Harnessing complementary product and process models to support change processes in product lifecycle activities for extended PLM solutions

利用互补的数据结构来支持扩展PLM解决方案的产品生命周期活动中的变更过程公司的创新能力与其有效管理产品演进或变更的能力直接相关。复杂产品在整个生命周期中的变化会产生可追溯的信息流，这对于有效协作是最重要的。从科学的角度来看，这些仍然没有得到很好的理解，目前只有经验实践和方法的支持。该研究计划旨在发现互补的数据结构，以正式支持产品生命周期活动（如设计、制造和服务）中由产品变更引起的追溯过程。本研究的独创性在于研究互补的产品数据结构，如特征、物料清单、公差、工艺计划和制造分散，以有效地管理PLM系统内的多向信息流。简而言之，PLM是将针对产品生命周期的不同阶段（CAD、CAM、PDM、FEA、工作流管理等）开发的各种数据管理软件集成在一个全面的软件包中，旨在改善数字企业环境中合作伙伴、客户和供应商之间的信息和数据共享。本研究工作要验证的主要假设是，只有互补而不是统一的数据结构才能有效地支持产品生命周期中的多向信息流动，从而推进PLM解决方案。

HARNESSING COMPLEMENTARY DATA STRUCTURES TO SUPPORT CHANGE PROCESSES IN PRODUCT LIFECYCLE ACTIVITIES FOR EXTENDED PLM SOLUTIONSThe capacity of a company to innovate is directly related to its capacity to efficiently manage product evolutions or changes. Changes throughout the life of a complex product generate retroactive flows of information, which are most important for effective collaboration. These are still not well understood from a scientific point of view and are currently only supported by empirical practices and methodologies. This research proposal aims at discovering complementary data structures to formally support retroactive processes induced by product change across product lifecycle activities such as design, manufacturing and in service. The originality of this research lies in the study of complementary product data structures such as features, bill of materials, tolerances, process plans and manufacturing dispersions to effectively manage multidirectional flows of information within a PLM system. In simple terms, PLM is about integrating the various data management software developed for the different stages of the life of a product (CAD, CAM, PDM, FEA, Workflow management, etc.) in a comprehensive package destined to improve the information and data share between partners, clients and suppliers in a digital enterprise environment. The main hypothesis to be validated in this research work is that only complementary, rather than unified, data structures can effectively support multidirectional flows of information in the product lifecycle and thus advanced PLM solutions.