Architecting design repositories to support design knowledge storage, reuse and design tool generation

This collection of works describes the transformation of an existing set of heterogeneous product knowledge into a coherent design repository that supports product information archival, storage, reuse and design tool generation. Existing product information was analyzed and compared against desired outputs to ascertain what information management structure was needed to produce design resources pertinent to the design process. Methods of incorporating non-conventional functional representations of artifacts are explored, incorporated and standardized along side conventional functional representations. A review of automatic design model generation addresses shortcomings in product representations by comparing standard hand generated design tools to computer-generated design tools. By pinpointing discrepancies between the two sets of models, additional artifact functional representations are identified and defined. The additional functional representations, dubbed as supporting functions, are then used to complete the existing artifact functional representations. A finalized repository system incorporating standard and non-conventional function representations is then reviewed. The underlying database and computational implementation are explored and related to rules and constraints determined from design theory. With the fundamental underpinnings of the repository defined, a populated knowledge base is demonstrated. The repository search and browse features as well as the overall knowledge base consistency are shown. Working within the repository, design tools are generated such as bills of materials and design structure and function component matrices. --Abstract, page iv