Moving Toward a Product Model to Manage Data, Information and Knowledge for Mechanical Design and Simulation

Considering the current economic and industrial context, companies want to streamline and optimize their design processes, particularly in the upstream phases where the potential gains are the greatest [1]. Engineers have to use new knowledge management methods and tools in order to support a comprehensive PLM approach. In this paper, we propose a new product model called "KCModel" focused on interoperability issues and coherence between design and simulation models in the early phases of the mechanical design cycle. The large number of CAD models and simulation representations involved in these early phases increase the difficulty to share and maintain the coherence of design data related to different views of the product.