Strategic Manufacturing Initiative: Constraint Nets for Life Cycle Engineering

生命周期工程是在产品设计阶段同时考虑产品功能、设计、材料、制造工艺和成本、可测试性、可使用性、质量和可靠性。由于大多数生命周期成本都是在设计阶段决定的，因此设计师必须能够访问生命周期信息，以便影响产品设计。本项目探讨了一种支持生命周期工程的新方法，即利用约束网络技术为设计人员提供生命周期信息。约束网络表示产品生命周期的各个方面对产品产生的约束影响，这些影响必须由整个系统的参数来满足。有了这样一个约束网络，设计人员就有了一种方法，通过这种方法，他可以访问并考虑来自产品生命周期所有阶段的信息，例如，标准和法规、公司政策、制造能力、可测试性、可靠性和可服务性的需求，以及成本和交付期限的考虑。该项目是来自工业界和大学的科学家和工程师的跨学科努力，并得到了主要国家实验室和项目的技术支持和投入。

Life-Cycle Engineering is the simultaneous consideration during the product design stage of product function, design, materials, manufacturing processes and cost, testability, serviceability, quality, and reliability. Since most life-cycle costs are dictated in the design phase, it is important that life-cycle information be accessible to the designer so that it can influence product design. This project investigates a new way to support Life-Cycle Engineering, one that involves using constraint network technology to provide the designer with life-cycle information. The constraint network represents the constraining influences from various aspects of a product's life-cycle that exert themselves on the product and must be satisfied by the parameters of the overall system. With such a constraint network, the designer has a means by which he can access and take into account information from all phases of the product life cycle, e.g., standards and regulations, company policy, manufacturing capability, requirements for testability, reliability, and serviceability, and cost and delivery deadline considerations. The project is a cross-disciplinary endeavor of scientists and engineers from industry and the university, with technical support and input coming from major national laboratories and programs.