MBSE-Compliant Product Lifecycle Model Management

Systematically managing product models and their derivative data becomes a rudimentary and essential requirement for manufacturing companies to cost-effectively develop and operate complex product systems. It is recognized that conventional product data management techniques are deficient in information integration across disciplinary boundaries and product lifecycle stages. Increasing complexity in product developments demands all related aspects be dealt in accordance with systems engineering methodologies. In compliance with the prevailing model-based systems engineering (MBSE) methodology, this paper proposes to extend conventional product data management to product lifecycle model management (PLMM), which shift emphasis from data managements to model managements throughout a whole product lifecycle. This paper first presents a MBSE-compliant PLMM architecture that outlines the related methodology, modeling techniques, processes, knowledge management, etc. Then, this paper describes basic compositions of a generic PLMM software platform that materializes the PLMM approaches. Subsequently, this paper reports a joint PLMM research initiative in China. It is anticipated that manufacturing companies will benefit much from implementations of PLMM techniques.