A process-oriented approach to modeling the conceptual design of aircraft assembly lines

Abstract

The need to develop methods and software applications to support the design of assembly lines is academically and industrially acknowledged. This paper focuses on the conceptual design of aeronautical assembly lines. A model is proposed to represent the process to design an aerostructure assembly line at the conceptual design phase and the knowledge requirements to support such process. The conceptual design process is documented in an Integrated Definition for Function Modeling model and the knowledge model is documented in Unified Modeling Language. The model provides a starting point in the formalization of the assembly line conceptual design. The objective is to use such model for the development of a knowledge-based application prototype in an industrially used software system.