Object-oriented Product/Production-Model -: Integration concept and application in production management

This paper discusses an object-oriented approach applying an integrated database for production systems. The basis for integration is an object-oriented Product/Production-Model (PPM) which has been developed at an interdisciplinary research center of the University of Karlsruhe. Based on this object-oriented PPM, new ways of organizing engineering processes become possible. By using predefined methods of the database objects, the development of modular software tools is enabled. The common database ensures redundancy-free data management, uniform data structures for all relevant views and avoids repeated input of basic data. As an application for the described methods, the paper discusses a new planning approach for the design of production systems based on the PPM and an integrated computer aided library of planning methods.