Engineering%20IT%20Summary%20

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Engineering IT Summary Recommendations
Extended LectureShinshu University Nagano
City, JapanApril 22, 2002

• Russell Peak
• Senior Researcher
• Manufacturing Research Center
• Georgia Tech

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Status - Information Modeling

• 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
• Need content description provided by Express and
  existing STEP standards (AP2xx, 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

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Status - STEP

• First Release - 1994 Collection
• Foundations for engineering IT
• Mechanical CAD/geometry-oriented
• Successful and in wide-spread use today
• Second Release - 2001 Collection
• New richer content (APs)
• Finite Element Analysis - AP209
• Electronics - AP210
• Wiring harnesses/looms - AP212
• Construction process plant industry - AP225,
  AP227
• New implementations
• Database sharing (vs. just file exchange)
• The Web - using XML
• Emerging vendor support and usage

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Status - STEP (cont.)

• 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

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Overall Engineering IT

• Emerging emphasis on standards-based engineering
  frameworks
• Combination of standards ISO STEP, OMG, W3C,
• 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

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Standards vs. Competitive Factors for CAD/E/M
Vendor

• Vendor non-core business
• External information models and interfaces
• Not a threat, but a valuable capability for
  customers
• Vendor core business
• Tools to create and interact with subsets of
  these information models
• 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