Methods for Enhanced Level of Automation in Intelligent Product Modeling

The paper introduces a new product modeling methodology by the authors that relies upon recent industrial experience and is motivated by problems on the way towards intelligent modeling that is full control by intent of humans who have influence on lifecycle management of product information. The main problem is with revision of earlier decisions that is demanded by their interrelation with new decisions because wide functionality of recent industrial product lifecycle management (PLM) systems serves only formal description of relationships between modeled objects, and content-based tracking of those relationships across the model is practically impossible. In the modeling concept by the authors, conventional integrated description of engineering objects, and three extensions are applied. Paper starts with relevant problems interpreted by a short history of product modeling. In order to meet the changed demands for product modeling, the authors defined a new set of requirements. Following this, an integrated solution for development of a group of closely related engineering objects is detailed and discussed. Finally, basic operation of two modeling procedures are introduced as a contribution to solutions for the problem of frequent changes of engineering objects described in product model.