Communication and Knowledge Intensive Engineering Modeling in Virtual Spaces

Engineering for development, production, and other product related company activities are being organized in virtual systems for lifecycle management of product data. This new age of engineering is a result of the continuous development for step-by-step moving of product design, analysis and other production engineering activities from conventional environments to modeling environments during the eighties and nineties. However, more developments were needed in knowledge based decision assistance in order to realize modeling of human intent, increasingly complex product structures, and efficient communication of product data. In recent years, a great change of engineering methodology and software produced program products in knowledge technology and advanced local and global communication. Group work of engineers is increasingly organized around special portals for engineering on the Internet. Although intensive research activities produced outstanding methods in knowledge-based solutions for engineering, these methods have not widespread in the industrial modeling practice. This paper attempts to evaluate the possibility that recent communication and knowledge intensive engineering modeling can be developed into communication and knowledge intensive virtual space technology. Paper starts with a discussion on integrated application of different groups of product modeling techniques. Following this, methods are evaluated for the management of product data (PDM). Next section emphasizes aspects, contexts, and intents as primary issues in modeling for relationships in product data and decisions by engineers. Finally, methods for the management of engineering activities for lifecycle of products are summarized, considering communities of engineers around Internet portals.