work is to describe a method for comparing the flexibility performance of manufacturing systems, in an uncertain environment, under lifecycle considerations and capacity planning constraints. The manufacturing systems costs are estimated over a time horizon and for a large variety of possible market scenarios. In order for the lifecycle cost values to be comparable among different systems, their values are calculated with the use of a special purpose algorithm. Statistical analysis of the estimated cost values is then employed for assessing the flexibility of each manufacturing system. The method is applied in an industrial case for checking, also from a flexibility point of view, the investment on a production system, using real life industrial data.