Structuring a Lean Engineering Ontology for Managing the Product Lifecycle

Abstract

Many companies refer to PLM considering only the IT side and ignoring the organizational impact. The organizational aspects of PLM can be represented using an ontology providing a support to address issues and actions. Based on these premises an action research was carried out to increase awareness on dimensions and elements characterizing the product lifecycle in the engineering groups. The aim is to easily represent in an ontology the complexity related to the lifecycle of aerospace products, capturing relevant dimensions, relations and impacts for improving manufacturing activities through a reduction of errors, reworks and missed information.