Harnessing the potential of Knowledge Based Engineering in manufacturing design
T. van den Berg
M.J.L. van Tooren – Promotor
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Abstract
An increase in productivity is required for the European aviation industry to remain competitive in a world with rising competition, shorter development timescales, more complex products and decreasing numbers of technically skilled personnel. Fokker Elmo, a Dutch aircraft electrical wiring harness manufacturer, is facing these challenges. At present, preparing a wiring harness for manufacturing is a repetitive, time-consuming and mostly manual, experience-based process. The research presented in this thesis aims at developing techniques to largely automate the generation of wiring harness manufacturing drawings, using Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE). A development approach is proposed as well as KBE building blocks. Three KBE applications are developed and tested that offer functionalities not present in general-purpose CAD systems. These applications can considerably reduce the amount of repetitive work, while ensuring compliance to physical constraints and manufacturing guidelines.