Towards Unified Modelling of product
life-cycles
Swapnil Bhure
NITIE, Mumbai
This article is about how the
Unified Modelling Language which is used in the
designing of softwares and hardwares
is used for a product to study its life-cycle
Product
life-Cycle Management (PLM) is a strategic business approach that consistently
manages all life-cycle stages of a product, commencing with market requirements
through to disposal and recycling. PLM involves a multitude of stake holders
(e.g., customers, suppliers, and regulators), who require various levels of
detail and representations of information. UML(Unified
Modeling Language) used for the computer hardware and software development.UML
is good for PLC . A PLM-oriented derivative of UML (PLMUL) has many advantages
over other approaches and existing modeling technique.
Some
of them are as follows:
->
Industries
have widely accepted UML-UML can model business
processes to ome extent and underpins various commercial
business process planning tools.
->
The
same syntax, that is, the same graphical symbols, can be used across product life-cycle stages. Although a developer only visualizes or modifies a very limited number
of views at a time, changes are reflected
throughout the entire model, which fosters
the consistency of PLM models across lifecycle stages.
->
UML
is an information-rich representation; models can be
tested for consistency, analyzed, or translated into other representations.
Product
models show, depending on the stage of modeling and the role of the persons involved, various levels of detail. UML attends to this and
allows purpose-oriented views, favouring
communication between designer, project manager, process planner, client,
etc. There are various view mentioned below:
View:
conceptualization: function, maintenance, and design
constraints
Use
cases specify only what your system is supposed to do, i.e., the system's
functional requirements. They do not specify what the system shall not do,
i.e., the system's nonfunctional requirements. Nonfunctional requirements often
include performance targets and programming languages, etc. In UML actor is represented by stick man who perform some
action and the task is represented by oval shape.
View:
detailed design; assembly and model Consistency
The
emphasis of this view is on the interdependencies of the modules as well as the
associations with external on objects. For example, the specification of the
power regulator depends on the voltage of the power supply in the targeted
market. Modules in the diagram possess functional interfaces through which
other objects are :
View:
production, warehousing, and process planning
The
targeted production requires an automatic assembly line, and injection molding
machines with an appropriate molding cycle time to meet the production
target.
View:
disposal and recycling
This
view demonstrates how associations can be redefined to suit particular modelling needs and at the same time to introduce visually
easily identifiable entities. The way a product is reprocessed is indicated by
the role of the actor at the right side; the arrow heads allow for an
effortless distinction. Throughout this publication, only these links are not
part of the original UML definition
View:
market requirements: PLUML and business Processes
The
main intent of this view is to demonstrate that a PLUML model can comprise
entities used to model business processes and engineering entities. To this
end, purposes, objectives, results, and deadlines.
Conclusion
and future work
Product
life-cycle management requires a modelling framework
showing the associations among the life-cycle stages, business processes, and
stake-holders. One of the major challenges of UML modelling
is to ensure consistent product life-cycle models with respect to constraints
within the model as well as with those imposed from outside, such as by safety
regulations or by the market. It is the authors' intention to extend the
existing UML to allow constraint management and to further integrate it with conventional
engineering tools providing functionalities like CAD and CAM.
References:
G. Thimm,
S.G Lee, Y.-S. Ma,"Towards unified modelling of product life-cycles" Received 11 November
2004; accepted 12 September 2005 Available online 28 November 2005