COMPOSING AND COMBINING COMPLEX DESIGNS FROM DIFFERENT PROJECT PERSPECTIVES

Authors
Citation
A. Demaid et J. Zucker, COMPOSING AND COMBINING COMPLEX DESIGNS FROM DIFFERENT PROJECT PERSPECTIVES, International journal of computer integrated manufacturing, 9(6), 1996, pp. 454-462
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Computer Sciences","Computer Science Interdisciplinary Applications","Engineering, Manufacturing","Operatione Research & Management Science
ISSN journal
0951192X
Volume
9
Issue
6
Year of publication
1996
Pages
454 - 462
Database
ISI
SICI code
0951-192X(1996)9:6<454:CACCDF>2.0.ZU;2-F
Abstract
A set of data manipulation and visualization tools is presented that a ct over engineering information fi om separate sources representing di fferent perspectives on the same problem. The information is in the fo rm of low-level transmitted data and enhanced data in the form of sepa rate hierarchies that can be created independently by different (teams of) users ol by enhancing the low-level, external data while maintain ing the external relationship for tl le purpose of updating. The separ ation of hierarchies appeals to some fairly pragmatic technological or scientific principles from the domain in question, The POISE mechanis m presented here provides a way in in which these organizationally dis tinct, discipline-specific information hierarchies can be accessed whe n answering a query and visualized for browsing orediting purposes. Th e control over this system of intercommunication between separate pers pectives is by a system of message delegation. Responsibility for resp onding to a message passes around a small society of active objects th at call each contribute their own partial knowledge. This technique of allowing objects to offer part of the answer to one original query ma rks a considerable expansion of tile features of a design or project d atabase. The importance of a scheme of message delegation, such as the one implemented in POISE, is that concurrent engineering projects fre quently need to work with well organized but partial information sourc es, Manufacturing, product, and materials information manipulated for engineering decision-making purposes is used to exemplify this general -purpose representational system for partial descriptions.