基于Internet的协同产品开发中基于Agent的工作流管理系统框架

基于Internet实现协同产品开发是虚拟制造技术和并行工程思想的融合,而实现它需要一个计算机系统提供有效的管理和支持。文章提出了一个新的框架,在分布式对象技术的基础上,充分发挥工作流技术在任务管理方面的优势和代理技术在知识表达、事务处理、智能性能方面的优势,以代理技术为框架基础,以工作流技术为核心,将这两种技术进行有机结合,使得工作流管理系统能够在Internet的环境下透明地管理协同产品开发中的工作流、资源和数据,从而达到支持协同产品开发的目的。     

Re-engineering of the design process for concurrent engineering

According to the requirements of concurrent engineering, three interdependency relationships (uncoupled relationship, coupled relationship and decoupled relationship) between design activities are presented in this paper. And the coupled relationship plays an important role in concurrent product design process. To represent the precedence relationships among design activities, a directed graph is used to describe the design process. And the interdependency relationship between activities is illustrated by a Design Structure Matrix which is the transpose of the accessibility matrix of the corresponding graph. Using the DSM, an algorithm of recognizing the coupled activities during the design process is presented. Moreover, an algorithm to figure out the order levels of activities during the design process is proposed. And both algorithms are illustrated with a die design example.     

A comprehensive investigation on the relationship between information technology investments and firm diversification

This paper empirically investigates the role played by information technology in diversified firms by building a demand function for IT investments. First by reviewing the management literature, we briefly examine different types of diversification, including related diversification, unrelated diversification, and geographic diversification. After carefully developing the theoretical arguments we empirically test the relationship between IT investments and different types of diversification. We find that in general diversified firms demand more investments in information technology, but the positive relationship may also depend on the extent to which firms diversify. Our findings show that firms with diversified structures that increase the complexities of coordination and control, e.g. unrelated diversification or extensive geographic diversification, would face a lesser demand for IT investments because of the increased use of financial controls instead of strategic controls by these firms. Overall, we find that information technology can serve as an effective coordination and control mechanism for moderate levels of diversification whereas non-IT mechanisms for coordination and control becomes more suitable in a context of higher levels of diversification. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Web service-oriented manufacturing resource applications for networked product development

Networked manufacturing enterprises need a wider support from external manufacturing resources. This paper proposes a promising service to use web-based extended manufacturing resources for product development. The system architecture and enabling techniques are presented. Manufacturing resources on the web are achieved through focused crawling and semantic web technologies. These resources are further utilized through web-based resource repositories such as part libraries. The major modules of web-based manufacturing resource service are encapsulated with web services. A case study of mould product development is presented, which promotes the networked collaborative design and manufacturing processes. Some preliminary results indicate the feasibility and scalability of web-based manufacturing resource services for networked manufacturing.     

An Industrial Case Study on Distributed Prioritisation in Market-Driven Requirements Engineering for Packaged Software

When developing packaged software, which is sold ‘off-the-shelf’ on a worldwide marketplace, it is essential to collect needs and opportunities from different market segments and use this information in the prioritisation of requirements for the next software release. This paper presents an industrial case study where a distributed prioritisation process is proposed, observed and evaluated. The stakeholders in the requirements prioritisation process include marketing offices distributed around the world. A major objective of the distributed prioritisation is to gather and highlight the differences and similarities in the requirement priorities of the different market segments. The evaluation through questionnaires shows that the stakeholders found the process useful. The paper also presents novel approaches to visualise the priority distribution among stakeholders, together with measures on disagreement and satisfaction. Product management found the proposed charts valuable as decision support when selecting requirements for the next release, as they revealed unforeseen differences among stakeholder priorities. Conclusions on stakeholder tactics are provided and issues of further research are identified, including ways of addressing identified challenges.     

基于Web的协同设计环境下产品数据管理系统模型研究

首先分析了基于Ｗeb的产品数据管理系统功能需求,结合网络应用特点及面向对象技术,提出一个以模块为核心来组织、管理,发布信息的分布式产品数据管理系统模型－－ＤＰＤＭ（Ｄistributed Product Data Management）,并分析了其体系结构,其目的是为设计者提供一个支持协同设计的开放式开发环境,以提高产品质量,缩短开发时间。     

Industry evaluation of the Requirements Abstraction Model

Software requirements are often formulated on different levels and hence they are difficult to compare to each other. To address this issue, a model that allows for placing requirements on different levels has been developed. The model supports both abstraction and refinement of requirements, and hence requirements can both be compared with each other and to product strategies. Comparison between requirements will allow for prioritization of requirements, which in many cases is impossible if the requirements are described on different abstraction levels. Comparison to product strategies will enable early and systematic acceptance or dismissal of requirements, minimizing the risk for overloading. This paper presents an industrial evaluation of the model. It has been evaluated in two different companies, and the experiences and findings are presented. It is concluded that the requirements abstraction model provides helpful improvements to the industrial requirements engineering process.

CAD系统集成中产品定义的核心——参数化特征造型技术

从CAD系统集成及产品定义的角度,对其关键技术--三维建模技术的传统方法进行论述分析,指出参数化特征造型技术是三维建模技术的发展主流。并以AutodeskMDT为应用实例,介绍了参数化特征造型技术目前的实际应用情况。     

Multi-objective decision-making methodology to create an optimal design chain partner combination

In today’s highly competitive business environment, many companies adopt the time-to-market strategy to obtain a competitive advantage. To reduce the time and cost of product development and to employ global product development resources, design chain partner evaluation and selection has become a crucial issue. Thus, establishing an optimal design chain partner combination has received significant attention because it has a far-reaching effect on the results of product development. With this perspective, this paper develops an integrated decision-making methodology to assist enterprises as they create an optimal design chain partner combination. First, this study establishes the framework and evaluation models of the criteria for the different roles of design chain partners, including system integration, functional module development and software and component development. Then, this paper applies a weight-restricted DEA (data envelopment analysis) approach to create the models for performance analysis of design chain partners to acquire the performance value of each candidate and select the efficient design chain partners. Moreover, this paper employs the multi-objective performance evaluation model proposed in this paper to analyze the synthesized performance of design chain combinations. Moreover, this research uses a multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) to search efficiently for the optimal design chain partner combination to minimize product development cost and time and maximize product reliability. Finally, this study employs a derivative new product development project for a digital TV box as a case study to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed methodology.