Information modeling of manufacturing processes

• Main Author: Nielssen, Johan
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Industriell produktion 2003
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-3628

The innovation process is an important process for our primemotor of welfare, manufacturing. During this process, theprerequisites for manufacturing are set. To set the bestpossible prerequisites consideration about products,manufacturing processes, and manufacturing resources must bemade concurrently, which also means involving several differentdisciplines in a collaborative effort. As a consequence of involving different disciplines, thecommunication of engineering information may be hindered. Thereason is that different disciplines use different terminologyfor the same concept and sometimes have the same terminologyfor different concepts. This may result in difficultiesunderstanding each other, which may, in turn, result inunnecessary loss of quality and productivity. The main objective of this thesis is to identify informationconcepts (i.e. information requirements) for process planningin a concurrent engineering environment, and to formally definethe corresponding terminology. The work is based on casestudies at Volvo Car Corporation, involving management of weldspot and location system information, and at ABB Body-in-White,involving tender preparation information. The results are presented in the thesis in terms of aninformation model, the Product-Process-Resource (PPR)information model, and two corroborated hypotheses. The PPRinformation model defines the identified informationrequirements in the scope of the thesis whereas the hypothesesconcern how, e.g., modularization can be used in informationmodeling. The PPR information model provides the base for aninformation platform in a concurrent engineeringenvironment. The PPR information model enable model based documentationand, thus, traceability of the evolution of the product,process, and manufacturing resource designs, and theirinterrelations. <b>Keywords:</b>Information Modeling, Process Planning,Concurrent Engineering, Information Management