Manufacturing Knowledge Management Using a Virtual Factory-Based Ontology Implemented in a Graph Database

Abstract: Ontology-based technologies like Semantic Web and Knowledge Graphs are promising for knowledge management in manufacturing industries. In the literature there are abundant of publications related to using ontologies to represent and capture knowledge in manufacturing. Many of them cover the use of ontologies for managing knowledge in different aspects of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Nevertheless, very few of them cover how ontologies can be used with virtual factory models, data and information as well as the knowledge generated from using these models and their corresponding engineering activities. An “extension” of existing ontologies is badly needed as digital, virtual models in terms of simulation and digital twins have become more popular in the industry. Without such an extended knowledge management process and system, it is difficult to re-use the artefacts and knowledge generated from the expensive and valuable virtual engineering activities. Relying on the cutting-edge graph database technologies and what they can offer regarding knowledge management, and also recent developments in the domain ontology field, an extended knowledge management implementation, specifically designed for virtual engineering has been done. Moreover, a clear roadmap for establishment of knowledge bases around production systems armed with Virtual Factory(VF) and Multi-Objective Optimization (MOO) processes has been provided. This, includes defining key elements of manufacturing procedures, constructing an ontology, defining data structure in preferably a graph database, and accessing valuable historical (provenance) data regarding different engineering entities and/or activities.