Product Lifecycle Management and the Industry of the Future

In many cases PLM implementations are halted in the first phases of larger projects. On average, implementation projects take longer, cost more than planned and not all goals are achieved despite modern software implementation methods like Agile or Scrum. This paper proposes another approach, in which the implementation method is inspired by product development methods in general and set based concurrent engineering in particular. The method is structured in five major steps alongside a method of knowledge management and reuse to support the implementation method. The five steps deal with scope and maturity level, requirements analysis, process mapping, rationale based solution selection and system consolidation. The element of knowledge reuse makes this method also accessible for small and medium sized companies, generally reluctant to conduct a fundamental process analysis before starting a software implementation. From there this knowledge can evolve towards a product configuration framework for PLM implementation. The paper outlines the method in theory and proposes further steps to investigate each step in more detailed research and case studies.

PLM adoption can be a source of competitiveness and sustainability for SMEs. In the other hand, the introduction of new ICT (Information and communication technologies) technologies, such PLM, is a complex process that involves challenging the existing organization, not only in terms of information flow but also the human resources management and OEM/Suppliers relationship level. As seen in literature review, there are a number of factors that facilitate the adoption of ICT technology, but we also identified a number of obstacles that will need to act as the adoption takes place. The paper focused on issues regarding the ICT adoption, especially PLM solutions by SMEs. Based on investigation, this paper proposes a mathematical model of PLM adoption.

One of the most exciting new capabilities in Smart Manufacturing (SM) and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) is the provisioning of manufacturing services as unbundled “apps or services”, which could be significantly more flexible and less expensive to use than the current generation of monolithic manufacturing applications. However, bundling and integrating heterogeneous services in the form of such apps or composite services is not a trivial job. There is a need for service vendors, cloud vendors, manufacturers, and other stakeholders to work collaboratively to simplify the effort to “mix-and-match” and compose the apps or services. In this regard, a workshop was organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Open Applications Group Inc. (OAGi), with the purpose to identify – through parallel sessions – technology and standard needs for improving interoperability and composability between services. The workshop was organized into five working session. This paper documents evidences gathered during the “Smart Manufacturing Systems Characterization” (SMSC) session, which aims at establishing a roadmap for a unified framework for assessing a manufacturer’s capability, maturity and readiness level to implement Smart Manufacturing. To that end, the technology maturity, information connectivity maturity, process maturity, organizational maturity, and personnel capability and maturity, have been identified as critical aspects for Smart Manufacturing adoptions. The workshop session culminated at providing a coherent model and method for assisting manufacturing companies in their journey to smart manufacturing realizations. This paper shows three different maturity models and tools that, thanks to their complementarity, enable one to reflect on the different perspectives required by SMSC. These models and tools are usable together for assessing a manufacturing company’s ability to initiate the digital transformation of its processes towards Smart Manufacturing. Therefore, based on their comparison, the ultimate purpose of the research is to come up with a set of coherent guidelines for assessing a manufacturing system and its management practices for identifying improvement opportunities and for recommending SM technologies and standards for adoption by manufacturers.

PLM and Design Automation (DA) are two interdependent and necessary approaches to increase the performance and efficiency of product development processes. Often, DA systems’ usability suffers due to a lack of integration in industrial business environments stemming from the independent consideration of PLM and DA. This article proposes a methodological and modeling framework for developing and deploying DA solutions within a global PLM approach. This framework supports the identification of DA potentials and the definition of the DA task building blocks to support DA task formalization by practitioners. The aim is to make the specification and development of DA solutions more efficient and aligned with the business requirements and with the existing digital environments. This framework combines the usage of two standardized modeling languages to make the captured knowledge re-usable across heterogeneous PLM and DA applications. An industrial case study demonstrating the applicability of the framework is introduced and discussed.

The implementation and utilization of a product lifecycle management (PLM) system, including the continuously adoption to business processes, methods and functions, implies massive challenges and outlay for organizations. Despite the importance of customizing in PLM projects, there are no adequate models to support organizations in their customizing process. This paper focuses on the customizing process of PLM systems considering not only the technical IT view, but also the organizational and the human context. In order to identify the state of the art in industrial practice eleven qualitative interviews have been conducted. The results and implications are presented in this paper. The findings comprise five dimensions and an additional generic PLM customizing process.

In order to reduce product development (PD) costs and duration, PD cycles are being accelerated in order to reduce the time to market and satisfy the end customer needs. Another key challenge in PD today, is product diversification in the technologies used, requiring improved collaboration amongst local and dispersed multi disciple PD teams. A main stream tool that aids and support engineers in PD to collaborate and share information/knowledge is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). This research explores the benefits and requirements of implementing a PLM system for a PD and manufacturing company within the automotive supply chain. This paper first provides a brief background of the subject area, followed by an explanation of the initial industrial investigation for the implementation of a PLM system, from which investigation the resulting conclusions and recommendations are presented as the building blocks of the implementation project.

Looking back at the past 20 years of experience in implementation and customization of PLM applications, it can be observed that the technological complexity of the systems has increased dramatically, but it does not match the growing complexity of the business. These observations are discussed in research as well as in the PLM blogger community.Vendors implement the new technologies primarily on the upper application levels, which produces on one side applications with the latest technology, that represent the latest research trends. On the other hand, on the lower levels of the architectures often use the same (old) technologies. The increasing number of integrated capabilities creates more diverse PLM-systems. And thus, creates a broader customer base. However, this brings the individual company and existing customers only a limited benefit. In contrast, systems increase in complexity, which is barely manageable - from the vendors and especially from the customer’s perspective. The result is little added value and at the high price of lost flexibility.This increase in system complexity, does not coincide with the increase of complexity of enterprises, which is mainly driven by growing organizational complexity (collaboration, decentralization) and increasing product complexity. Industrial companies require a deeper and better support of their existing processes and greater flexibility in adapting the tools to a changing business environment.These findings result from a structured review of more than 30 PLM projects in various industries, from SME’s to globally active large companies, 6 primary cases will be presented in this article.

A rising complexity of products, the ongoing digitization and an accelerated shift of market demands lead to a rapidly rising number of uncertainties in business and technology environments. The Internet of Everything (IoE) offers many potential opportunities and benefits to both service providers and customers. This paper aims to integrate knowledge from diverse fields into a comprehensive, practical approach for development and implementation of products and services using IoE technologies. The research focused especially on the needs and challenges of innovation and product managers who have to find ways to cope with rising uncertainties and the problem of increasingly complex business environments and digitalization. Therefore, this paper presents first learnings that guides practitioners through implementation of industrial IoE and its impact on new product development and management. It gives them guidance on how the companies’ IoE projects could be linked with its new product development initiatives.

Industrial internet, Industry 4.0 and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) can be collectively defined as industrial systems that integrate computational and physical capabilities of machines in order to provide advanced analytics and interact with humans. Industrial internet platforms allow the industrial companies to manage data, information and knowledge effectively within and between product lifecycle phases. Industrial internet platform’s openness plays a very important role in decision making related to platform selection for industrial companies. This paper focuses on various dimensions of openness and how it effects the strategy of platform owners or providers and how this strategy effects in short and long term to their end-users. In order to analyze the above Kaa IoT and PTC ThingWorx have been analyzed to understand the impact of openness dimensions on their strategy and business.

Competition in the aerospace manufacturing companies has led them to continuously improve the efficiency of their processes from the conceptual phase to the start of production and during operation phase, providing services to clients. PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is an end-to-end business solution which aims to provide an environment of information about the product and related processes available to the whole enterprise throughout the product’s lifecycle.Airbus designs and industrializes aircrafts using Concurrent Engineering methods since decades. The introduction of new PLM methods, procedures and tools, and the need to improve processes efficiency and reduce time-to-market, led Airbus to pursue the Collaborative Engineering method. Processes efficiency is also impacted by the variety of systems existing within Airbus. Interoperability rises as a solution to eliminate inefficiencies due to information exchange and transformations and it also provides a way to discover and reuse existing information.The ARIADNE project (Value chain: from iDMU to shopfloor documentation of aeronautical assemblies) was launched to support the industrialization process of an aerostructure by implementing the industrial Digital Mock-Up (iDMU) concept in a Collaborative Engineering framework. Interoperability becomes an important research workpackage in ARIADNE to exploit and reuse the information contained in the iDMU and to create the shop floor documentation. This paper presents the context, the conceptual approach, the methodology adopted and preliminary results of the project.

During the execution of manufacturing processes, problems arise and they have to be solved systematically to reach and exceed production targets. Normally, a production team analyzes and solves these problems, with the support of different methodologies and working directly on the shop floor. This paper presents an ontology-based approach to easily capture and reuse the knowledge generated in such a process of Manufacturing Problem Solving (MPS). The proposed ontology is used as basis in an ad-hoc MPS software system. The architecture of the MPS system is based on the integration of three technologies: PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), CBR (Case-Based Reasoning) and software agents. The PLM system is used as an automatic source of the problem context information. The CBR system is used as repository of cases and artificial intelligence tool to support the efficient reuse of knowledge during the resolution of new problems. A software agent platform allows developing an integrated prototype of an ad-hoc software system. This paper shows the architecture of the MPS system prototype.

In order to effectively deal with the Industry 4.0 paradigm, companies need accurate strategies to manage data collected on both the real world and its virtual counterpart. Proper information systems need to be implemented; Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) play a key role in this task. A primary issue is the mutual integration of such systems, with the aim of reducing time and cost for data management, as well as risks of errors and data redundancy. The present paper aims to present the results of a survey submitted to a set of Italian companies to measure their digital maturity and their proneness in implementing further information systems and in enabling their integration.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integrates all the phases a product goes through from inception to its disposal but generally, the entire process of the product development and manufacturing is time-consuming even with the advent of Cloud-Based Design and Manufacturing (CBDM). With enormous growth in Information Technology (IT) and extensive growth in cloud infrastructure the option of design and manufacturing within a cloud service is a viable option for future. This paper proposes a cloud based collaborative atmosphere with real-time interaction between the product development and the realization phases making the experience of design and manufacturing more efficient. A much-optimized data flow among various stages of a Product Lifecycle has also been proposed reducing the complexity of the overall cycle. A case study using Additive Manufacturing (AM) has also been demonstrated which proves the feasibility of the proposed methodology. The findings of this paper will aid the adoption of CBDM in PLM industrial activities with reduced overall cost. It also aims at providing a paradigm shift to the present design and manufacturing methodology through a real-time collaborative space.

The need for assembly parts and structures where the perfect fitting is not guaranteed due to manufacturing/assembly tolerances and/or the influence of several physical effects, i.e. gravity, is increasing constantly in different industrial sectors and in particular in the aerospace industry.Some techniques have been developed to deal with it. In the field of large aero structures, custom-made parts using reverse engineering techniques are used to machine parts whose geometry requires to be customized for each produced aircraft. In the field of aircraft shells, a technique based on the characteristics of non-rigid components that can be slightly deformed to clear geometrical conditions by controlled forces to strain within its stress limits.FITFLEX project exploit this last technique and was carried out by Airbus Group Innovations and Airbus. The objective is supporting the Airbus A350 XWB ramp-up and the current manual positioning process of the shell by force control, defining a measurement based assembly including a flexible best-fit system.The case subject of study on FITFLEX project is the A350 XWB rear fuselage, a 14 m by 5 m side shell positioning process.

This research aims to build an integrated framework to analyze the production flow efficiency (in terms of worker utilization) of the manual machine component assembly process. Problems related to spontaneous decision making among the workers in the manual assembly processes which cause inconsistency in the manufacturing speed, productivity, and quality. Often it is difficult to simulate all the possible situations to reduce such inconsistencies. This study aims to suggest an alternative way by introducing a prediction framework that is integrated with Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and a CART algorithm. M&S is used to create different scenarios out of the original layout for comparison. The CART algorithm is utilized to extract decision rules from the simulation results. These decision rules provide an understanding of patterns that affect workers’ utilization rate. The research goal is to adopt the rules on the simulation models, and to offer guidelines on improved alternatives for building simulation models of manual assembly process.

The use of PLM tools is widely spread in the aeronautical industry. Although scheduling and line balancing have remained aside these tools for long, they are being developed in the recent years. They need to tackle with complex resource constrained scheduling problems. In this work we present a simulation model we have developed for evaluating the robustness of a baseline scheduling for an aero structure assembly line. To begin with, we have identified and quantified the main causes of the disruptions. Then we have created a discrete event simulation model of the production line to take everything into consideration, and then run several experiments to evaluate different production planning obtained with the different methodologies and the impact of failures in the deliveries of finished products. Also, different scenarios in terms of failure quantity and typology have been studied.

Due to uncertainties in demand, some parts might go out of stock during the manufacturing process leading to backorders if an out-of-stock part is critical. In order to reduce additional cost it is important to optimize restocking processes. To do so, the concept of Part Criticality is used to rank and prioritize parts involved in the production of different products. In this paper, we develop an algorithm to get the Compound Global Index which represents the part criticality.

For each manufacturer, exact cost estimation is both a major priority and a challenge. This routine task is far from being optimized and depends on a very large number of parameters both strategic and technical. To help estimate a cost, applications have been developed but estimation is a task that would greatly benefit from the re-use of knowledge and data found in alphanumeric and geometric documents. Every manufacturing company has switched to numerical data with CAD, CAM, or ERP systems but one of the main drawbacks is the low usage of all these information that contain valuable knowledge and expertise. This paper describes the current state of cost estimation and proposes a new hybrid approach whose purpose is to maximize the re-use of information for machined parts. Our approach is based on a parameterized and customized cost model, an extractor of semantic descriptors in geometric documents (Model Based Definition files) and related textual documents and finally correlations to adjust the cost of machined parts.

Nowadays products extend their capabilities towards changing their configurations in order to cover multiple usage needs. They may be named transformable products and have not been taken into consideration in early design stages yet. In this paper, a proactive definition of the product is provided with transformation intrinsic properties. The formalization leads to an architecture. This enables developing a transformable product from two ordinary non-evolving objects. Different configurations and transformation processes have been set and implemented within a CAD tool to design a transformable product. A new paradigm is thus initiated, which will lead to efficient and dynamic design of transformable product.

This paper discusses identification and decomposition of empty spaces in Computer Aided Design (CAD) model for detecting spatial conflicts across multiple design domains. An Algorithm has been developed to identify empty spaces in CAD model and decompose it to a level, where it can be correctly associated with the connected domains, states and requirements. Knowledge capture and representation have been demonstrated with System Modelling Language (SysML) diagrams using SysML tools. SysML blocks have been introduced to define intended empty spaces, product states and design domain in SysML structure diagrams. Association of these blocks with neighboring parts, has also been discussed. A case study of heat sink assembly has been taken for Empty space modelling.

The main research purpose in this work was to propose strategies to reduce uncertainty, setbacks and development times involved into orthopedic implants design process. For research proposal, it was used as reference a manufacturing framework design, based on simulation environments tools and PLM strategies. In addition, this research was carried out to define a model of practices which facilitated process interoperability in osteosynthesis implant development. The model proposed focused on product definition stages and manufacturing as a workflow which defined stages, processes, activities and roles in production of implants with collaborative work scheme in PLM. As part of model execution, a case study was developed in a technology-based company which produces osteosynthesis implants. Finally, the research compared traditional processes in this company with the new model proposed, in order to determine obtained improvements. Finally, this comparison shows reduction in repetitive operations and uncertainty into the processes. Besides, quality of final design was improved like high precision and time reduction.

Cultural heritage encompasses various aspects of a nation’s history. Cultural heritage artifacts are considered as priceless items that need special care. Since the wide adoption of new digital technologies, documenting and storing cultural heritage assets became more affordable and reliable. These records are then used in several applications. Researchers saw the opportunity to use digital heritage recordings for long-term preservation. They are considering cultural heritage artifacts as products, and the history behind them as a product lifecycle. In this paper, we present the research progress in cultural heritage digital processing and preservation, highlighting the most impactful advances. Additionally, we present the CEPROQHA project which is a new approach aiming at achieving cost-effective acquisition and digital preservation for cultural heritage artifacts in Qatar.

Modelling and standardisation for railway infrastructure has attracted the attention from both academia and industry for a long time. Building Information modelling (BIM) derived from the area of building construction and is currently on the rise in infrastructure projects. However, in the domain of railway infrastructure, BIM is not advanced enough for productive use due to the lack of the railway specific requirements. In order to propose an effective modelling and standardisation technique for railway infrastructure, International Union of Railway (UIC) leads the RailTopoModel project. The RailTopoModel intends to be used in all business processes dealing with the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the railway infrastructure. The paper presents the details of RailTopoModel with one case study based on a railway network. The new dimension for the further development of RailTopoModel in the context of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is then presented. Finally, the implementation of the RailTopoModel and its new dimension into the PLM numerical platform is discussed.

Currently, organizations tend to reuse their past knowledge to make good decisions quickly and effectively and thus, to improve their business processes performance in terms of time, quality, efficiency, etc. Process mining techniques allow organizations to achieve this objective through process discovery. This paper develops a semi-automated approach that supports decision making by discovering decision rules from the past process executions. It identifies a ranking of the process patterns that satisfy the discovered decision rules and which are the most likely to be executed by a given user in a given context. The approach is applied on a supervision process of the gas network exploitation.

Universities around the world are teaching PLM following different strategies, at different degree levels and presenting this approach from different perspectives. This paper aims to provide preliminary results for a comprehensive review concerning the state of the art in PLM education. This contribution presents the design and analysis of a questionnaire that has been submitted to academics in Italy and France, and companies involved in a specific Master program on PLM. The main goal of the survey is to collect objective and quantitative data, as well as opinions and ideas gained from education expertise. The collected results enable to depict the state of the art of PLM education in Italian universities and to gain some insights concerning the French approach; the structure of the survey is validated for further worldwide submission.

The global manufacturing business is in the new era of industrial revolution based on digital data across the whole business processes. Internet of Things (IoT) is one of extremely high expected technologies. They contribute product lifecycle management (PLM) process, such as remote monitoring of field service and predictive quality reliability engineering design. However, it assumes significant difficulties for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) to launch rapidly IoT solution for their business efficiency or strategic differentiation. Thus, this paper proposes a pragmatic IoT Innovation workshop approach for such SMEs’ employees. This is as an industry-university collaboration PLM educational program utilizing both design thinking business methodology and commercial IoT application technology hands-on. It also introduces outcomes as a preliminary phase for empirical study on this workshop approach that deployed for a local city in the Far East area.

PLM and particularly the thoughts behind Closed-Loop PLM are a complex matter and almost every aspect of an industrial enterprise is affected by it. The real-world complexity and the role of PLM in a company are hard to explain to students, particularly in an abstract university environment. In fact, only few students manage to build a link between the abstract theory and the daily challenges of companies. Linking the reality with commonly accepted theory and new aspects from research requires a model that can showcase how theory works in real world, but is simple enough to be explained in a reasonable amount of time.To achieve this goal in education, a scenario around a product in its eco-system has been created. Physically, it is built on very common and easy to use technologies (Lego, Arduino, 3D printed parts). Yet, all relevant organizational aspects, processes, and IT tools are present as in a modern, up-to-date company (ERP, PLM, Configurator, CAD, etc.). This allows to understand the different aspects of PLM based on a hands-on example. For instance, it is possible to explain and experience the impact of an assemble-to-order strategy on engineering, the sales department, service, and the assembly line, by actually doing it.This paper discusses a novel approach in the education of PLM that addresses students, but also people from industry. Eventually, the educational model also serves as a platform to discuss real world problems with industry and discuss and test new approaches (digitization, industry 4.0) and their impact along the lifecycle of their product.

A steady shift in the value added from building information modelling (BIM) to architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) activities to those of facilities management (FM) is seeing increasing emphasis on whole-of-life thinking and associated information requirements management practices. Little is known about the process of identifying, documenting, generating and harmonizing BIM data inputs with FM data outputs in the Australian construction industry. Grounded on empirical evidence from a case study that transverses client and project team perspectives, this exploratory paper identifies missing links in the AEC and FM interface. The study describes the issues surrounding the collection and harmonization of BIM data inputs (as-built deliverables at handover) and the identification of (and connection to) FM data outputs. With the limitation of an exploratory and interpretive case study, the intention is to provide a contribution to academics and practitioners with grounded, stakeholder-related insights.

Any product, especially those with safety features or concerns, is normally subject to compliance audit with various standards and legal requirements at different stages throughout its lifecycle. These requirements are typically conveyed in voluminous written natural language texts requiring much expert interpretation. The compliance audit process has conventionally been a manual undertaking, which is known to be laborious, costly, and error-prone. In an era of increased legislation and electronic representations of products, it is prudent that some of these manual processes should be automated. This paper describes the capabilities of an automated compliance audit framework that can be incorporated into the compliance management of a product lifecycle. Apart from the product data model that is subject to audit, essential components of the framework include machine-readable legal knowledge and executable audit process models, support for supplementary human input and interface with simulation tools.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an innovative approach based on a virtual model, which allows to manage all the information about the building. This approach is applicable to all the phases of the building process, but many surveys show the lack of BIM implementation in the use e maintenance phases. The BIM use in the management phase represents a unexpressed potentiality, a differentiating factor compared to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), a holistic approach able to oversee the whole life cycle of a product and the information connected with it, widespread and consolidated in the manufacturing sector. Starting from this assumptions, in an empirical study, the paper presents a qualitative investigation into the current situation of the processes management of the constructed heritage in a French real estate company. The case study proposes the integration of the PLM and BIM approaches, that could be defined as Building Lifecycle Management (BLM), in order to close the gap of the traditional method.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) have been associated many times in recent literature and the possibilities for their integration or to be mutually used as a source of lesson learned has been envisaged. The paper proposes to analyze, through a systematic literature review approach, the existing state of art of previous studies that has already examined relations between BIM and PLM. The main objective of the paper is to understand the real nature of BIM-PLM association for better directing future research developments.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) can have significant positive influence on the productivity and efficiency of construction projects. Hence, BIM competence is increasingly important in Architecture Engineering and Construction education. This paper aims to build a better understanding of BIM skills requirement to help the planning and implementation of BIM curriculum. A literature review was conducted initially to identify a set of BIM skills reported through previous studies. Thereafter, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted with students, researchers, and industry professionals to validate the identified set of skills, and assess respondents’ perception of BIM competence and requisite skills. This paper presents the results from the survey.

The Industry 4.0 concept represents a paradigm shift where physical objects are seamlessly integrated into information networks. This promises to enable a more effective infrastructure in which the design, development, manufacturing and support activities that represent the key parts of a product’s life cycle are closely integrated through the presence of real-time information and big data, arising from sensors, Cyber Physical Systems, Internet of Things and social networks. The challenge is to understand how to use this extensive information in order to enhance product value and to improve industrial productivity. Since information must be displayable, reusable and available in real-time, the fourth industrial revolution is already well-aligned with lean thinking, which promotes information visualization, including the just-in-time delivery of materials and information, as well as the zero defects ideal to quality management. Moreover, Lean thinking forces the development of human resource capabilities, through the adoption of scientific problem solving and continuous improvement approaches. These approaches must continue to underpin the leadership and employee development activities required in light of Industry 4.0. Through a systematic literature review, this paper describes the current state of the art in order to understand how lean thinking should be implemented in the context of the smart factory, and provides an initial contribution to the emerging debate around the roles of “Lean Thinking in the Digital Era”.

By talking about complex systems, systems engineering is always named as the only way out for the enhancement of system understanding and the reduction of system complexity in the design process. After an identification of the essential aspects and concepts for pursuing systems engineering, this paper shows how well these key factors are integrated in today’s methodologies for developing mechatronic and cybertronic systems. The content of this paper is based especially on current and previous research activities on the field of model-based development at the Institute of Virtual Product Engineering.

Replacement of parts is a crucial task for the reuse of parts. In this paper, functions of part agent we are developing that support the reuse are described. A part agent manages life cycle of a part using a network agent and an RFID tag attached on the part and generates advices for the user on the maintenance of the part in order to promote the reuse. Part agent we are developing to support the replacement has the following functions. First function is to detect deterioration of the part from its sensory data. As an example, simple 3d of manipulator is developed with modularized link structure. Part agent is assigned for each module and generates advice on its replacement. Second function is to calculate the possibility of failures of part based on causal relation among user operations and detected events. Third function is to support users to disassemble used parts. Part agent generates disassembly procedure of the part and shows it to the user using augmented reality technique. In this paper, the planned scheme for part agent to support reuse of part with these functions is described and preliminary result of the development is shown.

This paper discusses the role of virtual reality from the perspective of PLM, based on several industrial case studies. As a result of the research a virtual reality in PLM utilization model is proposed. The proposed model regards virtual reality value creation and prerequisites from PLM perspective. Utility of the model is discussed from business management point of view.

Digital heritage applications have been widely developed through Virtual Reality (VR) technologies as known as Virtual Museum (VM). Devices and digital contents are significantly increasing and may support interaction system to immerse users into VM. Due to rapid changes of technologies, a platform to develop an exhibition should support to change devices and also to optimize interaction system used in VM. However, usually, both devices organization and contents structure on a platform is still lacking efficient management to support alternative interaction in general. The development and maintenance process of a VM exhibition must be undertaken in an integrated mode. We propose a storytelling platform for developing virtual exhibition with high-level abstractions providing adaptive interaction system. An exhibition’s lifecycle management will be useful for maintenance and service in VM when technologies evolved over time. Our framework has 2 sub-processes: development of storytelling platform and development of interaction system. A storytelling template provides a flexible service to manage an exhibition and adapt it to various devices and interaction techniques. Interaction system evaluation will be deployed to maintain an exhibition and support user learning in VM.

In business to business manufacturing, a major competitive advantage comes from the personalization of the product for the customer. In order to customize a product, companies go through a long process of customer interviews and specialized product development processes: this results in a time-consuming design phase and in a highly variable production process. In this paper, a method to improve the efficiency of product development and manufacturing, keeping a high degree of customization, is presented. A standardization effort is performed to identify a set of interchangeable components and to define a set of functional constraints. The consequences of such standardization are a dramatic reduction of the time expected to design and produce an item, as well as in lowered degree of variability of both the manufacturing process and the warehouses content. The presented methodology has been applied to a manufacturer of ink dispensing systems.

Today many companies throughout the world recognize the need to provide outstanding service to customers: for both mass market products and products devoted to professionals, an increasing level of customization is required. This, in turn, leads to high variability in design and manufacturing processes. Hence, a structured approach to manage such variability is necessary. For an effective mass-customization program, two organizational design principles could be introduced: (i) the definition of a set of standard modules and functional criteria; (ii) the development of a tool enabling customers designing his own product. The present paper aims to analyze the impacts of a product configurator, both inside and outside of a manufacturing company. Within the internal analysis, the studied aspects include business model transformation, organization change, economic benefits. The external impacts mainly involve supply chain effects, consequences on brand perception, and impacts on society. The presented analysis is applied to a manufacturer of machines for mixing inks.

Design of complex configurable products is a hard task. Testing of all variants is often impossible because the number of variants is orders of magnitude larger than the total life cycle production volume. Modular design is advocated as solution but cannot guarantee that if one variant works OK another will not cause errors. This paper proposes, based on a similar method for modular database system design, a theory for modular design of mechanical systems that poses the concept of module independence, to enable design and test of module families as a separate unit while offering formal conditions to assure that no variant of the module family will cause failures when integrated in the end-product. This allows system verification and testing to be done per module family with no need to test individual end product variants. The method is illustrated with a simple example of a mechanical design, but not yet applied in practice.

Nowadays companies are challenged with high competitiveness and saturation of markets leading to a permanent need of innovative products that ensure the leadership of these companies in existing markets and help them to reach new potential markets (i.e. emerging and mature market). Requirements of emerging markets are different in terms of geographic, economic, cultural, governance policies and standards. Thus, adopting existing European product to develop new products tailored to emerging markets is one possible strategy that can help companies to cope with such challenge. To do so, a large variety of products and options have to be created, managed and classified according to the requirements and constraints from a target regional market. This paper discusses the potential of PLM approach to implement the proposed modular product design approach for the adaptation of European product and production facilities to emerging markets. Using modular approach, the product design evolves iteratively coupling the configuration of various alternatives of product architectures and the connection of functional structures to their contexts of use. This enables the customization of adapted product to specific customer’s needs.

The aim of this paper is to propose a new model for the selection of sustainable design options. This model is based on the environmental, the economic, and the social life cycle assessments. It deals with the uncertainties and the imprecisions due to the technological choices and their potential impacts since early design phase of the product. The proposed model is based on four principles, namely: Early integration, life cycle thinking, functionality thinking, and the multi-criteria concept. A case study is presented to validate the applicability of the proposed model on the design of batteries.

Recent ICT innovations determine dramatically changes of traditional products towards intelligent, connected Smart Products. These product-related changes also imply the need for a fundamental adaption and enhancement of traditional Product Lifecycle Management approaches. Analyzing the main characteristics of Smart Products reveals that lifecycle management approaches for Smart Products especially have to extend their focus on the product use phase. A core challenge in this context is to provide suitable methods and IT tools for the reconfiguration of Smart Products across different engineering domains. This contribution introduces a conceptual approach for the reconfiguration of Smart Products, which considers the dynamical changes of virtual and physical product instances based on the virtual product twin. This approach was implemented and validated prototypically in a model-environment considering smart vehicles, that where temporarily reconfigured during their use phase.

This paper presents a method for the retrieval and inspection of similar CAD assemblies in a database according to a user query. The method exploits the information on components’ shape and relationships (e.g. contacts and regular patterns) automatically extracted from the STEP descriptions of CAD assemblies and stored in the so-called Enriched Assembly Model. It evaluates the similarity among assemblies in terms of the components’ shapes and joints. A graphical interface highlighting the elements in the assembly similar to the query has been developed to facilitate the inspection of the obtained results.

The food and fashion industries are well-known as areas of excellence representing Italy globally. Their products include innovative features, have short lifecycles and a high level of customisation. Both the pipelines have to respond quickly to unpredictable demand in order to minimize stock-outs, forced markdowns, obsolete inventory and they focus their Supply Chain (SC) strategies on quality and time-to-market. Although they are characterized by many different aspects, both leverage on the same point of strength: their internal Product Development (PD) process. The opposite occurs in the automotive industry, with its standard and functional products and its efficient pipeline centred on cost reduction. Starting from previous works presented during the last PLM conference (PLM16), the research aims at investigating similarities and differences between these sectors, focusing on their PD process and their main critical success factors. Moreover, the authors analyse how Food and Fashion companies are managing the entire set of information throughout PD and the strategic role of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). In order to reach these goals, a multiple case study analysis has been performed, involving companies belonging to the Food and Fashion industries. The results will be relevant both for academics and practitioners. Indeed, there is a literature gap about this topic, because of the lack of researches concerning Food and Fashion PD. From the practitioners point of view, the results of this work will help Food and Fashion companies to support their business analysing the PD process and to better understand how the use of the PLM system could improve it.

In the design of both leisure as well as professional boats, the experience of the boat designers and builders traditionally play a central role. To reach the desired customer satisfaction especially with high powered vessels, which often are used for decades, the tendency of overengineering is imminent. This is mainly based on the lack of reliable testing data and the high costs of towing tank tests and complex hydro dynamic simulations. The paradigm of Closed-Loop Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) can be employed as the enabling technology to overcome this lack of objectiveness by supplying the necessary product usage information to improve these processes. This paper presents an explorative approach towards a fact-based design and development process utilising distributed sensor data acquisition and high performance computing to enhance and validate the hydrodynamic simulations during the development process with the objective to reduce costs and uncertainties while increasing development speed and customer satisfaction. Beyond the related work and detailed description of the solution approach, this paper explores a concrete application experiment and gives conclusions on the applicability of Closed-Loop PLM as well as the other employed technologies.

Over the last few years, the food industry has become increasingly more relevant since it represents excellence not only at the European level, but also for the worldwide economy. Starting with this consideration, the main objective of this paper is to provide some elements that could support food companies to be successful in the market. In 2016, during the last PLM conference, the first results of a wider research were presented with the aim to understand how the PLM solution has been adopted into the food industry, and its limits and challenges of the deployment in this sector. This paper presents how the study has evolved through this year. Starting from this point, the impacts and effects from the use of the PLM solution on the New Food Development (NFD) process performances have been described. To identify these effects, a questionnaire was developed and used as a framework to support the data gathering process; each section of the questionnaire is described in the paper. Furthermore, the results of a preliminary empirical research based on a case study are shown. The results of this work will help both food companies and PLM vendors. Indeed, it will support PLM vendors to understand the food industry vision about their NFD process and performances. On the other hand, food companies will be able to better understand their NFD process, their NFD process performances and how they can use the PLM solution to affect their performances.

Recent expansion of the manufacturing industry’s customer requirements include product lifecycle considerations covering environmental, economic and societal concerns. Awareness for the need to implement sustainable manufacturing (SM) practice continues to grow but the implementation rate appears to be relatively slow. In cases where successful SM implementation depends on the ability to compete in the marketplace in terms of quality and cost, lean manufacturing concepts have been applied to help manage the product lifecycle. Unfortunately, most lean manufacturing applications in SM focus on the use of basic lean tools such as 5S, visual management and kanbans, etc., implemented as a series of management-directed projects or Kaizen activities without full engagement of the people doing the work. Consequently, improvements made under these conditions are often short-lived and relatively limited. True Lean benchmarks the Toyota Production System (TPS) and includes often overlooked critical operational elements aimed at developing and sustaining team member engagement for continuous improvement (CI). This paper discusses important concepts of sustainable PLM and True Lean and introduces an integrated model called the ‘Benevolent Production System’ as a guide to continuously improve total lifecycle product sustainability.

In the last decade, the interest and effort towards the use of ontology-based solutions for knowledge management has significantly increased. Ontologies have been used in manufacturing to provide a formal representation of the domain knowledge in a way that is machine-understandable. However, despite the ability to formally represent the elements of a domain and their relations, ontologies themselves do not provide any kind of simulation and systems behaviour analysis capabilities.Manufacturing system knowledge may be translated into specific executable models by exploiting experience and human logical deduction. This can be also achieved using ontologies and semantic reasoning.The framework presented in this work, therefore, aims to explore a W3C standard for inference rules, such as Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL), and OWL ontology models to transform elements of a Knowledge-Base (KB) into Petri Net (PN) primitives. The combination of semantics and mathematical modelling techniques applied to the analysis of a simple automated assembly station highlights the existence of modelling patterns and the effectiveness of inference rules to automatically instantiate PN-based manufacturing system models.As results, the inference rules-driven instantiation of a semantically enriched PN model has two positive consequences: (i) the axioms upon which the manufacturing system ontology is built are easy-to-reuse; (ii) the semantics-based bridging of the analysed domains shows the possibility of further enriching the KB with both qualitative and quantitative assessment capabilities.

For the deployment of both Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) approaches, product and process engineering knowledge needs to be identified, acquired, formalized, processed and reused. While knowledge acquisition is still a bottleneck process, the formalized engineering knowledge is still too often encapsulated in CAD models and in KBE systems developed in vendor-specific environments. To address this issue, this paper introduces a possible solution enabling the enrichment of a CAD-KBE-PLM integration schema that provides a standardized and neutral representation of engineering knowledge for further reuse across heterogeneous CAD, KBE and PLM systems. To enrich this schema, the proposed solution combines the use of a Multi-CAD API library – which allows platform-independent and automatic extraction of engineering knowledge from CAD models into an XML-based representation – and a Knowledge Acquisition and Formalization Assistant (KAFA) which assist domain experts to formalize their procedural knowledge.

PLM is an approach which aims to manage a product throughout its life cycle. Today, there are powerful and well-adapted tools for each phase of the product lifecycle, such as CAD (Computer Aided Design), SDM (Simulation Data Management), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) etc. However, their complete integration and more particularly the linkage from one phase to another are not yet fully operational and effective. To reach the PLM goal, it is necessary to guarantee the interoperability between the information systems (IS) supported by the business applications throughout the product lifecycle. Also, in the extended enterprise, from one project to another, the applications used for the product development process can change as business partners may change as well. An interoperability solution should be designed taking into account the potentially changing contexts of enterprise cooperation. A possible solution consists in designing the interoperability solution of the PLM systems by adopting the principles of the system of systems (SoS) concept. This work proposes a system of systems of PLM based on multi-agent systems to treat the interoperability, as well as knowledge capitalization issues.

Aerospace companies have a wide range of information systems with different functionalities that are used along the aircraft lifecycle; this causes problems in terms of integration, information exchange and long term archiving of data. Ongoing standardization efforts, mainly under the standard ISO 10303 and the LOTAR initiative are addressing such problems. This communication shows a starting work dealing with the exchange of aircraft industrialization information. It proposes a simplified data structure to illustrate and validate an exchange approach based on combining ISO 10303 EXPRESS-G, UML class diagram and ISO 10303 EXPRESS-I. The PLM software Aras Innovator was used to make the implementation and validate the approach.

Concurrent design facilities are used by space agencies and private organizations to conduct preliminary design activities in the development of space systems. Concurrent conceptual design is characterized by dynamic exchanges between a limited team of experts, defining the operational requirements, the systems architecture, the baseline design, and budgets for different resources. The results are a preliminary system baseline and product requirements that are used as inputs to the subsequent product development phases.A study of the input and output of this early phase of product development has confirmed that data generated in concurrent design studies essentially describes behavior with a limited set of information about the geometry. The geometry at this stage is mainly composed of functional configurations with geometric envelopes.Based on this behavioral information content, the authors have looked at the SAPPhIRE model of causality, initially developed by Chakrabarti, as a potential data structure to support this early phase of system development and possibly all phases of the product lifecycle.In this current work, we present two concrete examples of concurrent conceptual design data structures for space applications and show how such data structures could be represented within the extended SAPPhIRE model.When compared to current PLM data structures, the use of the extended SAPPhIRE model represents an alternative means of structuring information and communicating this information between stakeholders, providing better understanding of the relation between a system’s structure, function and behavior. It also explicitly represents the links between subsystems and the iterative nature of the design process.

The demand of oxygen gas in Nepal is increasing. The gas companies manufacture the gas and supply to various hospitals and glass companies across the country. All the information management is done in manual basis and there is no any tracking mechanism. During some emergency, the gas companies immediately supply the gas to some customers without any record. This results the loss of cylinders in the network. The gas supply chain is complex network as a gas company has many customers which in turn takes gas from various distributers. In this paper, a trace algorithm is developed to implement data model to trace the product using a use case study in Oxygen gas supply chain in Nepal. Each cylinder has certain life span, so PLM system is used to record the information related with cylinders to check the quality issue of cylinders. The concept of SaaS (Software as a Service) of Cloud Computing is used to keep the traceability system in the cloud. A user friendly framework is conceptualized which facilitates the easy access of required information.

Not least because of the triumph of different IoT technologies, the uptake of sensor data during the use phase of complex technical systems has become mandatory. These data, especially in combination with additional field data, promise to improve the technical management of systems. Various concepts have also been developed to determine the usefulness of returning the data to product development. Regardless of whether the use of the field data analysis is carried out within the utilisation phase or over phase boundaries, it is also a great challenge to process the data in such a way that information and action-oriented knowledge are generated. The consolidation of results from different analyses to uniform priorities of systems and system components is crucial for the management of systems, for example with regard to decision support. Therefore, an approach is presented and discussed in order to support the systematic combination of methods for sensor field data evaluation. This includes both a general approach model and a corresponding system architecture both on a methodology level. This approach is illustrated by an example and leads to the conclusion that multiple analyses of sensor series using different methods together lead to more reliable information on system components. With regard to the summary of the contribution, the approach shows great potential for the faster introduction of field data analyses in companies, but further developments are required for the selection of the individual methods as well as for the data compaction itself.

Documents contain expert knowledge that can be potentially reused across products and lifecycles. In this research, the aim is to reuse diagnostic knowledge from the assembly phase in the next design/planning stage, by acquiring knowledge from documents. While the acquisition itself is a separate research problem, an important part of the acquired knowledge is the context in which it is expressed in the documents. This context dictates the set of situations to which the knowledge applies. In this paper we study various methods from literature that address this challenge in different domains. We highlight current challenges faced in this work. Two possible means to identify sources of context that are built upon previous work are then discussed. Based on one of them, a method for understanding the context of issues in documents is then proposed. The implementation and evaluation of the method are ongoing.

Management of the whole product lifecycle is a major stake that most companies have now integrated into their strategies. Research works have been focused on this asset but mainly for mechanical products. In previous work proposes a knowledge modelling approach in a mechanical context, centred on expert users’ collaboration. In this paper, we worked with an aeronautical company in charge of electrical maintenance. Its objective was to improve its business processes, from design phase to production phase, by developing a new PLM system, integrated to its electrical CAD software. Our research aim is to evaluate the genericity of previous knowledge modelling approach in this electrical context. We propose then an integrated knowledge model based on three dimensions: (electric) product modelling, (aeronautics retrofitting) process/project modelling and organization/collaboration modelling. We show how this model identifies generic vs expert knowledge and how ‘business rules’ can be defined to support collaboration and to reduce time of development process. Finally, we propose a global PLM system and we detail the impact on the collaborations and on the whole ‘product’ lifecycle. This PLM system is actually developed by an electrical CAD editor, ensuring the integration between CAD data and PLM database. We conclude on future work extending this first PLM system: a generic problem-solving approach for capitalizing and reusing knowledge then an augmented reality environment for using PLM product data during installation phase.

Current technological advances pave the way for highly flexible production processes within Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). In a CPPS, every component being produced may be represented by a virtual data model containing its own unique information. Components are also information carriers with communication features enabled by an Internet-based exchange of information. The exchange of information between components and with the production system may happen over the whole manufacturing process. The availability of detailed information about every component supports the implementation of optimized assembly processes, called Smart Assembly of smart components. Smart Assembly is an approach to assembling different components according to unique specifications of every product variant, and considering the most efficient combination of components for each assembly. Therefore, a structured component data model considering data storage and data access is needed. However, for the Smart Assembly of smart components, the underlying data structure and processes have to be developed. The objective of this paper is to propose a data structure to enable the Smart Assembly of components in an assemble-to-order production scenario. To achieve the proposed objective, two use cases have been developed to simulate the Smart Assembly of smart components.

Collaborative Engineering aims to integrate both functional and industrial design. This goal requires integrating the design processes, the design teams and using a single common software platform to hold all the stakeholders contributions. Airbus company coined the concept of the industrial Digital Mock Up (iDMU) as the necessary unique deliverable to perform the design process with a unique team. Previous virtual manufacturing projects confirmed the potential of the iDMU to improve the industrial design process in a collaborative engineering environment. This paper presents the methodology and preliminary results for the management of the maturity states of the iDMU with all product, process and resource information associated with the assembly of an aeronautical component. The methodology aims to evaluate the suitability of a PLM platform to implement the iDMU in the creation of a control mechanism that allows a collaborative work.

Nowadays manufacturers’ need to systematically develop innovative integrated solutions is increasingly pushed by new technologies, a multiple functionalities demand and a change in the customer value perception. For these reasons, it is very complex for Product Service Systems (PSS) providers to fulfil all the design requirements: designers must consider all the objectives the PSS wants to achieve during its whole lifecycle according to different criteria, which are often to be considered according to a trade-off balance. At present, Design for X (DfX) design methods represent the most important attempt to enhance product development according to certain characteristics or lifecycle phases: authors believe they can also support the PSS design, redesigning or enhancing products in certain X-dimensions, in particular those ones related to “service supportability”. On this basis, a methodology generating new Design for X (DfX) guidelines has been proposed: in this paper an application case in the mold industry shows how a physical product can be improved when a service has to be added and integrated. At the same time, new industry-specific PSS design guidelines and rules are proposed.

The high-tech strategy of the German government aims to expand the networking and intelligence capabilities of machines, products and services. Thereby it is essential to apply extensive utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT). The goal of the German term “Industrie 4.0” is to merge the physical world with the virtual world [1]. This interconnected digital world enables various opportunities for creating new business models and increasing companies’ revenues at the same time. Online trading of goods increased extensively in the last years, especially online trading of digital goods like music, films and e-books. Various license models and usage control policies are developed for a secure utilization of these goods by customers. Indeed there are still challenges regarding IT security issues that hinder the expansion of digital trading in the industry. This paper demonstrates a new business model for online trading in the automation and manufacturing industry. This model is based on existing resources in companies and hence improves the added-value-chain in companies. Thereby technology data that is required for machine operation in manufacturing processes will be traded. The main concept and workflow of trading processes will be presented. Furthermore various needed license models for usage control of Technology Data (TD) after trading are demonstrated.

Increasing competition and appearance of new information and communication technologies makes companies to introduce new production and marketing models. The paper shares the experiences of improving PLM information management at an automation equipment manufacturer caused by implementation of product-service systems and their customer-driven configuration. Though the research results are based on the analysis of one company, the presented work can give significant input to achieve benefits for component manufacturers that tend to become system vendors in general.

Environmental sustainability and resource scarcities are urgent issues, and innovative ways of providing products and services are needed. In light of a circular economy, manufacturers have yet to learn and implement innovative ways of design covering the entire product lifecycle and incorporating sustainability and resource issues based on system perspectives. This paper aims at proposing an innovative and practical method to support manufacturers in the design of a product/service system (PSS) for resource efficiency and sustainability. The intention is that the method be implemented as an add-on feature for commercial PLM (product lifecycle management) software, with a lifecycle focus, including calculation of lifecycle cost (LCC).

The global crisis and the fierce competition of emerging countries make companies struggling to stay ahead of competition. The number of companies that are enlarging their offer portfolio looking forward to new and increased sources of revenues is always increasing but the number of companies failing in successfully implementing servitization strategy is even more. One possible reason behind this is the lack of tools to support companies while dealing with services that by definition are characterized by high level of intangibility and perishability. In this context, the integration of product design in concurrent with the related service design is becoming very relevant in several industrial fields. This process is very customer-centered and lead to the development of a product-service specific methodology. Specially, lean design methodologies can be used to foster and improve the integrated product-service design process. Based on this premise, the paper presents the PSS Lean Design methodology developed in the DIVERSITY project and its relations and impact on the data and information management of a product-service lifecycle system. A description of relations and modules customization for the development and diffusion of a PSS lifecycle management system is provided in the paper for an extension also in other contexts.