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Título :

INFORMATION MODELS IN INTEGRATED MANUFACTURE

Resumo :

This paper is concerned with the advancement of integrated information systems to support team-based design and manufacture. While Product Models are an accepted means by which product information can be stored and shared in integrated product development systems, these models tend to focus on geometric representations and are not well understood when the broad range of information involved in product development is considered. The STEP community, who have been defining product structures for data exchange for well over a decade recognise the need for clearer frameworks from which to construct integrated information models (Ishikawa and Vaughan).

 The provision of quality information is critical to successful decision making and systems which aim to provide and interact with such information, must be able to support the many different views involved in the product development process (Cowan et al). This paper reports on research which has explored the manufacturing view of product development such that information and knowledge bases can be defined and used to support design for manufacture and manufacturing information generation.

 The aim of the research behind this paper has been to understand the roles of product and manufacturing models and the enhanced data structures they require in order that they can support design for manufacture and the generation of manufacturing information. Three manufacturing processes have been considered, machining,  assembly and injection moulding. An information and knowledge structure in terms of manufacturing resources, processes and strategies has been produced in line with a previously define general Manufacturing Model structure. How these structures relate to product model structures has been explored such that the combined information and knowledge models can be used to provide information to support design for manufacture decisions and manufacturing information generation.

 The Unified Modelling Language (UML) has been used to design an information framework and an object oriented database has been constructed and populated in order to explore and demonstrate the extent to which such an approach can be used to provide information support. The work shows how the combination of these information and knowledge models can support design for manufacture. It highlights the need for information models, other than a product model, to contain knowledge as well as information if quality information is to be offered to designers. It also shows the necessary interdependencies between the models. The relationship of these new information model structures to the work of ISO TC184/SC4 on industrial data standards is also highlighted.

 Databases of both to support both machining and assembly decisions have been constructed. Experimental software to aid decision across design for manufacture and process planning have been implemented to demonstrate the value of the information model approach in providing an integrating environment for product design and manufacture.

 More broadly based experiments have been performed in the area of injection moulding development. Here information structures to support the relationships between product design, mould design and mould manufacture have been explored and mechanisms developed to deal with the multiple views of the product which must be maintained throughout the product development process. Additional models to support historical design data have also been defined with a view to aiding design reuse in the new product development process.

 From the research we can draw the following conclusions:

  •  A combination of Information Models can provide an integrated information support environment for team-based design and global manufacture.

  • Multiple viewpoint product model structures are necessary to support the many aspects of design and manufacture.

  • To be of real value a Manufacturing Model must contain knowledge as well as information.

  • While Product and Manufacturing Models can be considered as separate models there are aspects of their information structures that are necessarily interdependent.

  • Other information/knowledge models, which support other aspects of the product life cycle, should also be linked to a central product model.

 REFERENCES:

Cowan F.S., Marston M., Mistree F. Design for excellence: a microworld, game-theoretic approach. Engineering Design Conference 2000. Pub. Professional Engineering Publishing Ltd. pp3-24

Ishikawa Y., Vaughan C.  SC4 Industrial Data Framework ISO STEP WG10 document N313 May 2000

Zhao J., Cheung W.M., Young R.I.M. The influence of manufacturing information models on product development systems. Engineering Design Conference 2000. Pub. Professional Engineering Publishing Ltd. pp763-770

KEYWORDS :

Product architecture, manufacturing facility models, information representation, integration, product design, manufacture

Autor :

Robert I. M. Young

Wolfson School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering - Loughborough University
Loughborough, Leicestershire - LE11 3RX, UK - Email: R.I.Young@lboro.ac.uk

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