An Investigation into Small World Phenomenon in Engineering Informatics

Product information is complex and discrete in terms of design methods and manufacturing processes, its long term retention has for time been a great challenge. This paper presents an initial investigation into the small world phenomenon within product information with an emphasis on computer-aided design (CAD) data and its generating systems. The objective is to construct a networking model in the notion of six degrees separation and thereafter to produce useful findings for future reference in information organization. It is expected that this model will be an essence for effective CAD data translation, exchange, index and migration and for helping to deal with the key problems in long term retention of product data.