ABSTRACT
Worldwide competition has increased the pressure to optimize business processes in manufacturing enterprises. To produce innovative designs of high-quality products rapidly at low costs, methods such as concurrent and simultaneous engineering have been developed recently. Moreover, there is pressing need for sophisticated software tools. This chapter describes a system for integrated product and process management which has been designed in the face of these challenges. The system was developed in the SUKITS project, an interdisciplinary project involving both computer scientists and mechanical engineers. Management tools are concerned with both products and processes of engineering design. The products of engineering design activities are stored in documents such as CAD designs, manufacturing plans, numerical control programs, or simulation traces. Tool support for product and process management is achieved by providing an integrating infrastructure which is called management system. Product management has been carried out in different engineering disciplines, including mechanical, electrical, and software engineering.
