Product Based Interoperability–Approaches and Requirements (original) (raw)

Framework for interoperability of building product models in collaborative work environments

Collaborative work environments for CAE/CIC require enabling methods and techniques that can ensure the interoperability of building product models and the data exchange and sharing among a wide range of heterogeneous software tools, taking into account the scattered, multi-discipline nature of construction projects. In this paper we present the concept of an interopera-bility framework which meets such requirements through consistent treatment of: (1) a client-server based operational architecture, (2) a modelling architecture extending the proposed IFC project model of the IAI consortium, and (3) a set of knowledge-based interoperability methods including model mapping, consistency checking and object matching. The reported work is based on research results from the ESPRIT projects COMBI (1993-95) and ToCEE (1996-98).

A foundation for interoperability in next-generation product development systems

Computer-Aided Design, 2001

United States industry spends billions of dollars as a result of poor interoperability between computer-aided engineering software tools. While ongoing standards development efforts are attempting to address this problem in today's tools, the more signi®cant demand in nextgeneration tools will be for representations that allow information used or generated during various product development activities to feed forward and backward into others by way of direct electronic interchange. Although the next generation of tools has the potential for greatly increased bene®ts, there is also a potential for the cost of poor interoperability to multiply. The goal of this work is to develop representations of information that are unavailable in traditional computer-aided engineering tools to support the exchange of product information in a distributed product development environment. This paper develops a vision of next-generation product development systems and provides a core representation for product development information on which future systems can be built. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

An infrastructure for inter-organizational collaborative product development

Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Inter-organizational collaborative product development relies heavily on Internet-based technology. As heterogeneous computer environments are typically used in such cases, problems related with data sharing and work coordination at the global level are basic obstacles for widespread implementation of the concept of virtual engineering teams in global product development. In this paper, a software infrastructure is proposed to solve the addressed problems. An event-driven software component framework called the STEP Object Management Framework (SOMF) enables the sharing of common STEP-based product model data, manages collaborative and distributed workflows and provides interfaces to OMG compliant Product Data Management (PDM) systems and workflow management systems. The component framework is based on open standards (CORBA, STEP, Java) and permits a flexible configuration to meet the specific requirements of organizations involved in joint product development projects. 2. Problem Formulation and Requirements Specification Two or more groups of engineers collaborate to develop a product. They work in different locations using different systems (e.g., CAD/CAE/CAM systems) and computer platforms linked via the Internet (Fig. 1). They

Special Issue on Collaborative Engineering

Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering, 2006

Design of complex engineering systems is increasingly becoming a collaborative task among designers or design teams that are physically, geographically, and temporally distributed. The complexity of modern products means that a single designer or design team can no longer manage the complete product development effort. Developing products without sufficient expertise in a broad set of disciplines can result in extended product development cycles, higher development costs, and quality problems. On the other hand, ensuring comprehensive technical proficiency in a world where trends are toward more multidisciplinary design can become a costly undertaking for a company.

Towards distributed product data sharing environments — Progress so far and future challenges

Automation in Construction, 2007

Over the last two decades, there has a substantial body of research concerned with a more integrated use of IT in the design process in the construction industry and broader engineering sector. The main focus of this research has been on achieving integration via product data sharing and exchange. This paper reviews the main research efforts in product data sharing and exchange and highlights certain areas where more systematic research is required. In particular, it considers the distribution of the design data in an integrated environment as a basic requirement, reflecting the fragmented nature and adversarial behaviour that characterises the construction industry, and identifies the need for more systematic research in the development of distributed product data sharing design environments. The role of XML and Web Services in the development of such environments is highlighted. , G.Aouad@salford.ac.uk (G. Aouad), M.Kagioglou@salford.ac.uk (M. Kagioglou).

Design document management in networked product development using standard frameworks

Proc. of the 14th Int. Conf. on …, 2003

Several B2B standard frameworks have been developed to support inter-company information exchange. We study how using such frameworks can support design document management in networked inter-company product development processes. We develop a rough framework for comparing the B2B standard frameworks and analyse several of them with respect to the requirements extracted from a case study of networked product development. Based on the analysis, the RosettaNet standard seems the most suitable. We further define an architecture and design for a system based on RosettaNet to support the required design document management. Our preliminary experiences with the design and its implementation show that using RosettaNet for this purpose is a feasible approach. However, some of the relevant parts of RosettaNet are still under development, and the current standard does not support communicating all the necessary attribute information on design documents adequately.

Ontology-based interoperation model of collaborative product development

Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 2012

The reuse of existing systems is an important objective of HLA (High Level Architecture)-based collaborative product development systems. However, in order to reuse an existing system, its interoperation interface has to be modified to comply with the objective and interaction representations defined in a corresponding FOM (Federation Object Model). Such modifications imply added time and effort, which diminishes the efficiency of system reuse in collaborative product development. This paper presents a heavy-weighted ontology-based construction method for interoperation models to support the reuse of subsystems in various collaborative contexts. In this method ontologies are used to specify the semantics of object classes and interaction classes in subsystems in a formal and computer readable fashion. In doing so, a FCA (Formal Concept Analysis)-like construction method is introduced to establish the original interoperation ontology from scratch. An automatic transforming method from a SOM (Simulation Object Model) into interoperation ontology is also described to make it easy for existing HLA-based systems to adopt this approach. Then a consistency verification method is introduced to guarantee the consistency of the interoperation ontologies. A case study is used to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method. As a human-friendly modeling method, compared with existing interoperation modeling methods, the proposed method is more flexible, efficient and reliable.

A design environment for product knowledge management and data exchange

This paper reports on a distributed design environment under development for product knowledge management and information exchange. The system is able to use the company's existing base of knowledge and to push the manufacturing knowledge higher up into the design chain to reduce the need for costly and time consuming reworks and engineering changes. The design environment uses a knowledge based system Protégé and enables data/knowledge exchange through International Standards for Product Model Exchange (ISO STEP) and the Resource Description Framework.

An Architecture of Adaptive Product Data Communication System for Collaborative Design

Today, designers and engineers on collaborative design environments often work in parallel and independently using different tools distributed at separate locations. Due to unique characteristic of engineering design, interaction during product development is difficult to support. As the information and communication technologies advances, computer supported collaborative design (CSCD) becomes more promising. Nevertheless, a potential problem remains between the product design and manufacturing, which mainly lies on the geometric shape of products that exists inherent in mass-customization. Meanwhile, CAD/CAM technologies have their own authoring tools, which govern the use of independent language and format for expressing various features and geometry. This condition creates incompatibility and has significant impact to the product costs. This paper is to address the incompatibility problem by introducing an architecture of the adaptive product data communication system. The adapti...

A framework for sharing product information across enterprises

The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 2005

Collaborative product commerce (CPC) is a newly emerging technology to support inter-enterprise collaboration through the product life-cycle. From the point of view of information technology, CPC is a software technology to integrate products, processes and resources of different enterprises using web technologies. In this paper, we propose a framework for integrating product information across enterprises, which is being developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) as a part of a CPC project. The product metadata represented by an XML schema, which is compatible with the ISO STEP PDM (product Data Management) schema standard, is presented to semantically and schematically integrate distributed product information. Web services technologies are discussed to support the interoperability of application systems related to the product development, such as computer-aided design (CAD) and PDM, where most of these applications run in a distributed environment. Finally, we implement the framework to integrate distributed product information and application systems.