Manufacturing process information modeling using a metamodeling approach

Abstract

Information integration and interoperability among different design and manufacturing application software systems are important in smart manufacturing implementation and product life cycle management. Information models are foundational and critical to the specification of common terms, interfaces, and software architectures for information interoperability. The manufacturing process is one of the key processes in a product life cycle. This paper presents a methodology of using the metamodels as the modeling basis in manufacturing process information modeling. A manufacturing process information metamodel (MPIMM), which consists of object classes, relationship classes, and relationships, defines the information and relationships of processes, operations, resources used, and product/part manufactured of manufacturing process planning. The MPIMM is built by unified modeling language (UML) while the semantics of the process elements and their attributes are specified referencing the process specification language. A four-layer framework is proposed to construct manufacturing process information model (MPIM) following the rules of metamodeling, and including meta-metamodeling, manufacturing process information metamodeling, and manufacturing process domain information modeling; thus, manufacturing process plan data can be represented. The UML profile extension mechanism realized by defining Stereotype, TaggedValue, and Constraint is used in extending MPIMM to MPIM. A case study of applying MPIM in the product life cycle data management system for port hoisting equipment manufacturing is provided to demonstrate and verify the modeling capability and efficiency of the proposed methodology. This work provides a systematic and standardized modeling methodology and information expression mechanism for manufacturing process information.