Acknowledgement - This work has been funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the DARPA Initiative in Concurrent Engineering (DICE) under contract No. MDA972-88-C-0047.

CERC Technical Report Series

Technical Memoranda

CERC-TR-TM-91-010

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP

George Trapp

1991

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: This effort has been sponsored by Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under contract No. MDA972-88-C-0047 for DARPA Initiative in Concurrent Engineering(DICE).

Concurrent Engineering Research Center
West Virginia University
Drawer 2000, Morgantown WV 26506

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP DICE/CERC George Trapp 2/21/91 page 2

ABSTRACT

In this talk, we show that there is an intimate relationship between Concurrent Engineering and PDES/STEP. We give various definitions and characteristics of Concurrent Engineering and discuss functional components of a Concurrent Engineering environment. We draw on IDA, CALS/CE and DICE for some of our information. We see that a Shared Information Model is a central component of a CE framework, and PDES/STEP provides such a data model. We use the CERC testbed to illustrate a particular instance of a shared information model, and describe the PDES/STEP connection. We observe that a PDES/STEP Application Protocol is a natural evolution of the fusion of Product Data and Concurrent Engineering. Finally, we note that Concurrent Engineering is a "fast follower" of PDES/STEP in terms of product data and physical file format, and Concurrent Engineering is a "fast leader" of PDES/STEP in the areas of process data and on-line data exchange.

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP DICE/CERC George Trapp 2/21/91 page 3

Biography of George Trapp

George Trapp is a Professor of Computer Science and a Researcher at the Concurrent Engineering Research Center at West Virginia University. He received his B. S., M. S. and Ph.D degrees at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Dr. Trapp has authored and co-authored over 50 professional publications. He has refereed numerous manuscripts, and is an Associate Editor for J. Circuits Systems and Signal Processing. He is a member of several professional and honor societies including: Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, AMS and SIAM.

He has been a consultant for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Morgantown Energy Technology Center. He has been acting Director of the West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing, WVU Computing Services and Academic Computing at WVU.

His research interests include geometric and product data representations, electrical network modeling, matrix analysis and operator means. He has been an active IPO participant for two years.

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP DICE/CERC George Trapp 2/21/91 page 4

Overview of the Presentation

Our aim here is to summarize the material prepared for the presentation. Additional details are found in the overhead transparencies. Copies of the overheads are included at the end of this overview.

Quoting from IDA Report R-338 authored by R. Winner, J. Pennell, H. Bertrand, and M. Slusarczuk, December 1988. " Concurrent Engineering is a systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of products and their related processes, including manufacture and support. This approach is intended to cause the developers, from the outset, to consider all elements of the product life cycle from conception through disposal, including quality, cost, schedule, and user requirements. "

Concurrent Engineering is also termed:

? Simultaneous Engineering
? Integrated Product Development
? Design the Product and Process at the same time ? Synchronous Product-Process Development ? Doing System Engineering Correctly
? Transition to Production

Concurrent Engineering enables: Total Quality Management, Satisfied Customers and Requirement Management; Concurrent Engineering facilitates: Decision Making, Early Problem Detection and Responsiveness.

Barriers to a CE environment are: complex products, processes and systems; traditional and hierarchical organizations; and discipline incompatibility. In Figure 1, we illustrate a cooperating human team. In Figure 2, we illustrate a concurrent environment. Combining these two

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP DICE/CERC George Trapp 2/21/91 page 5

notions one obtains the Concurrent Engineering virtual team depicted in Figure 3. There are clearly two elements involved: The human or cultural element as represented by team behavior and the technology element represented by co-locating decision making.

unified
product
concept

design manufacturing

materials
support

FIGURE 1: The Human Team

Support

Manufacturing

Design

R&D

progressive refinement

Product

intent,
requirements

consequences,
constraints changes
FIGURE 2: Concurrency

Concurrent Engineering PDES/STEP DICE/CERC George Trapp 2/21/91 page 6

Unified
Product
Model