A Flexible Electro-mechanical Design Information System

Design information systems are of increasing importance due to globalization of product development, increasing complexity of products (in terms of product variants and range of technologies employed) and increasing emphasis on improving product development efficiency (shortening times, reducing cost, increasing performance). Current design information systems are typically applicable in a limited range of contexts. To be flexible, i.e. applicable over a wide range of contexts, design information systems have to accommodate the diversity of the design process in terms of scope, level of abstraction, level of detail, conflicting use of terminology, wide ranging procedures, multidisciplinary character, information types, etc. A flexible design information system is proposed that is based on the use of ontologies and conceptual graphs, with the result that the main data structures and, to a lesser extent, user interfaces are not affected by the introduction of new terminology, procedures and tools.