Ontology-based approach to support life cycle engineering: Development of a data and knowledge structure

Abstract

The data supported consideration of the whole life cycle of a product or component for an optimization of the life cycle and single life cycle stages is a promising research area in Life Cycle Engineering. Here, the acquisition of data along the life cycle is essential and can be achieved through the use of emerging so-called Life Cycle Technologies. For a value-adding use of the data and a target-oriented data acquisition it is important to derive a standardized data and knowledge structure. In this paper, an ontology-based approach is presented to support Life Cycle Engineering. The focus lies on structuring the necessary data and knowledge for approaches to optimize the whole life cycle or single life cycle stages. The approach supports an efficient, application-based use of the data by connecting the required knowledge and the acquired data and is a first step towards a generalized ontology for Life Cycle Engineering.