Information Management in the Concurrent Design Process (original) (raw)

A concurrent engineering-oriented design database representation model

Computer-Aided Design, 2004

A concurrent engineering-oriented design database representation model (CE-DDRM) is introduced in this research for supporting various life-cycle aspects in concurrent design. In this model, concepts and behaviors of different design database modeling components, including entities, properties, relationships, tasks, and specifications, are defined at meta-class level. Design database is modeled at two different levels, class level and instance level, representing generic design libraries and special design cases, respectively. A Web-based system architecture is proposed to model distributed design database and allow team-members for different product development life-cycle aspects at different locations to access the design database. This newly introduced approach provides the foundation for developing the next generation CAD systems with concurrent engineering functions. q

Information interactions in data model driven design for manufacture

Globalization of Manufacturing in the Digital Communications Era of the 21st Century, 1998

This paper presents a novel view of a software environment that has the potential to provide manufacturing information support to product design in line with the aims of concurrent engineering. The arguments developed should have significant consequences for future computer aided engineering (CAE) systems development and support the continuing globalization in business development. The approach taken has at the centre of its philosophy the need to provide designers with high-quality information on which to base their decisions. The concept of an information supported product design environment is not new, but a range of issues related to information interactions has yet to be resolved. This paper explores the use of information models to support functional and manufacturing interactions in design as well as the issues that are raised in attempting to support multiple views in design for manufacture. The design of injection moulded products is used as the focus against which the ideas in the paper are explored.

A Theoretical Framework for Concurrent Integration of Cad with Downstream Applications

The paper presents a theoretical model for the integration of CAD with downstream activities of a product, in concurrent engineering environment, using STEP standard. A feature-based approach is used in the model since features are considered as the main factor in integration of CAD with downstream applications. Feature conversion is used to transform features from one application model to another. STEP standard is used for data exchange and information sharing between the multiple applications of a product development. To achieve the design of a product to be easy for manufacturing and assembly, and at the same time be cost-effective, Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA), the most common and popular DFX tools are mentioned. Using the model, the designer may design products using concurrent engineering philosophy, so that possible design errors can be foreseen and thus corrected in the early design stage. As a result, the total cost and time for developing a product will be significantly reduced. Future work will include the implementation of the framework to a real life problem. This paper presents a new theoretical model for the integration of CAD with downstream applications of a product, in concurrent engineering environment, using STEP as a standard.

Design Database Modeling for the Future CAD Systems

To develop the future CAD systems with concurrent engineering functions, a new CAD model, called Concurrent Engineering-oriented Design Database Representation Model (CE-DDRM), is introduced in this research for supporting various lifecycle aspects in concurrent design. In this model, concepts and behaviors of different design database modeling components, including entities, properties, relationships, tasks, and specifications, are defined at meta-class level. Design database is modeled at two different levels, class level and instance level, representing generic design libraries and special design cases, respectively.

A step toward STEP-compatible engineering data management: the data models of product structure and engineering changes

Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 1998

In an iterative design process, there is a large amount of engineering data to be processed. Well-managed engineering data can ensure the competitiveness of companies in the competitive market. It has been recognized that a product data model is the basis for establishing engineering database. To fully support the complete product data representation in its life cycle, an international product data representation and exchange standard, STEP, is applied to model the representation of a product. In this paper, the architecture of an engineering data management (EDM) system is described, which consists of an integrated product database. There are six STEP-compatible data models constructed to demonstrate the integratibility of EDM system using common data modeling format. These data models are product definition, product structure, shape representation, engineering change, approval, and production scheduling. These data models are defined according to the integrated resources of STEP/ISO 10303 (Parts 41-44), which support a complete product information representation and a standard data format. Thus, application systems, such as CAD/CAM and MRP systems, can interact with the EDM system by accessing the database based on the STEP data exchange standard.

Manufacturing information interactions in data model driven design

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 1999

This paper presents a novel view of a software environment that has the potential to provide manufacturing information support to product design in line with the aims of concurrent engineering. The arguments developed should have significant consequences for future computer aided engineering (CAE) systems development and support the continuing globalization in business development. The approach taken has at the centre of its philosophy the need to provide designers with high-quality information on which to base their decisions. The concept of an information supported product design environment is not new, but a range of issues related to information interactions has yet to be resolved. This paper explores the use of information models to support functional and manufacturing interactions in design as well as the issues that are raised in attempting to support multiple views in design for manufacture. The design of injection moulded products is used as the focus against which the ideas in the paper are explored.

Assisting design for manufacture using the data model driven approach

Proceedings of the I MECH E Part B Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 2001

The data model driven approach argues that computer aided engineering systems should be based on information data models in order to properly support the concurrent design of products. These models are the foundation for database representations of products and factories, and enable information sharing across unlinked software applications that address dierent stages of the product life cycle. This paper presents a product data model capable of capturing product life cycle information, and in particular its utilization for representing manufacturing information is described. A manufacturing data model that depicts the capabilities of manufacturing cells in terms of their processes and resources is also introduced. The potential beneĀ®ts of using these data models to support design for manufacture are shown through a case study. The case study includes implementation of the models, their utilization representing a product and three manufacturing facilities, and demonstrates their value in the redesign of a component.

Integration of Design Tools and Knowledge Capture into a CAD System: A Case Study

Concurrent Engineering, 2010

Conceptual design phase is partially supported by product lifecycle management/computer-aided design (PLM/CAD) systems causing discontinuity of the design information flow: customer needs -functional requirements -key characteristics -design parameters (DPs) -geometric DPs. Aiming to address this issue, it is proposed a knowledge-based approach is proposed to integrate quality function deployment, failure mode and effects analysis, and axiomatic design into a commercial PLM/CAD system. A case study, main subject of this article, was carried out to validate the proposed process, to evaluate, by a pilot development, how the commercial PLM/CAD modules and application programming interface could support the information flow, and based on the pilot scheme results to propose a full development framework.