A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR THE CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT OF RIM PARTS

The aim of this paper is to present a research project currently underway which seeks to identify and organize the knowledge required in the development process of Reaction Injection Molding parts at the early product development stage, specifically the material selection, mold design and the process planning for mold making and molding operation. The purpose of the research is to verify if an Expert System, a computer program that uses knowledge and inference procedures to model the RIM development process, provides the necessary insight into metrics such as development lead time and manufacturing costs to deal with the decision makings required at that stage. As this is a work-in progress, the paper will focus on the first three tasks carried out: 1) Structure the downstream processes and procedures of developing product design concepts for RIM parts; 2) Define the dimensions of knowledge required in the concurrent concept development of RIM parts; and 3) Present the theoretical implementation framework, the methodologies and procedures of an ES which we believe will help deal with concurrent concept development decision makings at the early design stage of RIM parts