Esmond Neil Urwin

The reuse of machining knowledge to improve designer awareness through the configuration of knowledge libraries in PLM

The nature of competition induces the need to constantly improve and perform better. For global aerospace manufacturers, this is as timely an epithet as ever as market forces urge for more growth, better financial return and market position. The macroeconomic aspect is compounded by the growth of product complexity and the need for higher product quality, hence the drive to reduce waste places emphasis upon production costs and the need to improve product performance. This paper focuses upon a rapid development and deployment method that enables the capture and representation of machining knowledge so that it may be shared and reused by design engineers to accelerate the design-make process. The study and mapping of information and knowledge relationships are described and put forward as a lightweight ontology. From this, a set of knowledge document templates were created to facilitate the capture, structuring and sharing of machining knowledge within a collaborative multidisciplinary aerospace engineering environment. An experimental pilot system has been developed to test and demonstrate that knowledge document templates can accelerate the sharing of machining knowledge within an industrial product lifecycle management environment. The results are discussed to provide a case for further development and application within the product domain.

Reference ontologies to support the development of global production network systems

We present the preliminary results for the capture and modelling of end-user information.An initial higher level reference core ontology for the development of reference ontologies.The formal logical modelling of Level 1 of the FLEXINET reference ontology using a Common Logic based approach. In competitive and time sensitive market places, organisations are tasked with providing product lifecycle management (PLM) approaches to achieve and maintain competitive advantage, react to change and understand the balance of possible options when making decisions on complex multi-faceted problems, global production networks (GPN) is one such domain in which this applies. When designing and configuring GPN to develop, manufacture and deliver product-service provision, information requirements that affect decision making become more complex. The application of reference ontologies to a domain and its related information requirements can enhance and accelerate the development of new product-service systems with a view towards the seamless interchange of information or interoperability between systems and domains.This paper presents (i) preliminary results for the capture and modelling of end-user information, (ii) an initial higher level reference core ontology for the development of reference ontologies and (iii) the formal logical modelling of Level 1 of the FLEXINET reference ontology using a Common Logic based approach.

Scenario-based design and evaluation for capability

Scenarios are frequently used within techniques for planning and designing systems. They are an especially helpful means of visualizing and understanding the incorporation of new systems within systems of systems. If used as the basis for decisions about candidate designs, then it is important that such decisions can be rationalized and quantitative assessment is particularly important. In this paper, an approach for developing complex scenarios, which incorporates the phases of systems development and deployment, is presented and a quantitative method of comparison is described. This approach is based on the development of measures of merit and measures of performance. The techniques are illustrated using cases that are relevant to Network Enabled Capability.

Ontology in Engineering Applications

The goal of this position paper is to introduce the research topics in engineering and the motivations for the application of semantic technologies. A group called Ontology Based Engineering – OBE has been created by the engineering community to share experiences in this field and the various challenges faced in using ontologies and related tools. The OBE groups aims at creating a dialog with the ontology specialists by sharing the research challenges and problems in ontology application.

Through-Life NEC Scenario Development

Scenarios are an important planning tool used by individuals, businesses and governments (especially in the military domain), but many of the currently used approaches focus solely on acute probabilistic timeframes and specific metricated instances of possible future states. Using a mixed method research methodology, we develop a scenario approach in which multiple timeframes are accommodated by fitting vignettes within each other to represent different time levels. This has the advantage of presenting the end-to-end process of capability development and instantiation. We describe the methodology employed to generate such a scenario as a demonstration aid for a large, multidisciplinary research program in systems of systems engineering. The process of scenario generation was an effective integration tool within this program (that included twelve distributed research groups). The resultant scenario enabled engagement of multiple stakeholders in an integrated demonstration of systems related research outputs. We recommend a new class of scenario (a “research scenario”) for incorporation within the standard classifications of scenario types.

A reference ontology approach to support global product-service production

The need to innovate and compete drives organisations to constantly seek new approaches to facilitate business and commerce. As market places become ever more globalised and digital economies grow, these organisations rely more heavily upon systems to design and deliver their products and services. Hence, when developing and operating a global production network the need for systems to interoperate between different domains and contexts within a global production network becomes paramount if organisations are to succeed. This paper puts forwards a reference ontology that has been developed to enable the interoperation of software tools involved in the global production of new product-services systems (PSS). It sets out the levels of the reference ontology, detailing closely the product-service aspects. This has been developed using a formal logic-based approach. An example knowledge base has been created from industrial end user information with queries applied to this to provide a set of results, showing the ability of the reference ontology.

Reference Ontologies to Support the Development of New Product-Service Lifecycle Systems

In competitive and time sensitive market places, organisations are tasked with providing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) approaches to achieve and maintain competitive advantage, react to change and understand the balance of possible options when making decisions on complex multi-faceted problems, Global Production Networks (GPN) is one such domain in which this applies. When designing and configuring GPN to develop, manufacture and deliver product-service provision, information requirements that affect decision making become more complex. The application of reference ontologies to a domain and its related information requirements can enhance and accelerate the development of new product-service lifecycle systems with a view towards the seamless interchange of information or interoperability between systems and domains.

Reference Ontologies for Global Production Networks

The development and utilisation of flexible, reconfigurable Global Production Network organisations presents issues for the sharing and reuse of information and knowledge between systems and domains. The research approach put forward in this paper posits that manufacturing reference ontologies can provide the necessary underlying flexibility in a semantic-base to support interoperability. Moreover for that to be of real value to industry it needs to be commonly applicable across the breadth of manufacturing business and therefore be offered as a standard.

Managing innovation: a multidisciplinary scenario development approach

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is focusing on and shifting toward a Network Enabled Capability (NEC) approach for improved military effect. This is being realised through the physical networking and coherent integration of existing and future resources including sensors, effectors, support services, and decision makers. This paper is a case study (for NEC) of how the development and use of scenarios for demonstrating academic research can aid and help manage innovation. It illustrates the development, use and application of a multiple stakeholder scenario within the NECTISE research programme that helped establish and exploit a collaborative multidisciplinary working environment and how it helped manage innovative academic research. Our experience suggests that this approach can support the engagement of multiple stakeholders with differing perceptions and priorities and will provide a scenario development strategy for improved research and innovation for many other large systems.

An Ontology for Global Production Network Design and Reconfiguration

Organisations constantly seek to improve and fully exploit global production networks. This can be to provide more competitive solutions to customer requests, to exploit potential new technologies or to consider new business models based on the servitisation of products. To support such decisions requires the interchange and evaluation of information from a wide range of different and varied sources. This paper puts forward a reference ontology aimed at supporting businesses who seek to design, configure and reconfigure global production networks. The aim of this is to support interoperability between information systems within multi-domain contexts.