MODELING AND MANAGEMENT OF PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE IN AN ENGINEER-TO-ORDER BUSINESS MODEL

Abstract

To adopt an engineer-to-order (ETO) business model when competing on a market where competitors’ products are mass-produced is a challenge. However, a competitive edge can be gained if the principles of ETO and mass production successfully can be combined. High level of customer adaptation requires systems for efficient generation of product variants with associated specifications for automated manufacturing. To maintain these systems’s usefulness over time, frequent updating will normally become a necessity. Of equal importance, is the reuse of the system encapsulated generic product family objects when developing a new product family. In this paper a case study is presented with the main objective to provide a system foundation for modeling and management of product knowledge supporting reuse, expansion and maintenance of system embedded objects. One of the central parts of the framework is the Meta-Knowledge Containers, labeled Descriptions for the case company. A Description contains both a definition of system embedded objects as well as the rationale behind their design. Traceability is gained by linking of Descriptions, individually and to documents, models and items.

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