Small-world phenomenon: toward an analytical model for data exchange in Product Lifecycle Management

Product information is complex and discrete in terms of design methods and manufacturing processes, its long-term retention has for some time been a great challenge. This paper presents an initial research into the small-world phenomenon within the exchange of product information and the associating software tools. The objective is to construct a small-world-networking model and thereafter to produce useful findings for future reference in information organisation. It is expected that this model will be an essence for effective product data exchange, index and migration and for helping to deal with the key problems in long-term retention of engineering data.