Title: Ontology-driven codification for discrete and modular products

Authors: Andreas Oroszi, Thomas Jung, Alexander Smirnov, Nikolay Shilov, Alexey Kashevnik

Addresses: Festo AG & Co. KG, Ruiter Strasse 82, D – 73734 Esslingen, Germany. ' Festo AG & Co. KG, Ruiter Strasse 82, D – 73734 Esslingen, Germany. ' SPIIRAS, 39, 14 line, 199178 St. Petersburg, Russia. ' SPIIRAS, 39, 14 line, 199178 St. Petersburg, Russia. ' SPIIRAS, 39, 14 line, 199178 St. Petersburg, Russia

Abstract: Efficient codification system for companies with wide assortments of products makes it possible for customers to easily navigate among the products and eventually ensures good corporate look for the company. The paper represents an approach to building such a codification system and its implementation. The codification system is based on a common ontology containing family-based product classification used in the company|s Product Data Management (PDM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The codes are based on product families and additional product characteristics described via attributes in the ontology. This approach makes it possible to have similar codes for similar products and vice versa. Another important advantage of the approach is that the common ontology is easily expandable what is demonstrated in the |Possible Future Work| section. Besides solving their primary tasks the extensions will be tightly connected to the codification system, and consequently, with the company|s PDM and ERP systems.

Keywords: product codification; ontology; product families; modular products; discrete products; product data management; PDM; enterprise resource planning; ERP.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPD.2009.024186

International Journal of Product Development, 2009 Vol.8 No.2, pp.162 - 177

Published online: 28 Mar 2009 *

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