Integration of FMS performance evaluation models using patterns for an information system design

The objective of our work is to create an information system able to integrate different view points concerning the design and the control of a Flexible Manufacturing System. Numerous methods based on generic reference frameworks have been proposed for the modeling of all the aspects of production systems. These models have to be instantiated in order to be applied to specific systems. The difficulties are then to integrate pre-existing models of the studied systems with those obtained by the instantiation of the generic reference framework.

The proposed approach tackles the problem from the information system point of view. A meta-modeling bottom-up approach is presented based on the notion of patterns in order to facilitate the integration step.

An example concerned with the performance evaluation and scheduling of a production system is presented to show how the product viewpoint can be built in order to be integrated later with other viewpoints.     

A spatiotemporal information management framework for product design and assembly process planning reconciliation

This paper introduces an innovative framework for product design and assembly process planning reconciliation. Nowadays, both product lifecycle phases are quasi concurrently performed in industry and this configuration has led to competitive gains in efficiency and flexibility by improving designers’ awareness and product quality. Despite these efforts, some limitations/barriers are still encountered regarding the lack of dynamical representation, information consistency and information flow continuity. It is due to the inherent nature of the information created and managed in both phases and the lack of interoperability between the related information systems. Product design and assembly process planning phases actually generate heterogeneous information, since the first one describes all information related to “what to be delivered” and the latter rationalises all information with regards to “how to be assembled”. In other words, the integration of assembly planning issue in product design requires reconciliation means with appropriate relationships of the architectural product definition in space with its assembly sequence in terms of time. Therefore, the main objective is to provide a spatiotemporal information management framework based on a strong semantic and logical foundation in product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, increasing therefore actors’ awareness, flexibility and efficiency with a better abstraction of the physical reality and appropriate information management procedures. A case study is presented to illustrate the relevance of the proposed framework and its hub-based implementation within PLM systems.     

Structure and spatial consistency of network-based space layouts for building and product design

Network-based space layouts are schematic models of whole spaces, subspaces, and related physical elements. They address diverse space modeling needs in building and product design. A schema (data model) for network-based space layouts is defined that is influenced by existing space schemas. Layout elements and selected spatial relations form a geometric network. The network is embedded in 3-space and facilitates analysis with graph and network algorithms. Spatial constraints on layout elements and spatial relations extend the schema to support spatial consistency checking. Spatially consistent layouts are required for reliable network analysis and desirable for layout modification operations. An operation is introduced that evaluates spatial constraints to detect and semi- or fully-automatically resolve spatial inconsistencies in a layout. A layout modeling system prototype that includes proof-of-concept implementations of the layout schema extended by spatial constraints and the inconsistency resolution operation is described. Layouts of a floor of an office building and a rack server cabinet have been modeled with the system prototype.     

Feature-based ontological framework for semantic interoperability in product development

An essential requirement in integrating tasks in product development is to have a seamless exchange of product information through the entire product lifecycle. A key challenge in the integration is the exchange of shape semantics in terms of understandable labels and representations. A unified taxonomy is proposed to represent, classify, and extract shape features. This taxonomy is built using the Domain-Independent Form Feature (DIFF) model as the representation of features. All the shape features in a product model are classified under three main classes, namely, volumetric features, deformation features and free-form surface features. Shape feature ontology is developed using the unified taxonomy, which brings the shape features under a single reasoning framework. One-to-many reasoning framework is presented for mapping semantically equivalent information (label and representation) of the feature to be exchanged to target applications, and the reconstruction of the shape model automatically in that target application. An algorithm has been developed to extract the semantics of shape features and construct the model in the target application. The algorithm developed has been tested for shape models taken from literature and test cases are selected based on variations of topology and geometry. Results of exchanging product information are presented and discussed. Finally, the limitations of the proposed method for exchanging product information are explained.     

A quality-time-cost-oriented strategy for product conceptualization

In general, product development companies aim to deliver products of optimal quality while incurring minimal cost in the shortest time possible. In this work, a quality-time-cost-oriented strategy (QTCOS) is proposed to facilitate product concept generation and selection. Firstly, general sorting is employed to elicit an initial product platform. The platform, constructed with a design space framework (DSF), serves as a base for generating a preliminary range of design options. Using the repertory grids elicitation method, designers contribute importance ratings with respect to a set of time and cost criteria for the range of design options. To account for trade-offs between cost and time related concerns, these ratings are employed to reduce the number of the derived design options, and thereby used as input features to a restricted coulomb energy (RCE) neural network. The RCE network function is applied to classify the set of design options into different patterns, i.e. cost-time-pairs. The classification results can subsequently serve as bases for the selection of preferred design options. A case study on wood golf club design is conducted to illustrate the proposed QTCOS.     

A systematic data-mining-based methodology for product family design and product configuration

Product family design and product configuration based on data mining technology is identified as an intelligent and automated means to improve the efficiency of product development. However, few of previous literatures have proposed systematic product family design method based on data mining technology. To make up for this deficiency, this research put forward a systematic data-mining-based method for product family design and product configuration. First, the customer requirement information and product engineering information in the historical order are formatted into structural data. Second, principal component analysis is performed on historical orders to extract the customers' differentiated needs. Third, association rule algorithm is introduced to mine the rules between differentiated needs and module instances in the historical orders, thus obtained the configuration knowledge between customer needs and product engineer. Forth, the mined rules are used to construct association rule-based classifier (CBA) that is employed to sort out the best product configuration schemes as popular product variants. Fifth, sequence alignment technique is employed to identify modules for popular product variants, so that the module instances are divided into optional, common and special module, respectively, thereby the product platform is generated based on common modules. Finally, according to new customer needs, the CBA classifier is used to recommend the best configuration schemes, and then popular product variants are configured based on the product platform. The feasibility of the proposed method is demonstrated by the product family design example of desktop computer hosts.     

基于组件的集成建模与智能优化软件平台设计

针对复杂工业生产过程对通用优化软件的迫切需求,基于组件技术设计开发了集成建模与智能优化软件平台（IMIOP）,实现了各种建模算法。通过多种模式集成,完成了对不同工业过程的建模和仿真,并在此基础上采用多种智能优化算法实施操作优化。该文介绍了IMIOP系统的工作流程,从组件设计的角度详细介绍了系统的总体构架和组件划分,以线性回归建模算法为例说明了COM组件设计方法。最后,通过运行实践验证了IMIOP系统的性能。     

Product relationships management enabler for concurrent engineering and product lifecycle management

The current competitive industrial context requires more flexible, intelligent and compact product lifecycles, especially in the product development process where several lifecycle issues have to be considered, so as to deliver lifecycle oriented products. This paper describes the application of a novel product relationships management approach, in the context of product lifecycle management (PLM), enabling concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning. Previous work has provided a foundation through a theoretical framework, enhanced by the paradigm of product relational design and management. This statement therefore highlights the concurrent and proactive aspect of assembly oriented design vision. Central to this approach is the establishment and implementation of a complex and multiple viewpoints of product development addressing various stakeholders design and assembly planning points of view. By establishing such comprehensive relationships and identifying related relationships among several lifecycle phases, it is then possible to undertake the product design and assembly phases concurrently. Specifically, the proposed work and its application enable the management of product relationship information at the interface of product-process data management techniques. Based on the theory, models and techniques such as described in previous work, the implementation of a new hub application called PEGASUS is then described. Also based on web service technology, PEGASUS can be considered as a mediator application and/or an enabler for PLM that externalises product relationships and enables the control of information flow with internal regulation procedures. The feasibility of the approach is justified and the associated benefits are reported with a mechanical assembly as a case study.     

Single users' affective responses models for product form design

This paper presents a neural network based approach to modeling consumers' affective responses for product form design. A theoretical framework for a single user's perception is developed. On the basis of this theoretical framework, a mathematical model which enables single users' responses to different products to be predicted was developed. The results obtained show that the mathematical models developed achieved highly accurate predictions.For the purpose of obtaining a global model various individual mathematical models were created, which were based on the opinions of users representing different groups of opinion. The results suggest that, under some conditions, the combined use of various models of individual users can perform as well as a single model generated on the basis of mean market responses.     

A knowledge-based object modeling advisor for developing quality object models

Object models or class diagrams are widely used for capturing information system requirements in terms of classes with attributes and operations, and relationships among those classes. Although numerous guidelines are available for object modeling as part of requirements modeling, developing quality object models has always been considered a challenging task, especially for novice systems analysts in business environments. This paper presents an approach that can be used to support the development of quality object models. The approach is implemented as a knowledge-based system extension to an open source CASE tool to offer recommendations for improving the quality of object models. The knowledge component of this system incorporates an ontology of quality problems that is based on a conceptual model quality framework commonly found in object models, the findings of related empirical studies, and a set of analysis patterns. The results obtained from an empirical evaluation of the prototype demonstrate the utility of this system, especially with respect to recommendations related to the model completeness aspect of semantic quality.     

A heuristic solution procedure for the dynamic lot sizing problem with remanufacturing and product recovery

Here we discuss the lot sizing problem of product returns and remanufacturing. Let us consider a forecast of demands and product returns over a finite planning horizon — the problem is to determine an optimal production plan. This consists of either manufacturing new products or remanufacturing returned units, and in this way meets both demands at minimum costs. The costs of course are the fixed set-up expenses associated with manufacturing and/or remanufacturing lots and also the inventory holding costs of stocks kept on hand.In addition to showing that a general instance of this problem is NP-Hard, we develop an alternative mixed-integer model formulation for this problem and contrast it to the formulation commonly used in the literature. We show that when integrality constraints are relaxed, our formulation obtains better bounds. Our formulation incorporates the fact that every optimal solution can be decomposed into a series of well-structured blocks with distinct patterns in the way in which set-ups for manufacturing and remanufacturing occur. We then construct a dynamic programming based heuristic that exploits the block structure of the optimal solution. We also propose some improvement schemes as well. Finally, our numerical testing shows that the heuristic performs very well as intended.     

Evolution support mechanisms for software product line process

Software product family process evolution needs specific support for incremental change. Product line process evolution involves in addition to identifying new requirements the building of a meta-process describing the migration from the old process to the new one. This paper presents basic mechanisms to support software product line process evolution. These mechanisms share four strategies - change identification, change impact, change propagation, and change validation. It also examines three kinds of evolution processes - architecture, product line, and product. In addition, change management mechanisms are identified. Specifically we propose support mechanisms for static local entity evolution and complex entity evolution including transient evolution process. An evolution model prototype based on dependency relationships structure of the various product line artifacts is developed.     

Multiple-view feature modelling for integral product development

To allow a designer to focus on the information that is relevant for a particular product development phase, is an important aspect of integral product development. Unlike current modelling systems, multiple-view feature modelling can adequately support this, by providing an own view on a product for each phase. Each view contains a feature model of the product specific for the corresponding phase. An approach to multiple-view feature modelling is presented that supports conceptual design, assembly design, part detail design and part manufacturing planning. It does not only provide views with form features to model single parts, as previous approaches to multiple-view feature modelling did, but also a view with conceptual features, to model the product configuration with functional components and interfaces between these components, and a view with assembly features, to model the connections between components. The general concept of this multiple-view feature modelling approach, the functionality of the four views, and the way the views are kept consistent, are described.     

Applying case-based reasoning for product configuration in mass customization environments

Product variation and customization is a trend in current market-oriented manufacturing environment. Companies produce products in order to satisfy customer's needs. In the customization environment, the R&D sector in an enterprise should be able to offer differentiation in product selection after they take the order. Such product differentiation should meet the requirement of cost and manufacturing procedure. In the light of this, how to generate an accurate bill of material (BOM) that meets the customer's needs and gets ready for the production is an important issue in the intensely competitive market.

The purpose of this study is to reduce effectively the time and cost of design under the premise to manufacture an accurate new product. In this study, the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) algorithm was used to construct the new BOM. Retrieving previous cases that resemble the current problem can save a lot of time in figuring out the problem and offer a correct direction for designers. When solving a new problem, CBR technique can quickly help generate a right BOM that fits the present situation.     

Survey on mechatronic engineering: A focus on design methods and product models

According to the principles of concurrent engineering and integrated design, engineers intend to develop a mechatronic system with a high level integration (functional and physical integrations) based on a well-organised design method. As a result, two main categories of issues have been pointed out: the process-based problems and the design data-related problems. Several approaches to overcome these issues have been put forward. To solve process-based problems, a dynamic perspective is generally used to present how collaboration can be improved during the mechatronic design. For design data-related problems, solutions generally come from product models and how to structure and store the data thanks to the functionality of data and documents management of Product Lifecycle Management systems. To be able to assess design methods and product models, some criteria are proposed in the paper and used to evaluate their added value on integrated design of mechatronic system. After this assessment, main outcomes which focus on the combination of design method and product model for improving the design of mechatronic system are finally discussed.     

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.