SUPPORTING AGGREGATE PROCESS PLANNING WITH PRODUCT, PROCESS AND RESOURCE KNOWLEDGE

摘要

Enterprise knowledge regarding products and processes has a significant influence on the ultimate performance of a manufacturing system. This is because decisions made early on can have major implications later in the design cycle, particularly if design is loosely connected to production. An automated decision support system to codify and manage expert knowledge relating to all areas of process planning is reported herein. The purpose of Knowledge-Enriched Process Planning (KEPP) is to enable designers and planners to make better-informed decisions during product design, manufacturing system configuration and subcontracting. Knowledge-Enriched Process Planning consists of two elements; (ⅰ) knowledge capture and (ⅱ) knowledge management. The methods presented in this paper define an XML-based protocol for knowledge capture, transforming qualitative corporate knowledge, statements and facts, into quantitative values which can then be processed and attached to process plan entities for further analysis.