Collaborative Research: Knowledge Representation and Design for Managing Product Obsolescence

最后修改日期：06/13/09最后修改人：Christina L.布洛鲍姆 该奖项的研究目标是调查两种新的研究方法来理解和管理技术过时的挑战：（1）知识表示方案和管理系统，可以促进现有工具之间和不同组织之间的过时管理和缓解工作的信息共享和协作;以及（2）设计产品架构的基本原则、可教方法和指导方针，这些产品架构可以随着不断变化的需求而发展，从而能够在整个产品生命周期中进行主动的过时管理。快速发展的技术导致商业高科技部件缩短了采购生命周期，使其迅速过时。陈旧过时问题的影响和普遍性正在增加。现有工作的重点是被动地管理过时，即，然而，在问题发生之后最小化解决问题的成本，反应式管理是非常昂贵和低效的。主动和战略性的陈旧过时管理有许多潜在的优势，但在理论上了解甚少，在实践中解决得很差。可验证项目包括软件系统中的标准过时本体，领域专家可以使用该软件系统来共享和注释其领域中的信息，演示和验证各种产品设计问题的基本原理，记录研究结果，工程学生教育以及贫困本科生的工程研究经验。如果成功的话，这项研究的结果将克服现有设计方法中没有充分考虑过时问题的局限性。这项研究将提供一个平台，探索和理解产品设计的元素和过时的敏感性之间的相互作用。设计人员将拥有管理过时问题和设计产品所需的工具，以实现主动的过时管理。这项研究的结果将被传播，以提供一个机会，创造成本效益，并以更快的速度环保产品。研究生和本科工程专业的学生将受益于课堂教学和参与研究。这项工作的教育和外联活动将有助于提高代表性不足的群体对工程学的兴趣。

Last Modified Date: 06/13/09 Last Modified By: Christina L. Bloebaum Abstract The research objective of this award is to investigate two novel research approaches to understanding and managing technology obsolescence challenges: (1) a knowledge representation scheme and management system that can facilitate information sharing and collaboration for obsolescence management and mitigation efforts between existing tools and across different organizations; and (2) fundamental principles, teachable methods, and guidelines for designing product architectures that can evolve with changing requirements, enabling proactive obsolescence management across the entire product life cycle. Fast moving technologies have caused commercial high-tech components to have shortened procurement life cycles, rendering them obsolete quickly. The impact and pervasiveness of obsolescence problems are growing. Existing work focuses on reactively managing obsolescence, i.e., minimizing the cost of resolving the problem after it has occurred, however, reactive management is very expensive and inefficient. Proactive and strategic obsolescence management have many potential advantages, but are poorly understood in theory, and poorly addressed in practice. Deliverables include a standard obsolescence ontology within a software system that domain experts can use to share and annotate information in their fields, demonstration and validation of fundamental principles on a wide range of product design problems, documentation of research results, engineering student education, and engineering research experiences for underprivileged undergraduate students. If successful, the results of this research will overcome limitations in existing design methods that do not adequately consider obsolescence issues. This research will provide a platform for the exploration and understanding of interactions among the elements of product design and sensitivities to obsolescence. Designers will have the tools they need to manage the issue of obsolescence and design products to enable proactive obsolescence management. The results of this research will be disseminated to provide an opportunity to create cost-effective, and environmental friendly products at faster pace. Graduate and undergraduate engineering students will benefit through classroom instruction and involvement in the research. The education and outreach activities of this effort will help promote interest for engineering from underrepresented groups.