Browsing by Author "Gao, James X."
Now showing 1 - 20 of 20
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Acquisition and sharing of innovative manufacturing knowledge for preliminary design(Cranfield University, 2009) Mountney, Sara; Gao, James X.; Roy, RajkumarThis study investigates the identification, acquisition and sharing of innovative manufacturing knowledge for the preliminary design of complex mechanical components. Such components need to satisfy multiple, often conflicting design and performance requirements. Some degree of innovation may be required, involving the development of new manufacturing processes. The innovative nature of this manufacturing knowledge makes it difficult to define, codify and share, especially during preliminary design, where this can present significant risks in the design process. Current methods of knowledge sharing do not account for the immature nature of innovative manufacturing knowledge and the combined explicit and tacit elements needed to express it. A flexible interpretive research study with inductive and hypothesis testing elements was undertaken to explore this novel knowledge management problem. During the inductive phase, two data collection activities were undertaken to investigate the manufacturing knowledge required for the preliminary design of gas turbine engines. Using a data driven approach, the main findings which emerged were: the need to include an assessment of the maturity of the design process; the need to use a range of tacit and explicit knowledge to effectively share this and the need to manage knowledge across different domain boundaries. A conceptual framework of the findings was used to develop a hypothesis of knowledge requirements for preliminary design. For the hypothesis testing phase, a systematic methodology to identify, acquire and share innovative manufacturing knowledge for preliminary design was developed from the knowledge requirements. This approach allowed both explicit and tacit knowledge sharing. An evaluation of the methodology took place using three different industrial cases, each with a different component / manufacturing process. The evaluations demonstrated that using the range of knowledge types for transferring knowledge was effective for the specific cases studied and confirmed the hypothesis developed.Item Open Access A collaboration framework to support decision making in new product development with the supply chain(Cranfield University Press, 2013-09-19) Hasan, Syed; Shah, Satya; Gao, James X.Management use the supply chain features more frequently, as the increasing rate of product introduc-tions demands more efforts from a business to deliver new products effectively and efficiently. To produce products at the targeted cost, time, and quality, the supply chain must be aligned with product development processes. This will allow manufacturing firms to overcome problems such as (partially) failed product launches due to the lack of timely provision of parts and systems caused by insufficient capacities in the supply chain. With integrated New Product Development (NPD) and Supply Chain Management (SCM), enterprises have the benefit of increased supply chain capability, thus increasing the effectiveness of new product introduction and improving their overall performance. In this re-search, the authors have tried to link NPD of an automotive manufacturer to its global network of suppliers. The integration points in the integrated NPD and SCM framework will provide guidelines to identifying where critical decision are made in collaboration with the supply chain.Item Open Access A collaborative machine tool maintenance planning system based on content management technologies(Springer, 2016-12-03) Wan, Shan; Li, Dongbo; Gao, James X.; Roy, Rajkumar; He, FeiFrom product maintenance and service point of view, high-value sophisticated computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools in modern manufacturing factories play important roles: they are manufacturing equipment, and on the other hand, they are also products supplied by equipment manufacturers. There is a trend that manufacturers are extending their responsibilities to the products use phase to meet customers’ requirements for lifetime support and service. To ensure the effective performance and efficient maintenance of high-value machine tools, information and knowledge from their lifecycle should be collected and reused. However, in the research area of product service systems and related computerised maintenance systems, there is a lack of research work on how to integrate knowledge from different stakeholders into the maintenance and service planning process, which is important for modern digital manufacturing systems to reduce machine tools’ downtime and improve their working performance. This project proposed a collaborative maintenance planning framework to connect different stakeholders and integrate their knowledge into the maintenance and service process. The potential of advanced content management systems (CMSs), which are widely used non-engineering sectors such as finance, business, publishing and government organisations, has been explored and tested for applications in the manufacturing engineering domain. The research realised that CMSs have several advantages compared with traditional engineering information systems, especially in managing dynamic and unstructured knowledge. A prototype maintenance and service planning system has been developed and evaluated using a real CNC machine tool.Item Open Access Developing a conceptual framework for the field failure feedback process from service-to-design(Cranfield University, 2009-07-01) Ajayi, M. O.; Smart, Palie; Gao, James X.This thesis addresses the product field failure feedback process from service-to-design,for the purposes of product enhancement within the heating technology manufacturing industry. The research provides insights into existing problems with processing field failure data as an aid to service, design and quality practitioners in their functional roles to support product performance, quality and reliability improvements. Extant research on field feedback process have examined field feedback as a fragmented process and focused mainly on improving the speed and quality of the information flow within. This study investigates such feedback as a holistic process and concentrates on operationalising and improving the feedback between service and design. Understanding what is pleasing and dissatisfying for customers is critical for success in today's competitive market environment. Thus, this requires a systematic process for obtaining feedback from the field about product-in-use performance to influence the design of future product and service market offerings that will genuinely contribute to increased customer satisfaction. The feedback of product-in-use performance data can be used by design engineers to identify potential product failures and prioritise reliability issues, and so prevent their reoccurrence. Furthermore, product innovation and development processes are increasingly driven by shorter time to market, increasing product complexity, and increasing customer demands, all of which have contributed to the challenges of improving feedback from the service to the design. Such challenges need to be addressed if firms wish to actively pursue sustainable product innovation and develop genuine levels of organizational learning. An in-depth case study was conducted with a sponsoring company and qualitative and qualitative data was collected through interviews, and questionnaire surveys. The results from the literature reviews and empirical work have been amalgamated to develop a conceptual framework for the effective field failure feedback process from service-to-design. The framework articulates the various stages of the feedback process and the operational conditions that privilege its effective management and organisation. This framework was subsequently validated with industrial experts using case study methods, following which refinements were incorporated into its overall design.Item Open Access Development of a Process Based Data Driven Engineering Design Knowledge Reuse System.(CAD Solutions (USA), 2006) Baxter, David; Gao, James X.This paper will describe the development of the web enabled version of a process based engineering design knowledge reuse system. The rationale for using the design process as a central element of knowledge management will be discussed. The system structure will be described. Evaluation of the prototype showed the most valuable attributes of system. Mapping the design process helped to create the product data model. Workshops were used to validate the system. A small number of product parameters are required for developing the product concept in the early stages. The research showed the importance of multi view validation and iteration in system development. It also showed the importance of graphics in design support. Key issues include: the importance of process capture, data model validation, the use of graphics in the interface, system design and system assessment.Item Open Access An engineering design knowledge reuse methodology using process modelling(Springer, 2007-05) Baxter, David; Gao, James X.; Case, Keith; Harding, Jenny; Young, Bob; Cochrane, Sean; Dani, ShilpaThis paper describes an approach for reusing engineering design knowledge. Many previous design knowledge reuse systems focus exclusively on geometrical data, which is often not applicable in early design stages. The proposed methodology provides an integrated design knowledge reuse framework, bringing together elements of best practice reuse, design rationale capture and knowledge-based support in a single coherent framework. Best practices are reused through the process model. Rationale is supported by product information, which is retrieved through links to design process tasks. Knowledge-based methods are supported by a common design data model, which serves as a single source of design data to support the design process. By using the design process as the basis for knowledge structuring and retrieval, it serves the dual purpose of design process capture and knowledge reuse: capturing and formalising the rationale that underpins the design process, and providing a framework through which design knowledge can be stored, retrieved and applied. The methodology has been tested with an industrial sponsor producing high vacuum pumps for the semiconductor industry.Item Open Access A framework to integrate design knowledge reuse and requirements management in engineering design(Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam., 2008-08-13T00:00:00Z) Baxter, David; Gao, James X.; Case, K.; Harding, J.; Young, R.; Cochrane, Sean; Dani, S.This paper presents a framework to integrate requirements management and design knowledge reuse. The research approach begins with a literature review in design reuse and requirements management to identify appropriate methods within each domain. A framework is proposed based on the identified requirements. The framework is then demonstrated using a case study example: vacuum pump design. Requirements are presented as a component of the integrated design knowledge framework. The proposed framework enables the application of requirements management as a dynamic process, including capture, analysis and recording of requirements. It takes account of the evolving requirements and the dynamic nature of the interaction between requirements and product structure through the various stages of product development. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Open Access Implementation of STEP Application Protocol 224 in an automated manufacturing planning system.(Professional Engineering Publishing, 2002-09) Sharma, R.; Gao, James X.This paper reports the results of an on-going research project at Cranfield University in collaboration with a leading consultant company. A major objective of the research to develop a new generation process planning system using the latest tools and technologies, and to fully comply with the international standard for the exchange of product model data (STEP) Application Protocol 224 (AP224) for process planning using machining features. Although AP224 has been accepted as an international standard, there is a surprising lack of compatible software packages in the market. The developed prototype STEP-enabled manufacturing planning system (SMPS) can generate process plans and associated documents from AP224 files automatically, without any user interaction. The system consists of decision logic stored in an external database that makes it generic and compatible with any manufacturing application. A graphical tool is provided for knowledge/logic capture. The system can also accept a feature tree generated using the feature model editor (FME), which has been developed as an add-on to the system. The FME is intended to be a tool for conceptual design of simple components. The FME feature tree is used in the early design stage while the AP224 file generated from the detailed design model is used in the later stages. The prototype system is intended for single-piece machined (prismatic) parts and has been tested with case studies provided by the project collaborators.Item Open Access An investigation into product structure management using product data management systems(1998-09) Ollerton, Patrick; Gao, James X.With the increased use of Computer aided Design (CAD), Computer aided Manufacturing (CAM) and Computer aided Engineering (CAE), many engineering and manufacturing companies are experiencing problems with managing their product related data or information. Product Data Management (PDM) systems are tools that catalogue and manage all types of product data / information. PDM systems also offer Product Structure / Bill of Material management functions that are used for defining and analysing product configurations. In order to maximise the benefit of PDM systems, methods of creating generic Product Structure / BoM’s need to be developed and evaluated. The possibility and effects of extending Product Structure / BoM access to departments other then design is investigated in the research. Combined with these factors is the need for transfer of data from PDM systems to manufacturing software such as Computer aided Process Planning (CAPP) and Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP). The research also contains an investigation into the potential effects of emerging technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), object - oriented database management systems (OODMS) and the internet. Finally, the project includes two industrial case studies focusing on Matra BAE Dynamics Ltd and Rolls - Royce Aerospace and a market research survey.Item Open Access A knowledge management framework to support product-service systems design(Taylor & Francis, 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z) Baxter, David; Roy, Rajkumar; Doultsinou, Athanasia; Gao, James X.; Kalta, M.This paper presents a framework for knowledge reuse in a Product-Service Systems design scenario. The project aim is to develop a methodology to capture, represent and reuse knowledge to support product development in a collaborative enterprise context. The three core elements are: design knowledge, manufacturing capability knowledge, and service knowledge. There are three principal components of the proposed methodology. The first is a process based design model: defining design according to specific tasks, and associating previous knowledge with those tasks. The second is manufacturing capability knowledge: supporting feature based design and manufacture through representing machining features, best practices in machining and inspection, and machining capability. The third component is service knowledge: ensuring that design takes account of the service requirement. The developing paradigm of Product-Service Systems and the requirement for co-design of products and services has influenced the structure of the knowledge base, as well as outlining specific service related requirements. This paper presents the proposed knowledge base structure along with a detailed case study in which the proposal was developed and validated.Item Open Access A life cycle model for Product-Service Systems design(Publibook, 2008-10-22) Baxter, David; Doultsinou, Athanasia; Roy, Rajkumar; Gao, James X.Western manufacturing companies are developing innovative ways of delivering value that competes with the low cost paradigm. One such strategy is to deliver not only products, but systems that are closely aligned with the customer value proposition. These systems are comprised of integrated products and services, and are referred to as Product-Service Systems (PSS). A key challenge in PSS is supporting the design activity. In one sense, PSS design is a further extension of concurrent engineering that requires front-end input from the additional downstream sources of product service and maintenance. However, simply developing products and service packages is not sufficient: the new design challenge is the integrated system. This paper describes the development of a PSS data structure that can support this integrated design activity. The data structure is implemented in a knowledge base using the Protégé knowledge base editor.Item Open Access Managing knowledge within the manufacturing enterprise: An overview(Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z) Baxter, David; Roy, Rajkumar; Gao, James X.This paper examines the literature relating to manufacturing knowledge and describes how it contributes to the manufacturing enterprise. The review shows that there is a strong emphasis on design in the manufacturing knowledge research domain, and that detailed design is the main focus for current research. An analysis is carried out according to publication date and consequently trends are identified. The design focus is increasing, and the trends show that the domain is driven by industrial applications. The contribution to fundamental research in areas such as knowledge modelling is increasing. Areas that currently have little work in this domain include conceptual design and service.Item Open Access Manufacturing knowledge verification in design support systems(Taylor & Francis, 2009-12-01T00:00:00Z) Cochrane, Sean; Young, R.; Case, K.; Harding, J.; Gao, James X.; Dani, S.; Baxter, DavidThis paper identifies the need for a verification methodology for manufacturing knowledge in design support systems; and proposes a suitable methodology based on the concept of ontological commitment and the PSL ontology (ISO/CD18629). The use of the verification procedures within an overall system development methodology is examined, and an understanding of how various categories of manufacturing knowledge (typical to design support systems) map onto the PSL ontology is developed. This work is also supported by case study material from industrial situations, including: the casting and machining of metallic components. The PSL ontology was found to support the verification of most categories of manufacturing knowledge, and was shown to be particularly suited to process planning representations. Additional concepts and verification procedures were however needed to verify relationships between products and manufacturing processes. Suitable representational concepts and verification procedures were therefore developed, and integrated into the proposed knowledge verification methodology.Item Open Access Open standard, open source and peer-to-peer tools and methods for collaborative product development(Elsevier, 2005-04) Aziz, Hayder; Gao, James X.; Maropoulos, Paul G.; Cheung, Wai M.This paper reports on a collaborative product development and knowledge management platform for small to medium enterprises. It has been recognised that current product lifecycle management (PLM) implementations are document oriented, have a non-customisable data model and inter-enterprise integration difficulties. To overcome these, an ontological knowledge management methodology utilising the semantic web initiative data formats was added to a PLM and an open source alternative. Shortcomings of centralised architectures are highlighted and a solution using a de-centralised architecture proposed. This is implementable at low cost; the scalability increases in line with user numbers. Ontologies, rules and workflows are reusable and extendable.Item Open Access Process and knowledge management in a collaborative maintenance planning system for high value machine tools(Elsevier, 2016-11-17) Wan, Shan; Li, Dongbo; Gao, James X.; Roy, Rajkumar; Tong, YifeiProduct manufacturers are extending their responsibilities in the whole life cycle by providing services to their customers. In recent years, product service system has become an important research topic to address the special requirements in the new service driven business model. High value machine tools in modern manufacturing factories are special products: they are regarded as ‘products’ from maintenance point of view, and they also manufacture other products. In the new business model, the quality and behavior of a machine tool not only affect the quality of the parts it manufactures, but also affect the profits of the machine tool’s manufacturer. However, in the research area of product service systems and related computerized maintenance systems, there is a lack of investigation into the special nature, problems and requirements of high value machine tool maintenance, which are very important in modern digitized manufacturing systems. Therefore, this research investigated the various relationships between different stakeholders in the machine tools’ lifecycle, focusing on knowledge management, communication and the decision-making processes. This research also explored the potential application of advanced content management systems, which are widely implemented in the financial, business and government organizations, in the manufacturing engineering domain which has been dominated by traditional engineering information systems. A prototype collaborative maintenance planning system is proposed, developed and evaluated using an example machine tool, which indicated that significant improvement could be achieved and the content management technology has a number of advantages over the traditional engineering information systems, such as computer aided engineering, product data and lifecycle management, and enterprise resource planning systems, in managing machine tool maintenance and service information including dynamic and unstructured knowledge.Item Open Access A process-based approach to engineering design knowledge reuse(2007-06) Baxter, David; Gao, James X.Manufacturing enterprises are under increasing pressure to produce products of higher quality at lower cost in shorter time frames if they are to remain competitive. Engineering design support methods can help companies to achieve these goals. One such approach is ,,design knowledge reuse. Industrial requirements have been identified as (i) the ability to rapidly create product variants; (ii) the ability to capture and re-use design knowledge, and; (iii) the capability to support the design effort across a distributed enterprise. The research aim is developed to assist the manufacturing enterprise in meeting the industrial requirements in the following way: a design solution to a new product requirement can be supported using an application package that is developed for a specific product domain. The application package consists of knowledge about previous products and projects, and procedures for using the knowledge to achieve a new solution. An initial investigation showed that design reuse in practice is lacking in specific areas: access to relevant and contextualised captured design knowledge; the relationship between design reuse and the product development process; integrated engineering and business objectives. Literature gaps were also identified. They include: (i) knowledge reuse for the whole product life cycle (particularly early design); (ii) integrated product and design process models; (iii) a 'how-to' element of the product design process. The aim of this research is to provide a method for reusing engineering design knowledge. The research method is 'interview case study', which supports a flexible approach and enables the research to develop according to the findings. The research was carried out with four companies, one of which took part in a detailed case study, providing case data to develop, populate and validate the proposed system. The outcome of the research is a proposal for a process based engineering design reuse method. The method consists, of a combination of product, process and task knowledge to support the design process. Product knowledge is represented using a product ontology. Process knowledge is represented using the Design Roadmap method. Task knowledge is represented using a template developed to record the critical aspects of the task, including 'how-to' knowledge. Case studies are used to validate the proposed framework and the developed prototype system. The proposed design knowledge reuse framework is applicable to a range of industries in which mature, complex products are developed.Item Open Access A process-based approach to engineering design knowledge reuse(Cranfield University, 2007-06) Baxter, David; Gao, James X.Manufacturing enterprises are under increasing pressure to produce products of higher quality at lower cost in shorter time frames if they are to remain competitive. Engineering design support methods can help companies to achieve these goals. One such approach is design knowledge reuse. Industrial requirements have been identified as (i) the ability to rapidly create product variants; (ii) the ability to capture and re-use design knowledge, and; (iii) the capability to support the design effort across a distributed enterprise. The research aim is developed to assist the manufacturing enterprise in meeting the industrial requirements in the following way: a design solution to a new product requirement can be supported using an application package that is developed for a specific product domain. The application package consists of knowledge about previous products and projects, and procedures for using the knowledge to achieve a new solution. An initial investigation showed that design reuse in practice is lacking in specific areas: access to relevant and contextualised captured design knowledge; the relationship between design reuse and the product development process; integrated engineering and business objectives. Literature gaps were also identified. They include: (i) knowledge reuse for the whole product life cycle (particularly early design); (ii) integrated product and design process models; (iii) a ‘how-to’ element of the product design process. The aim of this research is to provide a method for reusing engineering design knowledge. The research method is ‘interview case study’, which supports a flexible approach and enables the research to develop according to the findings. The research was carried out with four companies, one of which took part in a detailed case study, providing case data to develop, populate and validate the proposed system. The outcome of the research is a proposal for a process based engineering design reuse method. The method consists of a combination of product, process and task knowledge to support the design process. Product knowledge is represented using a product ontology. Process knowledge is represented using the Design Roadmap method. Task knowledge is represented using a template developed to record the critical aspects of the task, including ‘how-to’ knowledge. Case studies are used to validate the proposed framework and the developed prototype system. The proposed design knowledge reuse framework is applicable to a range of industries in which mature, complex products are developed.Item Open Access A Prototype Method and Tool to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing in the New Product Development Process(Cranfield University, 2007-09) Bradfield, D. J.; Gao, James X.; Smart, PalieNew Product Development (NPD) plays a critical role in the success of manufacturing firms. Activities in the product development process are dependent on the exchange of knowledge among NPD project team members. Increasingly, many organisations consider effective knowledge sharing to be a source of competitive advantage. However, the sharing of knowledge is often inhibited in various ways. This doctoral research presents an exploratory case study conducted at a multinational physical goods manufacturer. This investigation uncovered three, empirically derived and theoretically informed, barriers to knowledge sharing. They have been articulated as the lack of an explicit definition of information about the knowledge used and generated in the product development process, and the absence of mechanisms to make this information accessible in a multilingual environment and to disseminate it to NPD project team members. Collectively, these barriers inhibit a shared understanding of product development process knowledge. Existing knowledge management methodologies have focused on the capture of knowledge, rather than providing information about the knowledge and have not explicitly addressed issues regarding knowledge sharing in a multilingual environment. This thesis reports a prototype method and tool to facilitate knowledge sharing that addresses all three knowledge sharing barriers. Initially the research set out to identify and classify new product development process knowledge and then sought to determine what information about specific knowledge items is required by project teams. Based on the exploratory case findings, an ontology has been developed that formally defines information about this knowledge and allows it to be captured in a knowledge acquisition tool, thereby creating a knowledge base. A mechanism is provided to permit language labels to be attached to concepts and relations in the ontology, making it accessible to speakers of different languages. A dissemination tool allows the ontology and knowledge base to be viewed via a Web browser client. Essentially, the ontology and mechanisms facilitate a knowledge sharing capability. Some initial validation was conducted to better understand implementation issues and future deployment of the prototype method and tool in practice.Item Open Access Service and manufacturing knowledge in product-service systems: a case study(Cranfield University Press, 2009-04-01) Doultsinou, Athanasia; Baxter, David; Roy, Rajkumar; Gao, James X.; Mann, A.; Rajkumar Roy; Essam ShehabIn the developing Product-Service Systems (PSS) field, an emerging research challenge is supporting the PSS design activity. This paper presents a case study in which manufacturing and service knowledge is captured and classified in order to support the design activity. A knowledge capture exercise took place to identify manufacturing and service knowledge applied in the design process. A design knowledge capture exercise led to the creation of a design process model. The case study reports on the proposed structure for the application of manufacturing and service knowledge to a conceptual and a detailed design task. The knowledge framework is implemented using the Protégé knowledge base editor. PSS design requires an integrated system level approach to design, and therefore a system level knowledge structure is required. The detailed case study indicates where manufacturing and service knowledge is applied in the design activity, which is divided into ‘conceptual’ and ‘detailed’ stages.Item Open Access A TRIZ Based Methodology for the Analysis of the Coupling Problems in Complex Engineering Design(Cranfield University Press, 2009-03-31) Fei, G.; Gao, James X.; Tang, X. Q.; Rajkumar Roy; Essam ShehabConceptual design is a critical and innovative stage in engineering product and system design. In the conceptual design process, it would be ideal if all functional requirements are maintained independently according to the law of Axiomatic Design theory. However, in practice, especially in complex engineering product and system design, more often the requirements are not independent (or coupled), and this makes conceptual design more difficult. In this paper, a coupling analysis methodology, framework and related techniques are proposed which integrate axiomatic design with the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ), in order to identify and analyse the coupling problems existing in conceptual design. An illustrative example is also presented.