The hottest PDM technology and its application ana

PDM technology and its application analysis in automobile manufacturing

1 introduction

how enterprises manage a large amount of electronic data and quickly find and access the required information is an important problem to be solved by enterprises. The emergence of product data management (PDM) provides a reliable way for this. The promotion and application of foreign PDM technology has significantly improved the competitiveness of manufacturing products and achieved very significant economic benefits. In recent years, the effect of implementing PDM in Chinese enterprises is not ideal, and there are still some misunderstandings in the understanding and application of PDM concept

the basic concept of PDM

PDM technology first appeared in the 1980s. Its original intention is to solve the management problem of a large number of engineering drawings and other documents, and then gradually expand to three areas of the product development process: 1) design drawings steal, travel, file management? 2) Automatic engineering change order management; 3) Management of bill of materials (BOM). So far, there is no complete and exact definition of PDM. Dr Burdick defined PDM in CIM strategy analysis report as "PDM is the key technology to build a concurrent product art environment (composed of supply, engineering design, manufacturing, procurement, sales and marketing, and customers) for enterprise design and production. A mature PDM system can enable all people involved in the creation, exchange, and maintenance of design intent to freely share and transmit all dynamic data related to products throughout the information life cycle" 。

the two main lines of PDM information management are static product structure and dynamic product design process. All information organization and resource management are carried out around product design, which is also the key for PDM system to be different from other information management systems, such as management information system (MIS), material management system (MRP) and project management system (Project Management). The relationship among data, process, resources and products in PDM system is shown in Figure 1

3pdm system architecture

pdm system is a management software system, which faces the whole life cycle of products, takes products as the core, and unifies the product data, design activities, personnel organization and related design environment in the process of product design and development

Figure 2

PDM architecture is divided into four layers:

the first layer is the user interface layer: it provides users with interactive graphical interfaces, including graphical browsers, various menus, dialog boxes, etc., which are used to support the operation of commands and the input and output of information

the second layer is the core function layer: it involves the core functions of PDM system software (document management function, product structure management function, part classification management and retrieval function, workflow management function, user management function and system integration function)

the third layer is the core layer of the framework: the core structure and architecture to realize various functions of PDM. Because the object management framework of PDM system has the characteristics of shielding heterogeneous operating systems, networks and databases, users can realize transparent operation of data, transparent call of application and transparent management of process when applying various functions of PDM system

the fourth layer is the system support layer: take the currently popular relational database system as the PDM support platform, and support the management of PDM system objects in the underlying database through the data operation function provided by the relational database

4pdm functions

at present, various commercialized PDM software products are similar, and generally have the following main functions (as shown in Figure 3)

electronic warehouse and document management

for most enterprises, many different computer systems and different computer software are needed to generate all kinds of data required in the whole life cycle of products, and these computer systems and software may also be built on different network systems. In this case, how to ensure the timeliness and correctness of these data, and make these data gain value in the whole enterprise? At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the data is protected from intentional or unintentional destruction, which are urgent problems to be solved

product structure and configuration management

product structure and configuration management is one of the core functions of PDM. This function can be used to manage product structure and configuration information and bill of materials (BOM). Users can use the graphical interface provided by PDM to view and modify the product structure

in PDM system, parts and components are organized according to the assembly relationship between them. Users can associate various product definition data with parts and components, and finally form a complete description of product structure. Traditional BOM can also be generated automatically by PDM. In an enterprise, the product structure of the same product is different in different departments, so PDM system also provides the function of organizing product structure according to product view. By establishing the corresponding product view, different departments of the enterprise can organize the product structure in the form they need. When the product structure changes, the impact of the change on the whole enterprise can be analyzed and controlled through the networked product structure view

life cycle (workflow) management

pdm life cycle management module manages the dynamic definition process of product data, including macro process (product life cycle) and various micro processes (such as the approval process of drawings). The management of the product life cycle includes keeping and tracking all the historical records of the product from conceptual design, product development, production and manufacturing to the cessation of production, as well as defining the processing steps that must be taken when the product changes from one state to another when it contacts the plastic at the die mouth

the administrator can construct the product design or change process by combining the basic processing steps of product data, including specifying tasks, approving and notifying relevant personnel. The construction of process is based on the analysis results of various business processes in the enterprise

integrated development interface

the situation of each enterprise is very different, and the needs of users are also diverse. No PDM system can adapt to the situation of all enterprises, which requires that PDM system must have strong customization and secondary development capabilities. Now many PDM products provide secondary development kits, which can be used by PDM implementers or users to customize the work for the specific situation of enterprises

5 PDM

automobile manufacturing enterprises in automobile manufacturing industry are comprehensive enterprises, which effectively manage all kinds of data of automobile products and improve the information management level of automobile manufacturers, so as to realize the concurrent engineering of automobile design and manufacturing, which is the key of automobile manufacturing enterprises at present. Now it is explained from the following aspects

parts processing management

clarifying the corresponding relationship between the whole vehicle and parts and components is the basis of production management. Grasp the latest processing situation and transfer information to relevant departments in time as required. Therefore, a product structure tree can be compiled. The hierarchical structure of the tree represents the assembly sequence of parts, and the corresponding nodes are parts, assemblies or assemblies. Through the nodes, the relevant information of parts and components can be expressed

equipment management

the investment in equipment and tooling used in automobile manufacturing industry has increased sharply with the expansion of enterprise scale, and the variety is also increasing. As the equipment tends to be large-scale, combined and automated, the process equipment used in the manufacturing process also tends to be large-scale, diversified, complex and efficient, and the price of equipment and tooling also increases significantly. At the same time, the proportion of transportation equipment and inspection equipment is increasing, and the importance of equipment management is paid more attention. Take tool management as an example. Whenever the vehicle is modified or the process changes, it should closely cooperate with the process plan and equipment plan, formulate a detailed tool plan, and carry out a series of daily management business activities such as tool design, purchase, inventory management, manufacturing, repair, etc

quality management

under many production conditions, a large number of unqualified products may be produced, for which preventive measures must be taken. Carefully analyze various factors affecting quality in the product planning stage and manufacturing stage, such as the processing and monitoring of body inspection data, and the processing and analysis of control chart of offline monitoring data, so as to determine whether the process status is normal

engineering change

engineering change is a very important business in the production and business activities of automobile manufacturing enterprises. When user requirements change, suppliers change, products have quality problems and deviations occur in the production process, engineering change requirements may be put forward. Generally, the technical management personnel first issue the engineering change order, set the change authority, and assign designers and technicians to modify the corresponding drawings, documents, product structures, etc. The person and time of each change are automatically generated by the system and filled in the change mark column. If the number of changes exceeds a certain number, the system will alarm and prompt to re plot. The change of routing will be reflected in the attributes of BOM. Then, the designer enters the change approval stage by filling in the change form, issuing the change data, and filling in the distribution column information. Then, enter the production management department, specify the production batch number and use time, and enter the purchasing department to provide the supply information of raw materials, parts and components. Finally, according to the distribution information, the corresponding drawings, max:100mm amplitude documents, and BOMs are distributed to the executive departments and outsourcing factories, which are printed and executed by each department

comprehensive information management

by establishing a product comprehensive information feedback form in PDM, all departments can provide real-time implementation, design and quality problems, solutions and rationalization suggestions at all stages of the product, give full play to the parallel, high-speed and multimedia transmission characteristics of electronic information, and make the PDM system become an information exchange platform, so as to realize market, design, process, manufacturing, production management and procurement