Benoît Eynard

PDM system implementation based on UML

The paper deals with a Unified Modeling Language (UML)-based approach for implementing Product Data Management (PDM) system. Such kind of system enables the management of the entire product lifecycle and related information about its design, its manufacturing and its in-service. The interest of using an UML-based approach for modeling, specifying and implementing PDM systems is detailed. Then an implementation method is proposed in order to clarify the instantiation of UML diagrams into database entities. Regarding a business case study based on the needs of a turboprop aircraft development project, the preliminary implementation of PDM system is presented. The used UML diagrams for the modeling and integration of product, process, and resource data is detailed in order to argue the interest of an object-oriented approach in such kind of PDM implementation.

Design, modelling, simulation and integration of cyber physical systems

Presentation of a systematic classification of systems and new CPS paradigms.Analyses of literature conducted across a range of different perspectives.A systematic review of CPS-design literature was carried out, with an emphasis on the design, modelling, simulation and integration of CPS.An architectural and behavioural paradigm for CPS.Compilation of different viewpoints referring to applications at different levels of granularity. The main drivers for the development and evolution of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) are the reduction of development costs and time along with the enhancement of the designed products. The aim of this survey paper is to provide an overview of different types of system and the associated transition process from mechatronics to CPS and cloud-based (IoT) systems. It will further consider the requirement that methodologies for CPS-design should be part of a multi-disciplinary development process within which designers should focus not only on the separate physical and computational components, but also on their integration and interaction. Challenges related to CPS-design are therefore considered in the paper from the perspectives of the physical processes, computation and integration respectively. Illustrative case studies are selected from different system levels starting with the description of the overlaying concept of Cyber Physical Production Systems (CPPSs). The analysis and evaluation of the specific properties of a sub-system using a condition monitoring system, important for the maintenance purposes, is then given for a wind turbine.

Integrated product relationships management: a model to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning

The paper describes a novel approach to product relationships management in the context of concurrent engineering and product lifecycle management (PLM). Current industrial practices in product data management and manufacturing process management systems require better efficiency, flexibility, and sensitivity in managing product information at various levels of abstraction throughout its lifecycle. The aim of the proposed work is to manage vital yet complex and inherent product relationship information to enable concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning. Indeed, the definition of the product with its assembly sequence requires the management and the understanding of the numerous product relationships, ensuring consistency between the product and its components. This main objective stresses the relational design paradigm by focusing on product relationships along its lifecycle. This paper gives the detailed description of the background and models which highlight the need for a more efficient PLM approach. The proposed theoretical approach is then described in detail. A separate paper will focus on the implementation of the proposed approach in a PLM-based application, and an in-depth case study to evaluate the implementation of the novel approach will also be given.

Survey on mechatronic engineering: A focus on design methods and product models

According to the principles of concurrent engineering and integrated design, engineers intend to develop a mechatronic system with a high level integration (functional and physical integrations) based on a well-organised design method. As a result, two main categories of issues have been pointed out: the process-based problems and the design data-related problems. Several approaches to overcome these issues have been put forward. To solve process-based problems, a dynamic perspective is generally used to present how collaboration can be improved during the mechatronic design. For design data-related problems, solutions generally come from product models and how to structure and store the data thanks to the functionality of data and documents management of Product Lifecycle Management systems. To be able to assess design methods and product models, some criteria are proposed in the paper and used to evaluate their added value on integrated design of mechatronic system. After this assessment, main outcomes which focus on the combination of design method and product model for improving the design of mechatronic system are finally discussed.

Product relationships management enabler for concurrent engineering and product lifecycle management

The current competitive industrial context requires more flexible, intelligent and compact product lifecycles, especially in the product development process where several lifecycle issues have to be considered, so as to deliver lifecycle oriented products. This paper describes the application of a novel product relationships management approach, in the context of product lifecycle management (PLM), enabling concurrent product design and assembly sequence planning. Previous work has provided a foundation through a theoretical framework, enhanced by the paradigm of product relational design and management. This statement therefore highlights the concurrent and proactive aspect of assembly oriented design vision. Central to this approach is the establishment and implementation of a complex and multiple viewpoints of product development addressing various stakeholders design and assembly planning points of view. By establishing such comprehensive relationships and identifying related relationships among several lifecycle phases, it is then possible to undertake the product design and assembly phases concurrently. Specifically, the proposed work and its application enable the management of product relationship information at the interface of product-process data management techniques. Based on the theory, models and techniques such as described in previous work, the implementation of a new hub application called PEGASUS is then described. Also based on web service technology, PEGASUS can be considered as a mediator application and/or an enabler for PLM that externalises product relationships and enables the control of information flow with internal regulation procedures. The feasibility of the approach is justified and the associated benefits are reported with a mechanical assembly as a case study.

From a 3D point cloud to an engineering CAD model: a knowledge-product-based approach for reverse engineering

Reverse engineering (RE) is an area of current interest in which physical models are measured or digitised to obtain a virtual model. Currently, geometric models are rebuilt using geometric approaches. These models are generally frozen (i.e. not parameterisable and not easy to modify). This paper deals with a new knowledge-based approach for reverse engineering that enables nonfrozen computer-aided design (CAD) models. According to the product knowledge, we propose to assist CAD software application user to build the tree structure of the product. The proposed approach aims to obtain an engineering CAD model by merging existing geometric approach and the tree structure of the product.

Multidisciplinary modelling and simulation for mechatronic design

Improving the market value of a product often means enhancing its quality and its functionalities without impacting its price. Moreover, issues of sustainable development, especially in the transport industry, lead to a reduction of a product’s weight achieved by increasing integration of its components. For example, the integration of the independent control unit to the Valeo’s starter-alternator StARS has allowed removing the cable connections and reducing the mass by merging envelopes and dissipation elements while increasing responsiveness. This strong need of technological integration is at the origin of mechatronics. The integration of multiple components, their compliance and their technological synergy leads to an intensive use of a systems engineering approach and of multidisciplinary methods of modelling and simulation. In the field of mechatronics, the large range of simulation software, data formats and design methods addresses numerous issues that need to be solved. This paper introduces some...

Product-Service Systems for servitization of the automotive industry: a literature review

Nowadays companies are facing several transformations of their activities, empowered and pulled by technological and social evolutions over the few past decades. As competitiveness is a leitmotiv in the market economy paradigm, it is necessary to improve activities through excellence and new offers. In a focus on the consumers’ needs, the limits between tangible and intangible offer are challenged through new kind of offers merging products and service under one common offer. Manufacturing companies, and more precisely the automotive industry, endeavour to integrate new constraints of sustainability, economic globalisation and new ways of consumption made possible with this new kind of offerings. This supports the opportunity to change consumption offers, historically driven by production and consumption of tangible assets. The paper explores a key concept to operate this shift towards a new type of offer gathering products and service into an integrated bundle entitled product-service system (PSS). This paper proposes a review of PSS definitions, methodologies and its applications to clarify the contribution of the literature in enabling its adoption. Requirements to adopt PSS are extracted from case studies and methodologies for servitization are evaluated as means to overcome barriers of PSS adoption. A specific focus is given on the automotive industry.

Knowledge-based assessment of manufacturing process performance: integration of product lifecycle management and value-chain simulation approaches

Regarding the market globalisation, manufacturers have to improve the performance and efficiency of their production plants. To fulfil this goal, managers need methods and tools to assess their product development and their production engineering processes by assessing the performance and the value of the specified technical solutions. This article presents a new approach to support this assessment of manufacturing enterprise processes in terms of performance and value indicators based on knowledge management (KM) integration. Based on the principles of value chain, in one hand, and on methods of KM, on the other hand, the aim of the proposal is to help experts to make relevant decisions on product development and/or production process planning. The approach originality is to use of product lifecycle management (PLM) capabilities to achieve semi-automated capitalisation of heterogeneous knowledge from various enterprise information systems. Capitalised knowledge is then used as an input of the assessment module. This module implements a set of simulation algorithms for the assessment and evaluation of different alternatives of value chains according to required performance criteria.

Knowledge management and reuse in collaborative product development – a semantic relationship management-based approach

In the current globalised context of industry, constant improvement of competitiveness remains a major issue for companies. Through the past few years, considering the latest technological advances, product complexity, as well as related manufacturing processes has increased. Nowadays, product lifecycle management systems are seen to be essential and strategic components of enterprise information system in order to harmonise collaborative data management especially in the collaborative product development. Considering knowledge management and reuse purposes, it is not currently the case when product data distributed in various and heterogeneous information systems must be browsed. In such a context, methods and tools for information and knowledge extraction (from heterogeneous systems) and visualisation play an important role, given their capacity to extract, represent and organise the engineering information and knowledge throughout the whole product lifecycle. The paper proposes a semantic relationship ...