DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE-BASED MANUFACTURING MODELING SYSTEM BASED ON IDEF0 FOR THE METAL-CUTTING INDUSTRY

This paper look into a new area for knowledge-based system application , that of manufacturing modelling. The objective is to develop a knowl edge-based manufacturing modelling system that can be used to build co mpany-specific ''as-is'' and ''to-be'' IDEF0 models, and can therefore greatly reduce the turnaround time and effort involved in IDEF0 model ling of manufacturing systems, which can be time-consuming if done man ually or even with the aid of a commercially available software packag e like DESIGN/IDEF(TM). This is especially so when the systems being m odelled are large and complex. Besides, there is also the inconsistenc y problem associated with conventional IDEF0 modelling systems owing t o the terms and terminologies in IDEF0 not being precisely defined, an d hence being subject to individual interpretations. In this paper, a knowledge-based IDEF0 modelling system that can not only automate the tiresome and time-consuming process of manufacturing modelling but can also eliminate the inconsistency problem is proposed. The paper expla ins the knowledge-based approach to automated generation of IDEF0 mode ls, and also identifies the kinds of domain knowledge that are require d for the construction of the knowledge-based manufacturing modelling system.