Ontology-driven codification for discrete and modular products
Andreas Oroszi, Thomas Josef Jung, Alexander V. Smirnov, Nikolay Germanovich Shilov, Alexey Mihajlovich Kashevnik · International Journal of Product Development · 2009
Efficient codification system for companies with wide assortments of products makes it possible for customers to easily navigate among the products and eventually ensures good corporate look for the company. The paper represents an approach to building such a codification system and its implementation. The codification system is based on a common ontology containing family-based product classification used in the company's Product Data Management (PDM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The codes are based on product families and additional product characteristics described via attributes in the ontology. This approach makes it possible to have similar codes for similar products and vice versa. Another important advantage of the approach is that the common ontology is easily expandable what is demonstrated in the 'Possible Future Work' section. Besides solving their primary tasks the extensions will be tightly connected to the codification system, and consequently, with the company's PDM and ERP systems.