by Berend Denkena, Peer-Oliver Woelk, René Apitz

Abstract

Intelligent manufacturing techniques are in demand of several manifold types of information in order to achieve the goal of flexible, efficient, and competitive production. Many of this information result from the product design process and can be used for manufacturing planning and execution provided that they are documented and managed in a structured way. This paper presents the approach to take advantage of well-structured information of the product design stage according to the STEP standard within the manufacturing domain. STEP is widely accepted for product data exchange and management. Its data models and methods provide a common basis for integrated collaboration processes in enterprises, allowing a holistic view that comprises areas like design, engineering, testing, manufacturing, and quality assurance. Thus, STEP can be regarded as an "enabling technology" for product-related IT infrastructures in enterprises. A promising approach is to use STEP methodology also within areas which are not currently associated with STEP, e.g. customer-supplier- collaboration, configurable machine tools, production management as well as knowledge management. In this paper some possible applications of STEP beyond the area of traditional product design will be discussed.

Presented Slides