Managing the Impact of Engineering Changes in a Cyberinfrastructure-Enabled Environment

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The research objective of this award is to develop methods to enable fast and reliable evaluation of the impact of a proposed Engineering Change (EC). Engineering Change refers to a change to the shape, dimensions, structure, material, manufacturing process, etc. of a part or assembly after the initial design has been released. Evaluating ECs is a time-consuming process due to the complexity of typical products and the lifecycle-wide impact of a change. The research focus is on the development of (i) meaningful representations of ECs and (ii) techniques for searching previous similar ECs. Complexities stem from the disparity of resources that can cause or are affected by the engineering change. This research assumes the existence of a Cyberinfrastructure (CI) and focuses on the design of CI-aware models and solution approaches. Techniques from ontology-based computing, information theory and machine learning are used. If successful, this research will provide a scientific foundation to the current ad-hoc change evaluation process. It will advance our understanding of how the disparate components of engineering change data relate to each other. The research results will benefit designers in the context of globalization, which is increasing the pressure to manage component and process changes while maintaining or improving quality and reducing costs with shorter turn-around times. Fast, accurate and reliable evaluation of the impact of engineering changes will result in cost benefits to industry and the US government that extend beyond benefits realized by just overcoming errors or incremental improvements in the design or manufacturing processes. Results will be disseminated through the University of Michigan?s PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) Alliance and included in a graduate course in Global Product Development that brings together students from the U.S., Germany, and South Korea to work in global design teams. Results will also be disseminated through various publications and the development of open-source software tools which will be available for industry and academia evaluation. Graduate and undergraduate students will be exposed to multidisciplinary, global research and development as a result of this award.