Product Lifecycle Management Systems Research Articles

Rules-based process mining to discover PLM system processes

The value of product lifecycle management systems (PLMS) is more and more recognised by companies and its use current has enormously increased. It is mainly used during the product design when different roles collaborate for sharing models, take review decisions, and approve or reject preliminary results. Often, companies have a general 'picture' about the processes involving PLMS (who performs an activity, when it is performed, what is done) but this knowledge can be reinforced, improved and modified using process mining. Here the knowledge is extracted from the event logs, and model-aware analytics are generated to evaluate the modelled, known and executed process. The business rules filter the logs and verify the impact on the process mining metrics to minimise the divergences between modelled and actual processes and improve the resulting quality metrics. The results help business users to identify lines of investigation for deviations from expected behaviour and propose improvement measures.

A visualization framework for product manufacturing data

Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) plays a vital role in complex product development. In order to make the system modeling processes consistent with the business processes of the industry, it is necessary to use the product lifecycle management (PLM) system to manage system models. In this paper a SysML-based domain specific meta-model is proposed to support a visualization framework that includes graphics and data synchronization, which enables PLM software to present the product manufacturing data and models under the practicing of MBSE. Product manufacturing process and data are described, and the allocation of resource is represented in the early design phase.

Functionality roadmap to define a configuration scope for implementing a PLM system

The main benefits related to product lifecycle management (PLM) are reduced costs and time-to-market, but different levels must be considered during PLM implementation. The acronym PLM requires a h...

Effectiveness of Engineering Service Organizations in Global Projects Execution

Possibilities to maximize the efficiency of Service Engineering Organizations involvement are evaluated. Highlighted the importance to consider several specific features of Engineering Service companies in order to maintain the high efficiency of the global Engineering Services model. Noted that building the global Engineering Services model stimulates the development of Product Lifecycle Management systems, which require maximum formalization of all processes, which include many components, and, therefore, we are talking about a complex system. The need to model such a complex system with a purpose to determine its optimal configuration is justified. It was assumed that the Systems approach can be used to build a functional model of the Engineering Service organization, and then the identification and evaluation of available alternatives will help to find the optimal configuration of the system. Solution to quickly assess the Key Performance Indicators of the Engineering Services being created by using a model that is based on the Systems approach is proposed. Determined that the System Engineering is the most known and useful among all methods of modelling the complex systems.

Technology responsible for sustainable manufacturing

"The emergence of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) concept, the development and consolidation of its methodological bases, reflects the company's concern to ensure the quality of environmental factors, as well as the obligations of governmental institutions to control the industrial pollution phenomenon. The ""loop closure"" of the product life cycle through recycling and reuse, with both environmental and economic benefits defines the model of a circular economy. The paper presents the opportunity to implement a PLM system, addressing the R & D activities of processes/products/technologies that take place within an RDI entity. "

PLM as a sequential round of the technological revolution

The fourth industrial revolution is actively developing in the world. Since 2011 it has become widespread. Affecting all areas of life activity, economy, which manifests itself in the qualitative reorganization of its mechanisms, creates new adapted management models, changes the nature of production processes. The digital revolution opens up new opportunities for using digital networks, agile production systems, and new business models for all stages of production. The faster the company makes this transition, the better its chances of succeeding and outperforming its competitors. Product lifecycle management (PLM) refers to the management of data and processes used in the design, engineering, manufacturing, sales, and service of a product across its entire lifecycle. The introduction of digital technologies occurs at all stages of the product lifecycle: product development, technology development, preparation and launch of production, product production, its operation and maintenance. PLM affects the ideology of creating a new product: to reduce the time to market and save resources, the system pushes to shift the labor intensity from the “production” stage to the “design” stage. The purpose of this study is to analyze product lifecycle management in agile management and to relate it to the current state of the Russian industrial development. Theoretical and practical aspects of this concept are given. The example of PLM implementation in the Russian industrial sector is presented. The Kalashnikov concern has built a product lifecycle management system. Today, the development of production of an industrial enterprise is impossible without a clear understanding of all stages of life cycle management of the product that it produces. Summarizing, PLM is offered as a promising concept for Russian economy.

Ontology-based solutions for interoperability among product lifecycle management systems: A systematic literature review

During recent years, globalization has had an impact on the competitive capacity of industries, forcing them to integrate their productive processes with other, geographically distributed, facilities. This requires the information systems that support such processes to interoperate. Significant attention has been paid to the development of ontology-based solutions, which are meant to tackle issues from inconsistency to semantic interoperability and knowledge reusability. This paper looks into how the available technology, models and ontology-based solutions might interact within the manufacturing industry environment to achieve semantic interoperability among industrial information systems. Through a systematic literature review, this paper has aimed to identify the most relevant elements to consider in the development of an ontology-based solution and how these solutions are being deployed in industry. The research analyzed 54 studies in alignment with the specific requirements of our research questions. The most relevant results show that ontology-based solutions can be set up using OWL as the ontology language, Protégé as the ontology modeling tool, Jena as the application programming interface to interact with the built ontology, and different standards from the International Organization for Standardization Technical Committee 184, Subcommittee 4 or 5, to get the foundational concepts, axioms, and relationships to develop the knowledge base. We believe that the findings of this study make an important contribution to practitioners and researchers as they provide useful information about different projects and choices involved in undertaking projects in the field of industrial ontology application.

Group decision support for product lifecycle management

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems support industrial organisations in managing their product portfolios and related data across all phases of the product lifecycle. PLM seeks to enhance an organisation's ability to manage its product development activities and support collaboration across organisational functions and business units, and between organisations. Effective decision-making is vital for the successful management of products over their lifecycle. However, decision-making is an under-researched area in PLM. We argue that decision-making theory and group decision support concepts can be brought to bear to enhance PLM decision-making processes. We present and justify a set of six principles to support decision-making in a PLM context. The paper highlights the need to consider and capture decisions as distinct units of PLM knowledge to support product lifecycle management. We derive a generic information flow and a group decision support structure for PLM decision-making that encapsulates the six principles. Three industrial cases are analysed to illustrate the application and value of the principles in supporting decision-making. The principles enable PLM decisions to be codified, recorded, and reviewed. Decision-making processes can be reused where appropriate. The principles can support future innovations that may affect PLM, such as ontological and semantic reasoning and Artificial Intelligence.

Experiencing the potential of closed-loop PLM systems enabled by Industrial Internet of Things

Due to increasing customization and complexity of products and shorter product lifecycles, companies need a more flexible and cost-effective product development as well as new business models to stay competitive. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems help to address this need, spanning from conceptualization to the end of a product’s life. While technologies to connect production and product data have been developed and described as “Industrial Internet of Things” (IIoT), most established Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems cannot efficiently process these data and implementing PLM systems successfully is both a technical and a business challenge. This contribution presents a closed-loop PLM system at the Digital Capability Center (DCC) Aachen that ensures visibility and traceability with a virtual single source of truth, and a corresponding capability building workshop. The capability building workshop is based on interviews and a survey assessing companies’ challenges with regard to PLM. It consists of practical, immersive exercises supported by theoretical foundations to help senior and middle management understand the benefits of IIoT-enabled PLM systems, the importance of connected IT-systems and systematic implementation strategies.

Approach to structure management and customer-related configuration in the product lifecycle in mechanical engineering

Complexity in the product and production process in mechanical and aerospace engineering leads to the existence of a variety of structures like engineering and manufacturing bills of materials. The manual or partly automated creation of these structures leads to redundant data and quality issues. This paper describes the approach of an integrated structure management based on a reference structure. The development of an integrated reference structure management approach aims to enhance the quality of a product in combination with concurrent complexity reduction. The reference structure is customer- or order-neutral; it is utilized as a basis for other structures. This paper presents a software system-neutral approach for the customer-related configuration of this structure resulting in e- and mBOM. The implementation of the method framework (selection of use cases) in a standard product lifecycle management (PLM) system is part of the research.

Analysis of Russian software supporting onboard systems development lifecycle in context of import substitution policy

Avionic industry in Russian Federation faces difficulties in organizing the reliable instrumental support of development processes. State-wide active direction on digitalization of the economy doesn’t facilitate the issue solving. The choice of software tools is an important component of success while developing complex certifiable software such as aircraft onboard systems. The same situation could be observed in other industries as well. Nowadays the Russian IT-market provides a sufficient amount of different software that can cover the development lifecycle processes of complex certifiable software for avionics in a varying degree. This article analyses the current situation on Russian software market and the impact of import substitution policy of Russian Federation on software developers and consumers – industrial enterprises. Details of regulation document DO-178C for onboard software development are considered to show the importance of correct choice of project’s instrumental landscape. Certain types of specialized software tools for development processes automating are considered. Authors identified the basic groups of tool functionality that provide support for the development lifecycle of onboard software. The Russian and foreign PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and PDM (Product Data Management) systems and other software were examined for compliance with the necessary functionality. For comparative analysis the method based on additive verification of software by criteria was proposed. Research results allowed authors to make a conclusion about current Russian software level in comparison with worldwide analogues. Also some prospects of Russian software further evolution have received justification based on results of this research. Recommendations for the directions of software development and completion are given. The analysis, presented in the article, can be useful for avionic and other industries enterprises which need to choose some software for support the development lifecycle processes in new and ongoing projects of complex systems development. Also specialists who are interested in the current state of Russian IT industry can find some valuable information in this article.

Principles of development of product lifecycle management system for threaded connections based on the Python programming language

The principles of the development of PLM-system for threaded connections of oil and gas equipment are described. In order to ensure efficiency, the PLM-system must be isomorphic to other complex systems and have their laws, in particular, the emergence and “requisite variety”. The proposed system belongs to the class of hybrid multi-agent intelligent systems that combine various methods of knowledge representation and decision making. The system contains a knowledge base with inference rules, an inference engine, a code editor, simulation models of threaded connections, the results of their simulations, and other components. The knowledge base contains facts, in which the factors that affect the reliability and durability of threaded connections, are connected by cause-effect relations “is the cause” and “is the effect”. Facts can have such properties as an information source, dependence of quantities, a simulation model, etc. The rules of inference allow you to get new facts from the knowledge base and simulation models. All system components or their software interfaces are developed in a high-level general-purpose programming language Python, which simplifies the implementation of the system and the integration of components with different types. In particular, any Python package can be easily connected to the system. Classes and individuals of ontology are declaratively described by Python classes and objects, attributes and relationships are Python-attributes. For easy editing, the system code is divided into parts, which are combined before execution.

Identification and ranking of the risk factors involved in PLM implementation

Risk is a threat to every activity or system due to uncertainty with each component. Uncertainty of a system rises as the number of components increases. While uncertain risk elements cannot be assessed deterministically, a probability measurement helps an organization to combat those threats. Introduction of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) concept in an organization has the potential to offer substantial benefits. However, there are multiple risks in implementing PLM systems, and adequate care must be taken during PLM initiatives to get the desired benefits. If there are lacunae in the management of a PLM initiative, the whole purpose of adopting PLM may be lost partially or totally. The risk assessment of PLM systems’ implementation is performed by employing integrated grey DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP) and grey TOPSIS techniques for the first time. By considering the category and attribute of each risk factor, this integrated model reveals the critical risk factors: an inappropriate choice of a PLM system, mismatch in required data formats, and inefficient resource estimation.

Accurate and Timely Ship Design Proposal Development Using Product Lifecycle Development

Commercial naval architecture firms and shipyards perform concept and solution development work (Pre-Contract work) at their own expense with no guarantee of success. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software is the first of two vital overlapping components of an enterprise IT environment, the other being Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP). Companies not using PLM, including links to an ERP system, for their Pre-Contract work, miss the opportunity to link system requirements to standardized and prior developed solutions. The consequence is higher estimated project cost than necessary, because margins are included in cost, weight, and delivery efforts without taking into account the reuse effect. While planning and implementing a PLM system is a long and sometimes challenging process, Shipbuilders can benefit from using PLM. With PLM implemented, a shipbuilder can take the next step by linking PLM to their ERP to further enhance their entire operation. An overpriced bid ultimately leads to a lost contract or even worse, to an over-budget project and late delivery. To be successful today and in the future, shipbuilders and naval architecture firms must adopt PLM in their enterprises.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS: THE ROLE OF IT-ENABLED PLM SYSTEMS FOR RELATIONAL, STRUCTURAL, AND NPD PERFORMANCE

Companies increasingly use digital product lifecycle management (PLM) systems with information technology (IT)-based workflow and product data management functions to assist new product development (NPD). However, empirical evidence on whether and how such digital transformation in PLM contributes to NPD performance is scarce. The objective of this paper is to fill this void. We use Assemblage Theory to develop a theoretical model that links the digital transformation in PLM to performance and focus on the extent to which IT-based data gathering and exchange occur in NPD. We carry out a quantitative survey among 216 key informants of manufacturing companies and use structural equation modelling on the resultant data to provide empirical evidence for our hypothesis. We find that the level of digital transformation in PLM positively influences structural and relational performance and, in effect, also enhances NPD performance. Our findings also show that organisational complexity positively moderates these relationships. For managers, our findings demonstrate the value of digital transformation for managing the NPD process, notably in larger, more complex organisations.

Association Analysis of Piping Materials of an Offshore Structure Using Big Data Technology

Various types of data are produced by the shipbuilding and offshore industry. As the number of ships and offshore structures that were built over time increased, an enormous amount of data, called big data, had to be handled. However, it is difficult to handle effectively such big data with the existing methodology for data storage and processing. Therefore, big data technology needs to be applied to the systems of shipyards, such as the product lifecycle management system. On the other hand, the construction of an offshore structure requires a lot of piping, and there are many materials as much as piping. For a shipyard that executes multiple projects at once, it is not easy to correlate so much piping material. A piping designer should check all materials based on his or her understanding of the design characteristics. However, depending on the maturity of the designer, it can be difficult to handle such large data manually; as a result, there can be errors in piping design. In this study, a big data framework applicable to the shipyard is proposed and used for the analysis. That is, the association analysis of piping materials of an offshore structure is performed based on the big data framework that can process a large amount of data to assist piping designers. As an application, after analyzing the material data for one offshore structure, the applicability of this study was evaluated through the results. We believe this study can help piping designers. 1. Introduction 1.1. Research background One of the fastest growing technologies in several industries is big data and its applications. Big data can be defined as a series of computer technologies that can store, process, and manage much more data than were handled before. From this next-generation technology and architecture, data can be easily gathered and analyzed. Big data is often characterized by three different words that start with "V" (Beyer 2011). The first "V" word is volume and it refers to a large volume of data. The next "V" word is velocity, referring to how fast the data processing is. Usually, it should be enough to obtain the result of the analysis in real time without any delay. Also, there are many types of processable data, which can also be unstructured; hence, the last "V" word stands for variety. Recently, two more words are used because we cannot define the characteristics of big data with only three words. One is "veracity"; another is "value." Veracity is for selecting high-quality data from all of it (Villanova University 2018) and value is the main reason why people use big data technology (Mauro et al. 2013). Table 1 describes the characteristics of big data briefly.

Methodology of Functional Design of Processes of the Product Lifecycle Management System

В статье рассматривается методология функционального проектирования процессов системы управления жизненным циклом изделия для производственных предприятий на примере автоматизированного рабочего места конструктора. Проводится анализ рабочего места конструктора путем иерархической методологии функционального моделирования IDEF0 с целью его последующей автоматизации. В качестве входных данных используются предварительные результаты технико-экономического обоснования, научно-исследовательской и опытно-конструкторской работы, а также патентных исследований и экспертная система контроля (технический, экономический, плановый и нормоконтроль). В качестве информационного обеспечения функциональной модели рабочего места конструктора является единая система конструкторской документации. На выходе функциональной модели автоматизированного рабочего места конструктора – документация для конструкторско-технологической подготовки производства. В основной части статьи приводится метод автоматизации узлов конструкторской подготовки производства с целью создания модели программного обеспечения для автоматизированного рабочего места с возможность добавления количественных показателей. Целью данной статьи является дополнить методологию функционального проектирования производственных систем на примере автоматизированного рабочего места конструктора путем постепенного построения иерархии с последующим машинным обучением. Представленная методология функционального проектирования имеет свойство к расширению и дополнению новыми качественными и количественными показателями.

A lattice-based approach for navigating design configuration spaces

Design configurations, such as Bills of Materials (BoMs), are indispensable parts of any product development process and integral to the design descriptions stored in proprietary Computer Aided Design and Product Lifecycle Management systems. Engineers use BoMs and other design configurations as lenses to repurpose design descriptions for specific purposes. For this reason, multiple BoMs typically occur in any given product development process. For example, an engineering BoM may be used to define a configuration that best supports a design activity whereas a manufacturing BoM may be used to define the configuration of parts that best supports a manufacturing process. Current practice for the definition of BoMs involves the use of indented parts lists and dendograms that are prone to error because it is easy to create discrepancies across BoMs that, in essence, are defined through collections of part identifiers such as names and part numbers. Such errors have a significant detrimental effect on the performance of product development processes by creating the need for rework, adding costs and increasing time to market.This paper introduces a design description capability that ensures consistency across BoMs for a given design. A boolean hypercube lattice is used to define a design configuration space that includes all possible configurations for a given design description. Valid operations within the space are governed by the mathematics of hypercube lattices. The design description capability is demonstrated through an early engineering design configuration software tool that offers significant benefits by ensuring consistency across the BoMs for a given design. The software uses and generates design descriptions that are exported from and imported to commercially available design systems through a standard (ISO 10303-214) interface format. In this way, potential for early impact on industry practice is high.

What are the Stumbling Blocks to Making Product Lifecycle Management Routine in Organizations?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) systems are increasingly expansive enterprise systems manufacturing firms used to help build their capabilities and competitive advantages. Adoption and implementation of an enterprise system does not ensure its organizational acceptance and routinization. We identify the bottlenecks for PLM institutionalization; these systems are becoming the norm for organizational operations and routines. We surveyed 207 executives to determine some critical barriers, potential stumbling blocks, to PLM routinization in daily organizational practices. We found that lack of information technology (IT) infrastructure, integration, and interoperability of PLM systems to be major stumbling blocks for PLM postimplementation routinization.

Investigating the Combination of Adaptive UIs and Adaptable UIs for Improving Usability and User Performance of Complex UIs

ABSTRACTAn Object-Oriented User Interface Customization (OOUIC) framework has been previously proposed as a systematic approach toward reducing the complexity and improving usability and user performance. The OOUIC suggests combining adaptive and adaptable User Interfaces (UIs). Adaptive UIs reduce complexity while adaptable UIs enable customization for specific needs. The objective of this paper is to assess the combination of adaptive and adaptable UIs for improving usability and user performance of complex UIs. Complex UIs are the original interfaces of a complex system. Adaptive UIs automatically tailor UIs to be relevant to a user role but fail to satisfy an individual’s unique needs. Adaptable UIs enable a user to adjust UIs to meet needs for achieving specific tasks but are hard to use. Combining these two techniques enables users to customize complex UIs more easily. This research can be applied directly to the design and redesign of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems. These systems have been consistently enhanced for their lack of usability. In this study complex UIs, adaptive UIs, adaptable UIs, and combination UIs were assessed by measuring 96 participants’ perceived usability, task time, and eye tracking data. Significant results were found on usability score (F (3, 189) = 12.14, p < .001), time spent (F (3, 189) = 63.40, p < .001), and fixation count (F (3, 189) = 39.72, p < .001), indicating that adaptive, adaptable, and combination UIs had better usability and user performance than complex UIs. The usability of combination UIs and adaptable UIs was better than adaptive UIs. Combining adaptive and adaptable UIs can facilitate users to simplify complex UIs.