There are many challenges associated with the design and realization of fast changing highly customized products. One promising approach is to implement design for manufacturing (DFM) strategies aimed at reducing production costs without compromising product quality. For manufacturers doing business in a globally distributed market place, effective reuse and sharing of the DFM knowledge in a collaborative environment is essential. In recent years, ontologies are increasingly used for knowledge management in engineering. Here, ontology is defined as a formal specification of domain knowledge that can be used to define a set of data and structure that enables experts to share information in a domain of interest, to aid information reasoning, and to manage and reuse data. The primary goal of this paper is to put forward the process of ontology development and utilization for DFM and to study the most important phases in the process, including: the concept categorization and class hierarchy development, slot categorization and development, identification and realization of relations among slots, and methods to support knowledge capture and reuse. Four cases are presented to illustrate the promising use of a DFM ontology. These cases prove that the DFM ontology and the process of ontology development and utilization for the DFM can facilitate the reuse of existing data, find the inconsistency and errors in data, reduce the work associated with populating the knowledge base of the ontology, and help designers make decisions by considering complex technical and economical criteria.
Skip Nav Destination
e-mail: changxm@vt.edu
e-mail: rarai@csufresno.edu
e-mail: terpenny@vt.edu
Article navigation
February 2010
Research Papers
Development and Utilization of Ontologies in Design for Manufacturing
Xiaomeng Chang,
Xiaomeng Chang
Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
e-mail: changxm@vt.edu
Virginia Tech
, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Search for other works by this author on:
Rahul Rai,
Rahul Rai
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
e-mail: rarai@csufresno.edu
California State University, Fresno
, Fresno, CA 93740
Search for other works by this author on:
Janis Terpenny
Janis Terpenny
Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Engineering Education,
e-mail: terpenny@vt.edu
Virginia Tech
, Blacksburg, VA 24061
Search for other works by this author on:
Xiaomeng Chang
Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
Virginia Tech
, Blacksburg, VA 24061e-mail: changxm@vt.edu
Rahul Rai
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
California State University, Fresno
, Fresno, CA 93740e-mail: rarai@csufresno.edu
Janis Terpenny
Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Department of Engineering Education,
Virginia Tech
, Blacksburg, VA 24061e-mail: terpenny@vt.edu
J. Mech. Des. Feb 2010, 132(2): 021009 (12 pages)
Published Online: February 9, 2010
Article history
Received:
October 22, 2008
Revised:
November 17, 2009
Online:
February 9, 2010
Published:
February 9, 2010
Citation
Chang, X., Rai, R., and Terpenny, J. (February 9, 2010). "Development and Utilization of Ontologies in Design for Manufacturing." ASME. J. Mech. Des. February 2010; 132(2): 021009. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4000697
Download citation file:
Get Email Alerts
Related Articles
Ontology-Based Multiplatform Identification Method
J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng (September,2010)
Balancing Marketing and Manufacturing Objectives in Product Line Design
J. Mech. Des (November,2006)
Semantic Applications Enabling Reasoning in Product Assembly Ontologies—Moving Past Modeling
J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng (March,2012)
Developing Engineering Ontology for Information Retrieval
J. Comput. Inf. Sci. Eng (March,2008)
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Chapters
The Research of Knowledge Management on Ontology
International Conference on Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering (EICE 2012)
Knowledge Discovery — Semantic Web
International Conference on Advanced Computer Theory and Engineering (ICACTE 2009)
Modeling Operation Plans Based on Ontology for Computer Generated Forces
International Conference on Electronics, Information and Communication Engineering (EICE 2012)