An exploration of key information models and their relationships in global manufacturing decision support

Global manufacturing businesses are beginning to benefit from the information and knowledge support provided by modern IT tools such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Customer Relations Management (CRM). Many types of information and knowledge, from customer requirements through product information to global enterprise manufacturing capability are involved in global manufacturing decisions. Understanding the appropriate structures and relationships for this information and knowledge is a significant issue if effective wide-ranging support is to be provided. This paper focuses on global manufacturing decision support and explores three key types of information and knowledge relationship: (a) relationships between information and knowledge elements within a single information and knowledge model; (b) relationships between different information and knowledge models at one organizational level; (c) relationships between different information and knowledge models at different organizational levels. The corresponding information and knowledge structures have been presented with Unified Modelling Language (UML) to show the multiplicity of relationship required, and these are explored with an experimental system based on Rational Unified Process, Visual C++, and object-oriented DBMS ObjectStore. A case study has been pursued to explore the application of the information and knowledge models to a real industry environment.