Manufacturing Information Model Research Articles

Model-based approach for the automatic inclusion of production considerations in the conceptual design of aircraft structures

Including production considerations in the early design stages of aircraft structures is challenging. Production information is mostly known by experts and rarely formally documented such that it can be effectively used during the design process. Producibility is mostly considered after completing the design, resulting in increased cost and development time due to the late discovery of production issues. This paper presents a new model, called the Manufacturing Information Model (MIM), which supports the automatic inclusion of production considerations into the design process. The MIM provides a single source of truth and a generic structure to capture and organize production-related information in a product system. Furthermore, it provides compatibility analyses to automatically warn for or exclude infeasible designs. Analysis tools use the information stored within the MIM to calculate the mass, costs, and production rate of the product. To show the functionalities of the MIM, it has been applied to the conceptual design of a wing box at a Tier 1 company. This use case shows how the MIM supports trade-off decisions, as it allows for the identification of trends and the ranking of different manufacturing concepts. Overall, the MIM provides a structured and formal approach to include production information in the conceptual design, improving the decision-making process.

Development of STEP AP224 Extractor for Interfacing Feature Based CAPP to STEP-NC (AP238)

Manufacturing features represent area of interest on the machinable surface of a part, which can provide a unique set of removable volumes from part. Feature description in standard for exchange of product (STEP) AP224 is an efficient neutral format for the development of feature based process planning. Process planning information of features can be converted to numerical control (NC) code to have complete manufacturing information of part. STEP-NC code provides an efficient manufacturing information model compared to G-M codes. In this work, an interface is developed for extraction of feature information available in AP224 (AIM) format and the ruled-based approach is used to select different process planning parameters. A graphical user interface (GUI) is developed for the interface for displaying features information as represented in AP224 file. Furthermore, the interface generates STEP-NC code in AP238 format. The developed interface has three modules. 1) Module I: Reading interface for STEP AP224 file and development of GUI. 2) Module II: Selection of feature based process planning parameters. 3) Module III: Writing interface for STEP-NC (AP238). The developed interface has been implemented in Java through Java standard data access interface (JSDAI™). The generated STEP-NC AP238 code for the test part has been successfully simulated on STEP-NC Machine™, an AP238 simulator. This article also provides an in-depth view of application interpreted model (AIM) representation format of STEP for AP224 and AP238.

Manufacturing Information Model for Design for Manufacturing

In the light of growing global competition, organizations around the world today are constantly under pressure to produce high-quality products at an economical price. The integration of design and manufacturing (DFM) activities into one common engineering effort has been recognized as a key strategy for survival and growth. In this paper, the importance of DFM and parts information model was introduced in today's manufacturing enterprise. It describes the classification of parts information model; namely: product models, process models and cost models, the main content and research status that the model contained. The author has proposed a semantic network description method of the manufacture parts information of and details its main content, which is the core of this paper.

Research on a process‐oriented integrated system driven by manufacturing information for the crank shaft of an agricultural diesel engine

A process‐oriented integrated information system driven by manufacturing information (MI) is built for the crank shaft 6L23H of an agricultural diesel engine, in view of manufacturing informatics. The research about the process‐oriented system just focuses on the process integration for geometric and non‐geometric information, the acquiring of MI model, the setup of object‐oriented engineering database, and the layout of logical inferential rules. The key to setting up the information system lies in the architecture of the MI model and its data structure during process planning. The transfer and operation of MI from information source to information acceptor is implemented by the interference and control of a cognition subject. The mass of data of manufacturing information processed by the system is stored in the object‐oriented engineering database. On the principle an inferential engine based on fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, an optimal scheme of process planning is obtained by the transfer and organisation of the mass of data. The system builds the decision rules for operation sequencing in a technique decision module according to the serial number of operation sequencing. The process‐oriented information system lays out several function modules such as input and description modules, drawing generator, and process card generator. The inferential engine based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation, named the Mycin algorithm, is applied to the process planning for the crank shaft. By the fuzzy function and fuzzy rule matrix, a transfer from the definite variables, such as dimension, intensity, thickness, and precision, to the fuzzy variables, involving factor weight set, rule set and process set, is implemented. Relative correct process is determined by the credibility of the manufacturing process. This inferential engine is a new methodology applying fuzzy conception to process planning. Safety factors and transition factors in planning are taken into account sufficiently. A serial of schemes are obtained by various thresholds. All these offer more choices for process planning, more widely and more reliably. An example of process planning for crank shaft in agricultural diesel engine verifies the developed methodology based on manufacturing information.

STEP-NC compliant process planning as an enabler for adaptive global manufacturing

Manufacturing firms are seeking more efficient methods of CNC manufacture. ISO14649 informally known as STEP-NC has been proposed as a high-level hierarchical manufacturing information model as a replacement for the low-level machining instructions of ISO6983 and RS274D. In this paper, the applicability of STEP-NC as an enabler for creating an adaptive global manufacturing system is examined. The overall framework of the system is presented followed by an outline of its information requirements. Suitability of STEP-NC to support each requirement is then studied with the necessary additions highlighted. Finally, a test component is used in conjunction with a prototype of the advanced global manufacturing system to demonstrate the applicability of the STEP-NC standard to support manufacturing information in such a system.

Structured approach to the design of a production data analysis facility Part 2: Implementation and evaluation

This paper reports research into a novel machining, inspection and analysis facility directed towards a small manufacturing enterprise. A major feature of the facility is the ability to produce rapid manufacturing control through feedback data generated from the seamless integration of machining, inspection and production data analysis activities in order to influence the regeneration of NC part programs. The major contribution of the paper explores the implementation and evaluation of a prototype production data analysis facility that consists of four constituents: machine and inspection planning, production code generation, comparative tolerance analysis, and manufacturing data analysis, the execution of which is supported by the use of order and manufacturing information models. An integrated multifunctional prototype production data analysis software tool has been developed for a limited number of manufacturing features for 2½D prismatic components. This prototype software tool has been tested and is critically reviewed with future work.

A standard manufacturing information model to support design for manufacturing in virtual enterprises

Manufacturing enterprises are being forced into greater collaboration with customers and suppliers in order to produce quality products in smaller batches, shorter lead times and with greater variety. Consequently, the design-for-manufacturing task must be conducted in these virtual and distributed enterprises across traditional organizational boundaries. This paper proposes the use of standard information models to support the product realization process. While extensive work has been performed in developing product data models little effort has been performed in developing a manufacturing model. The design-for-manufacturing stages are identified with their requisite information requirements. Different approaches used to model various aspects of manufacturing processes are reviewed and found inadequate for supporting the entire design-for-manufacturing task. The development of a standard manufacturing systems information model written in EXPRESS and based upon the modelling me thodology adhered to by standard for the exchange of product (STEP) is proposed to fill the void. Initial developments in this area are discussed, the model is illustrated with an example, and the potential benefits to manufacturing are reviewed.

Document-centered information systems to support reactive problem-solving in manufacturing

This paper develops and illustrates a methodology for building document-based information systems to support collaborative manufacturing problem-solving. The paper begins with an exploratory case study to understand the information requirements for reactive problem-solving in manufacturing. We focus on the communication mechanisms, decision-making processes, and implementation issues to address problems that arise due to materials shortage in an electronics assembly plant. Based upon observations from this case study, we describe a conceptual framework for computer-supported reactive problem-solving that emphasizes parsimony and generalizability. The framework consists of 4 layers—organizational process, computational process, data/information model, and network architecture—to link the necessary interactions between people, application systems, database structures, and hardware. To better support the collaborative needs of reactive problem-solving, we extend existing manufacturing information models to incorporate collaborative distributed hypermedia (or interlinked networks of structured multimedia documents), and provide details of a novel strategy to develop computer support for effective reactive problem-solving.

Methods and Tools for Modelling Manufacturing Information to Support Simultaneous Engineering

A novel approach to the development of a manufacturing information model, which forms part of a CAE system for simultaneous engineering is presented. The combined use of reference models (CIM-OSA and RM-ODP), an object oriented methodology (Booch), a function modelling method (IDEFO), an information modelling language (EXPRESS). and computer tools is reported. The importance of using reference models for the definition, design implementation of CAE systems is outlined. Modelling methodologies that effectively map the specification of the reference models are described and theeir usage is explained.