A graph grammar based approach for development of an internet-based product family information system

Companies are striving to deliver greater quality, more customization, faster response, more innovative designs and lower prices. The new shift in the current market has introduced the concept of product family design using a platform approach To provide a family of products require establishment of an information framework that can support product and process data exchange among different entities (design, manufacturing, etc.) of the enterprise Information such as: function, product, process, cost, etc., need to be readily available to ensure proper execution of a product family framework. In this paper, the focus is on generation and management of information among different segments of product development process. The paper presents, development of an information system, such that user customization information for the product, sent over the Internet, is utilized to generate function, assembly and product architecture information for the specified customer product. The information is provided to the customer and the manufacturer to facilitate making decisions regarding the product and associated process.