13. An Internet-based Product Information Management System

Efficient management of product information that covers the entire life cycle is critical to the enhancement of corporate competitiveness. This chapter explores the design and development of a World Wide Web (WWW)-based PD information management system for a cross-nation manufacturing corporation that is headed by a holding company in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since product data are often managed in a distributed computing environment, CORBA is employed to ensure interoperability among distributed information objects. The WWW-based information management system discussed in this chapter includes two major components: 1. WWW-based product design and development distributed object oriented databases; 2. A WWW-based integrated system platform. Several submodels are introduced; these include an object oriented database structure, a WWW-based information management system, a WWW database tool, an information access tool, the incremental process planning method and an integrated software platform for the integration of CAD, CAPP, CAM and the WWW-based information management system.