A Distributed Approach for Global Product Lifecycle Management

Abstract: Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a holistic approach for managing product information throughout its life cycle. It integrates different concepts that have emerged due to changes in the manufacturing process as a result of globalization, increased competition, demand for more innovative products, and other reasons. These changes have leaded to a shift from a model with a single-location for product development to a model in which a complex network of specialized companies collaborate. This global collaborative PLM implies that companies from different parts of the world work together and must share information; hence the underlying PLM system is required to facilitate data management throughout this collaborative process. In addition, it is also necessary to address the challenges due to the new model being a distributed activity, as today this PLM system is a specialized distributed system. Maintaining data consistency can be challenging because collaborators can use heterogeneous PLM systems together with their own databases. The later cannot be shared due to the risks of exposing their knowledge base and business processes. Another consideration in global collaboration is that data is transmitted to remote locations. As a result network latency can be large; this can cause problems particularly when large files are exchanged, such as may be the case for CAD design models. This thesis proposes a solution enabling a global PLM which addresses the challenges described above. The approach consists of connecting collaborators’ nodes in a network that is constructed by grouping them with respect to intra-site latency. Each group implements a coordination mechanism based on the election of a node which is subsequently in charge of coordinating data access. The groups communicate via a publish-subscribe communication pattern, publishing and subscribing to events related to the resources being shared. The integration of the solution is through a Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) implementing web services that can be consumed by a PLM system. A prototype has been implemented and its applicability is analysed by evaluating its functionality in a collaborative scenario based on the Aras Innovator PLM platform. The evaluation was made by simulating the solution proposed and comparing it with a centralized approach. The results particularly showed that the proposed solution could reduce the intra-latency compared to a centralized approach if the collaborators are organized in collaborative groups, that exchange most of the information inside the group rather than intergroup.