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In The Name of God

ERP Paper PresentationProduct Model

Amin VahidiRasul SaliMajid Ramezani

Fall 2010

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Some Points

We do not discuss on subjects that talked in

class just have a brief review.

We endeavor to refuse from telling vague and

fuzzy concepts!!! And making the subject

more scientific rather than personal

discussions!!!

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Introduction to Product ModelProduct : result of interactions of all processes.Product model : A structured model that extend knowledge. And a roadmap from product initiation to product disposal.Answer to “what”, ”how”, “why” and “when” on knowledge

creation process.Often product model refer to product structure model. Also we concentrate on this type. But it has some other kinds that we mention.

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Product Structure ModelProduct structure is a hierarchical decomposition of a

product, typically known as the bill of materials(BOM).Product structure views

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Other ModelsConfiguration-oriented product modelling :Used for high level of customization. (Will be describe later

as functional description of a product)Product configuration is a special case of design activity,

i.e., Selecting components from a predefined component library and connecting these components according to customer requirements.

LPM : Logical product model (LPM) that the architecture,

engineering and construction (AEC) industry is embarking on for information technology (IT) integration.

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Other Models (Continued)GPM: Generic product model (will be describe later)STEP product modelling is a widespread standard product

model that based on GPM.Ontological product modeling : An explicit and formal specification of a shared

conceptualization of a product.Provides a conceptual framework for talking about product

application domain.

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Introduction to GPM

Development of a large number of applications and formats which often have limited compatibility between each other.

Japanese HITACHI company has proposed a format, called the generic product model (GPM).

Based on standard for exchange of product model (STEP).

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Generic Product ModelGPM was initially developed for nuclear powerplant data

handlingGPM is based on several standards such as :

IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specifications) 4.0 and 5.0 that handle piping drawings and 3D representations

ISO 10303 standard, also called STEP (Standard for Exchange of Product model)

GPM is a model that describes one to many relationships. It defines that objects are simply connected to objects via associations. This is called a core model.

These associations can be seen as verbs that link together a subject and one to several objects as illustrated in Figure 1 and 2.

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Generic Product Model (Continued)

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A. GPM-XML

The GPM model is used for the representation of the

relations between objects.

To do so, GPM-XML has been developed. This language

based on the W3C XML uses strings that make GPM-XML

very close to natural language and therefore easily

understandable by humans.

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B. Association Library

The association file contains information about an

association name, its meaning and its roles .

The 19 existing GPM associations are based on EPISTLE,

POSC/CAESER and USPI-NL. However 8 of these 19

associations are sufficient to describe a plant product data.

Among these associations, we can cite "is_an_instance_of',

"is_assembled_from", and "has_property_of'.

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C. Class Library

A class is defined as the regrouping of several objects that

have the same classification, semantics, names and

attributes and that can be recognized as common by

everybody.

GPM classes are object-oriented and inherit all the nature

of their super class(es) (multiple inheritance).

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D. Instances

Instances represent the allocations of classes and

attributes for the purpose of the unique recognition and the

designation of the attributes and relationships between

other instances.

While classes describe concepts and groups of objects,

instances represent real world objects.

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TECHNOINFRAA technology knowledge infrastructure developed. It is composed of the following four layers :Existing systems layer: This layer is TECHNOINFRA's

entrance as it contains the legacy system files that willbe translated into GPM.

Data integration : This layer contains GPM class and association libraries as well as the GPM translated data.

Data mining layer: This layer is used for the exploitation of stored GPM data

Thin client layer : This layer allows users to visualize 2D, 3D data as well as data represented in trees using web browsers.

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TECHNOINFRA (Continued)

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MANAGEMENT DATA SHARING A. Methodology

Management data : data stored in ERPs that are used to run

companies.

First step : mapping these data with GPM objects and related

attributes.

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B. Management Data Format

The ERP of large scale companies market is dominated by

some major actors as SAP and Oracle.

Such domination may imply that integration is easy

between same application owners.

But, as data integration often necessitates hiring people,

buying new modules and updating IT facilities. SMEs ERP

market is quite different as there is not such an evident

domination of few ERP developers.

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C. Widespread and customized products data

Widespread products : such as cars or computers, can be easily

described using a generic Bill of Materials (GBOM).

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a description of the name and the

quantity of components that are needed to assemble a finished

product.

By GBOM, we mean that we don't use the name of the components

anymore but the class to which the components belong.

Let's say the BOM of the Computer Case "CC#1" indicates that

"CC#1" is assembled from the Hard Disc Drive "HDD#10", and

the Chipset "C#3".

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C. Widespread and customized products data (Continued)

The corresponding GBOM would say: A computer Case "CC" is assembled form a Hard Disc Drive "HDD" and a chipset "C”.

This create a limited set of GPM classes that will cover a large number of products (cars, computers).

Of course, attributes must be added to classes in order to differentiate products belonging to a same class (a keyboard "has_property_of' : screen_size, screen_definition).

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C. Widespread and customized products data (Continued)

Highly customized products : In this case, products are

designed in accordance with a complex specification list.

In most of the cases, these products are produced just

once.

It is complicated to find a GBOM for these products, as

their structure changes a lot from one product to another.

In this case, relations between GPM classes must be

redefined in order to stick to the actual needs of each

customer.

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D. Management classes creation

New product with features that are not represented by

GPM classes.

A developer should build new classes by respecting some

rules such :

Avoiding classes redundancy

Defining the new class upper and lower class

Whether new class attributes are already defined or not

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Translator for Customized Products

Structural description : In the case of customized products,

there is no GBOM because all products have a different

structure.

So, only two general objects are built and linked together by an

"is_assembled_from" association.

Functional description: the capabilities of the product.

we focus on Functional description because we need to

design a new product.

Then physical(structral) and Functional component link

together to reach the product design.

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Dictionary

Discrepancies between the vocabularies used leads to misunderstandings.

The dictionary of GPM offers an easy and intuitive way to avoid this problem.

The concept relies on making a mapping between each company's own vocabulary and GPM classes elements.

Once this is done, users of each company can access the data they want in GPM DWH by using their own vocabulary.

If several partners do the same mapping with the GPM library, they all will be able to know what is the name used by each partner for designating a given article.

GPM class library that acts as a backbone for mapping.

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Dictionary

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CASE STUDYExtrusionCo is a company that sells extrusion lines and

machines to customers who produce copper communication, energy cables and pipes.

only provides markets with customized products as the specifications vary from one customer to the other

relies on several software applications that have been bought separately.

Among these tools, there is an ERP software, a CAD/CAM tool and a home-made application that allows browsing and visualizing parts and machines as pdf drawings.

None of these applications are integrated.

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CASE STUDY Integration was made on the basis of GPM.because of high level of customization functional

description were used widely.Author of this paper declare that it was usefull and lead to

suitable results.But there is no statistical report for verification of this

claim!!!

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Conclusion Integration of data sharing result many long-term and also

short term benefits for company that need a structured and unifed language for data modeling.

Diversity of data sharing formats result loss of Time, Cost and also quality so Co-ordination of systems for information sharing must be applied.

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Refrences

1) Souleiman Naciri, Naoufel Cheikhrouhou , Michel Pouly, Jean-Charles Binggeli, Rémy Glardon (2011), ERP data sharing framework using the Generic Product Model (GPM),Expert Systems with Applications 38 1203–1212

2) Hvam, L. (1999). A procedure for building product models. Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing

3) Peltonen, H. (2000), Concepts and an Implementation for Product Data Management. Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, Mathematics and Computing Series

4) Rampersad, H.K. (1995). Concentric Design of Robotic Assembly Systems. Journal of Manufacturing Systems

5) Svensson, D., & Malmqvist, J. (2002). Strategies for Product Structure Management at Manufacturing Firms. Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering

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Refrences (Continued)6. Zhang Jinsong · Wang Qifu · Wan Li · Zhong Yifang

(2003),Configuration-oriented product modelling and knowledge management for, made-to-order manufacturing enterprises

7. Mike Philpotts (1996), An introduction to the concepts, benefits and terminology of product data management, Industrial Management & Data Systems

8. A. EKHOLM (1999), CO-ORDINATION OF CLASSIFICATIONS FOR PRODUCT MODELLING AND ESTABLISHED BUILDING CLASSIFICATIONS, Computer Aided Architectural Design, Lund

9. C. Eastman*, F. Wang, S.-J. You, D. Yang (2004), Deployment of an AEC industry sector product model, Design Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology

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Refrences (Continued)10. Tomi Ma¨nnisto, Hannu Peltonen, Asko Martio and Reijo

Sulonen (1998), Modelling generic product structures in STEP, Computer-Aided Design,

11. Conrad Bock a, XuanFang Zha a, Hyo-won Suh b, Jae-Hyun Lee a (2010), Ontological product modeling for collaborative design, a Advanced Engineering Informatics 24 510–524

12. Marcela Vegetti1, Gabriela P. Henning2, Horacio P. Leone1 (), PRODUCT ONTOLOGY. DEFINITION OF AN ONTOLOGY FOR THE COMPLEX PRODUCT MODELLING CONICET, Santa Fe-Argentina

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Any Question???