Extended Lecture Shinshu University Nagano City Japan April

Extended Lecture Shinshu University · Nagano City, Japan April 22, 2002 Engineering IT Summary & Recommendations Russell Peak Senior Researcher Manufacturing Research Center Georgia Tech

Status - Information Modeling u u STEP Express & related techniques provide good representation capability for engineering complexities XML alone is insufficient (syntax format) – “Challenges to Effective Adoption of the Extensible Markup Language” GAO-02 -327 report, www. gao. gov u Need content description provided by Express and existing STEP standards (AP 2 xx, etc. ) – Leverage many man-years of effort invested to create content standards – On synergy: “STEP & XML” - a European Maritime STEP Association (EMSA) white paper, http: //www. lsc. co. uk/downloads/stepandxml. pdf 2

Status - STEP u First Release - 1994 Collection – Foundations for engineering IT – Mechanical CAD/geometry-oriented – Successful and in wide-spread use today u Second Release - ~2001 Collection – New richer content (APs) » Finite Element Analysis - AP 209 » Electronics - AP 210 » Wiring harnesses/looms - AP 212 » Construction & process plant industry - AP 225, AP 227 – New implementations: » Database sharing (vs. just file exchange) » The Web - using XML – Emerging vendor support and usage 3

Status - STEP (cont. ) u Coming capabilities (in-process) – New application areas » Shipbuilding suite of APs » Process Plant pipework » Systems Engineering » New integrated information for manufacturing » Rapid Prototyping for Layered Manufacturing » Product Life Cycle Support – Modular architecture - recognizing common clusters of engineering concepts » Improved interoperability 4

Overall Engineering IT u Emerging emphasis on standards-based engineering frameworks – Combination of standards: ISO STEP, OMG, W 3 C, … u Dealing with current gaps – Recognize the root causes: » Semantic gaps, associativity gaps, etc. – Fill gap » Obtain or develop tools that fill gap (if possible) or » Setup manual/custom processes to cover gaps – Promote standardization of solutions 5

Standards vs. Competitive Factors for CAD/E/M Vendor u Vendor non-core business: – External information models and interfaces » Not a threat, but a valuable capability for customers u Vendor core business: – Tools to create and interact with subsets of these information models u Vendor tool distinguishing factors – Functionality algorithms » Populate, change, view models in innovative ways – Performance algorithms » Do operations faster than competition – User interface » Provide intuitive, valuable interaction mechanisms » Minimize mouse-clicks (required user actions) » Maximize views: “absorbable knowledge density” 6