Generic methodology for the design and development of a responsive product development system

Abstract

The product development environment is characterized by aggressive global competition, rapidly changing technologies and increasingly complex markets, all of which have prompted the development of knowledge-based systems to facilitate the exchange and updating of relevant product information. Decisions made during the early stage of the product development process are based on personal experience and knowledge. Knowledge based systems are normally used by enterprises at different stages of product development to enhance their efficiency in solving engineering problems. However, little attention has been given to replicate the data in the database system for supporting the formation of a knowledge repository. Traditionally, various functional disciplines have had their own database storage systems, using dissimilar data formats and even heterogeneous platforms. This creates problems in data exchange among enterprises due to the incompatibility of the data formats involved. Therefore, this research aims to develop a "responsive" product development system, with a combination of emerging technologies, to achieve the capturing and eventually the deployment of knowledge, thus facilitating effective data interchange among various computer systems. In this research, the underlying technologies of a Responsive Product Development System (RPDS) encompass object technology, Case Based Reasoning (CBR) and Extensible Markup Language (XML), capitalizing on the unique features of the technologies involved. In brief, RPDS consists of three modules, which are the Object Based Product Development Module (OBPDM), the Product Information Exchange Module (PIEM) and the Hybrid Knowledge Module (HKM). OBPDM is used to model the product development process and the components of the process with object technology. PIEM introduces a dynamic product information schema which is characterized by its ability to provide design practitioners with a product data exchange standard, thus enabling data interchange to take place among suppliers, customers and other business partners. The HKM provides a standardized mechanism of data exchange to facilitate dynamic data-knowledge conversion. To validate the feasibility of the proposed schema, three case studies have been conducted in three local companies based on the suggested approach. Following from the feedback from these companies, a further review of the design of the proposed system was made in order to ensure the efficient information flow across the heterogeneous computer systems. To facilitate the deployment of RPDS, a generic methodology related to the design and implementation of the proposed system has been detailed with trial runs to validate its feasibility. The proposed methodology is a step in the development of a generic model for effective communication with business partners in order to achieve good collaboration, therefore attaining the goal of shortening the time-to-market and development of innovative products. Case based maintenance is attracting increasing attention and my research is about maintaining adaptable cases by deploying a "generalization-specification" method, which is a novel approach in the CBR cycle (Retrieve-Reuse-Revise-Retain). The significance of this research is the provision of a cross-platform data exchange system, which is able to facilitate the creation of an environment conducive to product development.