A different view on PDM and its future potentials

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to re-conceive the nature and development potentials of PDM-systems based on a new approach to design theory called 'Property-Driven Development/Design' (PDD) which has been presented in [WeWe-00, WeWe-01]. Property-Driven Development/Design (PDD) is a new modelling approach for products and product development processes which is intended to give a theoretical description of design and designing which is closer to practice as conventional design theories and methodologies such as [VDI-2221]. The distinctive feature of the PDD approach is that it considers functional and other properties on equal terms and offers a seamless description of all phases of the development/design process. Due to its formal consistency and flexibility it can serve as a theoretical basis for the concept of future PDM systems1. Today's PDM-systems suffer from a lack of formalised representation of products: They handle data, not knowledge. The information is usually buried within various documents and being processed by different software-tools which have no common 'language'. This paper proposes a way to improve the design process by means of an advanced kind of PDM system based on a comprehensive product model.