On an Integrated Knowledge based Framework for Manufacturing Systems Early Design Phase

This research work deals with the early design of manufacturing systems following a knowledge management approach. The proposed knowledge based framework facilitates the definition, storage and extraction of past knowledge in terms of production line layouts. Semantics technology and artificial intelligence approaches such as inference rules and similarity measurement are the main pillars of the framework. The knowledge based framework is integrated within a greater framework, virtual factory framework that allows the knowledge extraction from a series of software tools used during the whole factory lifecycle. The concept and the implementation is tested in the early design of a steel fabrication line case study.