Chapter 7: Knowledge engineering

Title: A framework for ontology-based manufacturing support systems

Author(s): Min-Ho Cho, Chan-Gie Lee, Dong-Won Kim

Address: Department of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 561-756, Republic of Korea | Department of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 561-756, Republic of Korea | Department of Industrial & Information Systems Engineering, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 561-756, Republic of Korea

Reference: International Conference on Product Lifecycle Management 2007 pp. 425 - 434

Abstract/Summary: Conventionally, design data originally produced in the design department of a company is modified and/or changed by the subsequent departments, such as production, purchase, quality control, and marketing & sales. Each department extracts or saves its necessary information from the product information of a design stage, then, modifies it so as to reflect the characteristics of the department. Many design data are prepared to produce a product, but these data include complicated relationships between parts and processes, which are essential in the design of a production system. However, existing commercial systems do not sufficiently provide functions such as the representation of the relationships and/or features, nor do they support the information required in the subsequent department. Ontology is an information model technology that can be used for many purposes, including enterprise integration, database design, information retrieval and interchange on the Next Generation Web (Semantic Web). This paper addresses a framework for ontology-based manufacturing support systems, which models the relationships among design data, as well as the information in each department. Meta-data implemented through OWL provide inference-based query functions, enhancing the efficiency and usability of the design data. The framework is applied into ontology-based CAPP (Computer-Aided Process Planning) for NC machining processes.

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