A designer workbench with real-time capture and reuse of information on product evolution and rationale

Abstract

Product Life Cycle Management promises management of all intellectual assets generated for all life cycle phases of a product [1]. This includes supporting capture and structure of information generated about an evolving product during the PD process [1]. Many structures for product information [3, 4, 5, 6] and rationale information [7, 8] have been suggested, and some turned into a tool, e.g. [7, 8]. However, a practical tool for automated capture and structure of product information including rationale information without interrupting the working of the designer, especially as a product evolves through the PD process, is yet to be developed. The framework reported here has been developed by analysing the proceedings from design experiments and literature to capture, segregate and store the information generated in product design without interrupting designer. The main features of the framework are implemented into the preliminary version of a software tool and evaluated for the ease of use and reuse for designers and re-designers (re-users of rationale). The main functions currently supported are: creation and modification of a three-dimensional assembly, exploring the details of a version tree and product structure, and, exploring the events via video/audio clips attached to the version tree.