A framework of ontology-enabled product knowledge management

Comparable products are launched to the market rapidly and product life cycles have been shortening. Reducing the product development time becomes one of the crucial factors to the success of a company. Product Data Management (PDM) systems and their offsprings create a collaborative environment allowing seamless interoperability between departments within enterprises. However, product data may become abandoned and its value diminishes when the development is completed. The paper proposes a framework to the above problem to facilitate a faster product development environment. In particular, a methodology is developed that is aimed at promoting the reusability of product data and knowledge generated from the past product development in order to increase the efficiency in developing new products. A leading PDM system is used to manage the product data and knowledge. An alternative evaluation engine is integrated to evaluate the usability of existing parts and products for the development of a new product. An ontology editor is utilised to enable the integration of the PDM system and the alternative engine.