Strategic Manufacturing Initiative: Constraint Nets for Life Cycle Engineering

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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.