A Unified Information Model for Product Family Design Management

A flexible information model for systematic development and deployment of product families during all phases of the product realization process is crucial for product-oriented organizations. In this paper we propose a unified information model to capture, share, and organize product design contents, concepts, and contexts across different phases of the product realization process using a web ontology language (OWL) representation. Representing product families by preconceived common ontologies shows promise in promoting component sharing while facilitating search and exploration of design information over various phases and spanning multiple products in a family. Three distinct types of design information, namely, (1) customer needs, (2) product functions, and (3) product components captured during different phases of the product realization process, are considered in this paper to demonstrate the proposed information model. Product vector and function component mapping matrices along with the common ontologies are utilized for designer-initiated information exploration and aggregation. As a demonstration, six products from a family of power tools are represented in OWL DL (Description Logic) format, capturing distinct information needed during the various phases of product realization.Copyright © 2005 by ASME

[1]  Simon Szykman,et al.  A functional basis for engineering design: Reconciling and evolving previous efforts , 2002 .

[2]  Kevin Otto,et al.  Product Design: Techniques in Reverse Engineering and New Product Development , 2000 .

[3]  Kristin L. Wood,et al.  Development of a Functional Basis for Design , 2000 .

[4]  Steven J. Fenves,et al.  A foundation for interoperability in next-generation product development systems , 2001, Comput. Aided Des..

[5]  Wolfgang Beitz,et al.  Engineering Design: A Systematic Approach , 1984 .

[6]  Ram D. Sriram,et al.  An Information Modeling Framework to Support Design Databases and Repositories , 1997 .

[7]  Diego Calvanese,et al.  The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications , 2003, Description Logic Handbook.

[8]  David G. Ullman,et al.  The Mechanical Design Process , 1992 .

[9]  Diego Calvanese,et al.  The Description Logic Handbook , 2007 .

[10]  John R. Dixon,et al.  Engineering Design & Design for Manufacturing: A Structured Approach , 1999 .

[11]  Deborah L. McGuinness,et al.  Owl web ontology language guide , 2003 .

[12]  Deborah L. McGuinness,et al.  OWL Web ontology language overview , 2004 .

[13]  Steven J. Fenves,et al.  A Model for the Flow of Design Information in Product Development , 2000, Engineering with Computers.

[14]  Thomas R. Gruber,et al.  A translation approach to portable ontology specifications , 1993 .

[15]  Timothy W. Simpson,et al.  A Comparison of Commonality Indices for Product Family Design , 2004, DAC 2004.

[16]  Michael Denny.  Ontology Building: A Survey of Editing Tools , 2002 .

[17]  Haruo Ishikawa,et al.  Integrated Product and Process Modeling for Collaborative Design Environment , 2004, Concurr. Eng. Res. Appl..

[18]  Weiming Shen,et al.  A review of Internet-based product information sharing and visualization , 2004, Comput. Ind..

[19]  Ram D. Sriram,et al.  A web-based system for design artifact modeling , 2000 .

[20]  Simon Szykman,et al.  Enhancing Virtual Product Representations for Advanced Design Repository Systems , 2005, J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng..

[21]  Nam P. Suh,et al.  Axiomatic Design: Advances and Applications , 2001 .

[22]  Kristin L. Wood,et al.  ENUMERATING THE COMPONENT SPACE: FIRST STEPS TOWARD A DESIGN NAMING CONVENTION FOR MECHANICAL PARTS , 2003 .

[23]  Leo Obrst,et al.  The Semantic Web: A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services and Knowledge Management , 2003 .

[24]  Imre Horváth,et al.  Ontology-based modeling of product functionality and use part 2: considering use and unintended behavior , 2002 .

[25]  Thomas F. Stahovich,et al.  An Ontology of Mechanical Devices , 1998 .

[26]  Stefan Decker,et al.  Creating Semantic Web Contents with Protégé-2000 , 2001, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[27]  Timothy W. Simpson,et al.  Exploring Semantic Web Technologies for Product Family Modeling , 2004 .

[28]  Bernhard Ganter,et al.  Formal Concept Analysis: Mathematical Foundations , 1998 .

[29]  Timothy W. Simpson,et al.  A Methodology for Product Family Ontology Development Using Formal Concept Analysis and Web Ontology Language , 2006, J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng..

[30]  Thomas F. Stahovich,et al.  Generating Multiple New Designs from a Sketch , 1996, Artif. Intell..

[31]  Stellan Gedell,et al.  Platform Product Development: Product Model - A System Structure Composed of Configurable Components , 2001 .

[32]  Timothy W. Simpson,et al.  Product platform design and customization: Status and promise , 2004, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing.

[33]  Crispin Hales,et al.  Engineering design: a systematic approach , 1989 .

[34]  Samson W. Tu,et al.  Mapping domains to methods in support of reuse , 1994, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..