INT. J. COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING, 2000, VOL. 13, NO .

5, 430±445

Application of IDEF0, IDEF3 and UML

meth odologies in the creation of in formation
models
J. M. DORADOR and R. I. M. YOUNG

Abstract. The importance of information models is widely 1. Introduction

recogn ised by th e com pu ter in tegr ated man u factu rin g
research community. However, improved meth od s are still In creasingly comp etitive m arkets dem and rapid
needed to assist the developer in the definition of information
model structures. Currently available methods and standards resp onses fr om ind ustry, providing better p roducts
can on ly help in certain stages of the information mod elling faster with reduced prices. In order to fulfil those
process. This paper explores the benefits of combin ing three requiremen ts there h ave been m any improvemen ts and
methodologies in the definition of the structure of informa- developm ents in m aterials, processes, tools for the
tion models th at support applications through the product life design er, quality improvemen t, and integration of the
cycle. Wh ile all the method ologies that are currently used in
information modelling h ave some advantages, th ey also h ave enterprise’s activities.
weaknesses. This paper shows how the combined use of IDEF0, O n e of th e main characteristics of concurren t
IDEF3 an d UML methodologies can be used to advantage in engin eering is the inten sive in formation in terchange
the con text of th e Open Distributed Processing (O DP) in the early stages of product design . This in cludes
standard ISO10746. Th e combination of these methods mean s sh aring in formation about products and the processes
that th e weaknesses of each can be counteracted by the
strengths of others. IDEF0 is common ly used, with some and resources required in their prod uction. Differen t
success, to mod el enterprise activities and information flows. areas of the enterprise, using a variety of computer
However its ability to describe information is weak and it software applications, use the same in form ation, so it is
cannot model process flows. IDEF3 offers both a process flow conven ien t to have it centrally stored in in form ation
capability that can be linked to IDEF0 and an ability to model models. The issue of in form ation m odelling has been
information in object centred descriptions. The results of the
application of these methodologies provide the requ ired widely recogn ised and studied by the in ternational
information for the top levels of th e RM-O DP. Furthermore, research commun ity.
both methodologies h ave been proved to be very good mean s In fo rm ation m od els can be d ivided in to two
of communication with the collaborating companies. The different models, n amely the product model and the
resu lts obtain ed with th e IDEF3 m eth od p rovide ke y manufacturing model. The first supports applications
information for th e creation of classes with attributes and
op erations that can then be used in the design of computa- used in product developm ent and the latter contains
tional systems using UML. The resulting UML class diagrams information of the m anufacturin g facilities available to
show th e relationships an d inheritances that are th e main m an ufacture th e p rodu ct. A prod uct m odel is a
input to the creation of object-oriented databases that hold the computer represen tation of product data that contains
data of the information mod els. These combined method s detailed in form ation about a product or a fam ily of
have been used to mod el the information requ ired th rough
different stages of the prod uct life cycle for the assembly of products, so it can support the applications that are
large electrical machines and have been shown to provide an interactin g in the product’s life cycle. The product
improved definition of the relationsh ips between the stages of model must allow those applications to have access to
information model definition. the in for m ation and also to be a repository fo r the data
created by them. Therefore, the product model must
be structured in such a way that the applications know
Authors: J.M. Dorador and R.I.M. Young, Departmen t of Manufacturin g wh ere to fin d and to store in form ation ( Baxter 1994,
En gin eering, Loughborough University, Loughborou gh, Leics., LE11 3TU, UK. MOSES 1992, Krause et al. 1993) . The term manufac-

International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing

ISSN 0951-192X print/ ISSN 1362-3052 online Ó 2000 Taylor & Francis Ltd
h ttp:/ / www.tandf.co.uk/ journals
 Creation of information models 431

turin g model is used to defin e, describe and capture the system is described in terms of information structures
m anufacturin g situation of a particular en terprise and flows. The other three viewpoints are for software
( Molina 1995, You n g an d Bell 1995) . Th e m ain implem entation support, in the computational level,
objective of the m anufacture m odel is to p rovide the system is described as a set of objects that in teract at
design ers and m anufacturin g en gin eers with h igh interfaces. In the en gin eerin g viewpoint, the m echan-
quality m anufacturing in formation on which to base ism s that support the system distribution are defined;
their decisions. and at the technology viewpoin t, the compon en ts from
STEP ( Standard for the Exch ange of Product Model which the system is constructed are defin ed ( McKay et
Data), ISO standard 10303, defin es a neutral data al. 1996) .
for mat for the represen tation and exch ange of product
data. The goal of this standard is to complete a system -
indepen den t represen tation of all product-related data 2. Methodologies applied in the definition of the
du ring the product life cycle ( Krause et al. 1993, information models
Ashworth et al. 1996) . The technical committee ISO
TC184/ SC4 is workin g on th e developm en t of a In figu re 1 the cylinders in side the product m odel
standard structure for a product m odel ( NIST 1997) . and the m anufacturing m odel represen t the in form a-
The methods that are common ly used in the gen era- tion structure related to assem bly, defined in order to
tion of STEP information models are IDEF0 and the sup port th e Asse m bly-related activities d uring th e
Express language. prod uct life cycle. In the lower level of the diagram,
In order to capture the requiremen ts that mu st be the DFA and the APP applications are illustrated with
contained in in for m ation models, several approaches an arrow between them representing the in teraction
have been proposed based on referen ce architectures. that is bein g explored. This in teraction will allow the
Some of them have become standards, like CIM-OSA design er to take in to accoun t the main APP considera-
( Computer In tegrated Manufacturin g O pen System tions when applyin g the DFA durin g the design stages
Architecture) ( Jorysz and Vern adat 1990) and RM- of the product life cycle. Therefore, on ly some details
ODP ( Referen ce Model for O pen Distributed Proces- will have to be defin ed in the post-design stages of the
sing) ( Toh 1999) . O ther important methods are the prod uct life cycle.
Grai In tegrated Methodology ( Doum ein gts 1998) and In this research, th e experimen tal in formation
the Purdue En terprise Referen ce Architecture ( PERA) m odels developed to test the ideas was design ed using
( Williams 1998) . the RM-ODP structure, as sh own in figure 2. The
CIM-O SA focuse s on m od elling th e com p lete en terprise view level of the inform ation m odels was
enterprise from requirem ent and specification through developed usin g IDEF0 and IDEF3 process cen tred
system design , implemen tation, operation and m ain- descriptions. This enables the en terprise activities and
tenance. RM-O DP is used for software systems develop- process flows to be m od elled with some in dication of
m en t. Th ey can p ro vide a clear p ictu re of th e infor mation flows. In the in form ation view level, the
organ isation an d assist in th e d efin ition of th e IDEF3 object centred descriptions and elaboration
info rmation n eeds. They can also be used to evaluate diagrams were used to docum ent the process and
the impact of decisions in the different areas of the provide a view of the information objects needed and
enterprise ( Prasad 1996) . their states. UML Class diagrams were then used to
RM-O DP p r ovides a fram ewor k for d esignin g construct the computational view of the system . The
coherent flexible distributed system s captured in the experimen tal software system was elaborated u sing
ISO 10746 standard. The architecture of the RM-O DP object-orien ted techn ology.
provides a standard upon wh ich a wide range of The use of each of these m ethods and the value of
specifications for distributed systems can be in tegrated usin g them in combin ation is explained in the n ext
( Toh 1999) . Because of the complexity of m odelling section.
large amoun ts of information and capturin g all aspects
of inform ation , th e RM-O DP is divided into five
viewpoints that express con cepts and rules relevant to 3. IDEF0
a particular area in terms of which a system can be
described. This standard is used as a referen ce in this IDEF0 provides a m eans for modelling the fun ctions
work. ( activities, actions, processes, operations) required by a
Within RM-O DP the gen eral fu n ctions that the system or enterprise, and the fun ctional relationsh ips
info rmation system will perform are defined in the and data ( in for mation or objects) that support the
enterprise viewpoin t. At the in form ation viewpoin t, the integration of those fu n ctions.
432 J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

Figu re 1. Information mod els and assembly application interactions (Dorador and Young 1999) .

An IDEF0 m odel is composed by a h ierarchical also weak as it is captured purely by sim ple textual
series of diagrams that display in creasing levels of detail description. These limitations impose a stron g restric-
describing fu nctions and their in terfaces within the tion on the use of this m od el for the design of
con text of a system ( NIST 1993) . The two primary information systems, so the n eed for other method ol-
modelling compon en ts are fu n ctions ( represen ted on a ogy able to capture the sequences of processes and
diagram by boxes) and the data and objects that in ter- information structure is eviden t.
relate those fu n ction s ( represen ted by arrows) , as
sh own in figu re 3.
A set of IDEF0 diagrams can exist as either generic 4. IDEF 3
`as is’ or `as sh ould be’ models ( Colquh oun and Baines
1991) . The `as is’ model allows to evaluate the presen t The IDEF3 Process Description Capture Method
situation of the system and the `as sh ould be’ helps to was created specifically to capture descriptions of
defin e the strategies to follow in order to improve the sequences of activities. Because of this capability, it is
system by describing the infor mation flow n ecessary to a good option to use as a method after an IDEF0 m odel
support each activity. has been created as the activities m odelled in IDEF0
The use of IDEF0 is widely used in the research can be used as a basis fo r the definition of the processes.
comm un ity due to its flexibility and clarity for m odel- The IDEF3 h as been exten sively used for modelling
ling activities and the in fo rmation flows between them. processes, aimin g to provid e a gen eral-purpose descrip-
It is particularly good for evaluating enterprise activity tion of them. Amon g the main advantages of this
structures, as it provides an easy to understand model methodology are its simplicity and descriptive power
which non -experts can un derstan d and assess. Although ( Huang and Kusiak 1998, Kusiak and Zakarian 1996,
IDEF0 is good at providin g an in itial view of activity Zuobao et al. 1996) .
decomposition, it is incapable of m odelling in form ation An IDEF3 Process Description is developed using
process flows. This is due to its lack of time depen dency two knowledge acquisition strategies: a process-centred
in put. The represen tation of in formation in IDEF0 is sch ematic and an object-cen tred schematic.
 Creation of information models 433

Figure 2. Methodologies that will be used to create the in formation systems (Dorador and Young 1999) .

In IDEF3 process-centred diagrams, boxes represen t

types of happenin g, as depicted in figu re 4. The term
un its of behaviour ( UO B) refers to such happenings.
Each UO B represents a real-world process. The arrows
conn ecting the boxes indicate the preceden ce relation-
sh ips that exist between the processes bein g described.
Jun ctions represent constraints of the activation logic
fo r the process. The jun ctions are used to represen t
different conditions in wh ich an activity is carried out,
as if they were logical operators: and, or, and exclusive
or ( Mayer et al. 1995) .
The purpose of the object sch ematic is to identify
the possible states in wh ich an object can exist. Though
a real-world object often evolves through a continuum
Figure 3. Basic IDEF0 representation of an activity an d its o f states, an o bject sch em atic focuses on th ose
related information. distinguish ed states of particular in terest to the domain
434 J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

expert. In figure 5 three states of an object are shown ; structure. So other methods have to be used to identify
the boxes that are in cluded between the stages are the classes with their attributes and behaviour, wh ich
known as referents, and are in cluded to enh ance constitute the object-oriented structure of the software.
un derstanding and provide additional meaning. They
represent the processes that occur between the stages of
the analysed object. They are also a link between the 5. UML methodology
process and object sch ematics.
IDEF3 also includes a set of Elaboration Form s to aid Unified Modelling Language is the result of the
the process of capturin g info rmation. In these forms the merging of three m odelling methods, Booch, O MT and
name of the UO B is captured together with the objects Objectory, taking some concepts from other methods.
in volved in the process, facts, constraints and description. UML is a lan guage used to specify, visualise and
The notation and form at in wh ich IDEF3 models document the artefacts of an object-orien ted system
presen t the information is very usefu l for comm un icat- un der developmen t ( Quatrany 1998) .
in g with collaborators or future users of the system Th e Un ified Modelling Lan gu age ( UML) is a
un der developmen t. O n the other hand, the format is standard m odelling language that must be applied in
still very descriptive and un structured. It is therefore the context of a process. The UML authors propose a
in ad equ ate as a basis for bu ildin g th e softwar e developm en t p rocess n am ed th e Ration al Un ified

Figure 4. IDEF3 unit of behaviour boxes linked by relationships and junctions.

Figure 5. IDEF3 O bject schematic description, showing an object in three stages with un it of behaviour referent boxes.
 Creation of information models 435

Process, explained by Quatrany ( 1998) . Texel and transition from one state to another, and the actions
Williams ( 1997) propose other approach wh ich is m ore that result from a state change.
detailed in the steps that sh ould be followed in the In the work described h ere, where the defin ition of
creation of a system with use cases. infor mation models is critical, the important aspect of
The elemen ts that are used in the construction of UML is the class diagrams. These can be gen erated
the models are: from an evaluation of the IDEF3 models. In software
system s developmen t the full rational unified process
( a) structural elemen ts: class, in terface, collabora could be used on its own . H owever th e m od els
tion, use case, active class, compon ent, node; generated need a h igh er level of expertise to be able
( b) behavioural elem ents: in teraction, state m achin e; to un derstand them, wh ich m akes comm un ication with
( c) groupin g elemen ts: package, subsystem . poten tial system users sign ificantly more difficult. The
initial use of IDEF0 and IDEF3 diagrams are a better
Th e relation ships between elements can be dependencies, way for comm unicating with collaborating companies
associations, generalisations and realisations. than using use case diagrams.
In terms of the views of a m odel, UML defines
several diagrams, including use case diagrams for
capturin g the system fu nctionality, class diagrams, and 6. Structure of the information models
various beh aviour diagrams for capturing the dyn amic
behaviour. These diagrams provide m ultiple perspec- In order to define the structure for the in form ation
tives of the system un der analysis or developm ent. The m odels, there are basically two approaches that can be
un derlyin g m odel in tegrates these perspectives so that a fo llowed. The first is a top-down approach, which starts
self-consistent system can be analysed and built. with the analysis of the enterprise level in order to obtain
The rational un ified m ethod is an iterative and infor mation about the processes, operations and objects
incremen tal process that evolves continuously into the that are involved in the process. The followin g steps are
final system . The iterations consist of on e or m ore of the defin ition of the in form ation and computational
the following process compon ents: requiremen ts cap- levels. The other methodology is a bottom-up approach,
ture ( wh at the system sh ould do) , analysis and design in wh ich the process starts with the defin ition of the
( how the system will be realised) , implemen tation fu n ctionality of the software, and from that poin t the
( production of the code) , and test ( verification of the infor mation and en terprise levels are analysed.
system ) . All of these are analysed through the followin g In this research a combin ation of both methodol-
ph ases: in cep tion ( sp ecifyin g th e pr oject vision ) , ogies was followed; the top-down approach was applied
elaboration ( plann in g the activities), construction and in order to determin e the enterprise and in form ation
transition ( supplying the product to the user) . levels, that is, the en vironm ent and extern al conditions
UML captures an d d ocum en ts d ecision s m ade that are necessary for the developmen t of the system.
durin g the in ception and elaboration ph ases of system O n ce that in form ation is known, the bottom-up strategy
developm ent ( Quatrany 1998) . In the in ception ph ase, is applied usin g UML to complete the basic structure of
UML uses use case diagrams, in wh ich the relationsh ips the in formation m odels.
between actors and use cases are represented. The
actors represent anyon e or anything that must in teract
with the system. Use cases represent the fun ctionality of
the system , there are two kind of relationsh ips between
them, uses and exten ds.
In the elaboration and construction phases, the class
diagrams and state transition diagrams are used. A class is
a description of a grou p of objects with com m on
properties, common behaviour, common relationsh ips
with other objects, and comm on semantics. The classes
are represen ted as rectangles in wh ich the n ame of the
class is defin ed together with the attributes and opera-
tions. The relationsh ipswith other classesare represented
usin g lines with adorn m en ts sign ifyin g associations,
aggregation, or other relationships, as sh own in figu re 6.
The state transition diagrams represen t the states of
a single object, the events or m essages that cause a Figure 6. Basic structure of the class diagrams.
 436
J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

Figure 7. Basic structure of the manufacturing model usin g UML notation.

 Creation of information models

Figure 8. IDEF0 diagram for th e concurren t design of the product, system an d process.
437
 438
J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

Figure 9. Part of th e IDEF3 model for design product.

 Creation of information models

Figure 10. Example of relations using IDEF3 diagrams.

439
440 J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

7. Basic structure of the manufacturing model On ce the basic fu nctionality h as been established,
the followin g step is to defin e the basic structure of the
The basic entities in the defin ition of a manufactur- in form ation m odels. Th e requirem en ts th at were
in g environmen t are resources, processes and strate- identified in the IDEF models are in cluded in the basic
gies. The resources are the ph ysical elemen ts that structure.
enable the prod uct realisation. The processes can be The IDEF0 model for assembly in teractions during
in formational or material and explain the use of the the product life cycle was created considering that the
resources. The representation of resources and pro- design of th e p rod u ct, p rocess an d system were
cesses provid es a con sisten t rep resen tation of the perform ed concurren tly, as sh own in figu re 8. The
manufacturing facilities and their capabilities. In addi- complete product life cycle, from the analysis of the
tion, the strategies are represented as the way in wh ich customer requiremen ts through to the ship ping of the
the decisions are m ade on the use and organisation of product was modelled using IDEF0, emph asising the
resources and processes. assembly-related activities. The product, system and
The basic structure for the m anufacturing m odel is process design s were divid ed in conceptual design ,
presen ted in figure 7. It is divided in fu nctional levels in embodimen t design and detail design stages, in order
order to allow the capture of the m anufacturing to analyse the in teractions between them in a con-
fu n ction and behaviou r. These levels are enterprise, current en gin eerin g en viron ment and their relation
factory, sh op, cell, and station level. This structure is with design for assembly and assembly process plan-
adap ted from th e MO SES p r oject, d evelop ed at nin g.
Lough borough and Leeds Un iversities ( Youn g and Bell Once the phase of building the IDEF0 model for
1995, Molina 1995) . The en terprise class was included capturin g the activities was completed, the IDEF3
to give the m anufacturing model the possibility of methodology was used to capture the process flows, which
capturin g information of m ore than on e factory, as cann ot be captured in IDEF0. The use of IDEF3
required in the modelling of global enterprises. methodology does not require a previous modelling in
IDEF0, but when the system that is analysed is complex, it
is convenient to perform a preliminary modelling in
8. Application of the methods to define the detailed IDEF0. Due to the fact that in this research the assembly
structure of the information models interactions through the product life cycle in a concurrent
environment are studied, it was decided to perform both
In the top-down approach the IDEF0 and IDEF3 the IDEF0 for the activity modelling and the IDEF3 for
methodologies were applied to produce m odels that the process and object centred descriptions.
help to get knowledge about the processes, operations Three separate IDEF3 models were created; on e for
and objects that are in volved in the process, and need design product, one for design system and other for
to be supported by data from the in formation models. design process, in cludin g the interactions with DFA and

Figure 11. Extract of the object-centred description for the prod uct design.
Creation of information models 441
 442
J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

Figure 12. Relation between IDEF0 and IDEF3 methods.

 Creation of information models 443

APP. A portion of the resulting diagrams is sh own in The UML methodology was applied usin g a bottom-
figu re 9. u p approach, starting with the description of the
The relation between design product, design system general structure of the inform ation m odels and the
and design process was established usin g IDEF3 process requiremen ts that the application software should fulfil.
centred description diagrams. Although these diagrams O n ce the gen eral structure of the in form ation models
are not in tended for this purpose, by putting together was created , th eir d ecom p osition in classe s an d
the three diagrams it was possible to clearly iden tify the subclasses was based on the in form ation contained in
relation between th em . In order to clarify th ose the IDEF3 diagrams and unit of beh aviour charts.
relationships, lines were traced between the diagrams,
and the correspondin g numbers for the processes were
written between paren thesis. An example is sh own in 9. Use of IDEF3 UOB in the UML detailed
figu re 10. description of the manufacturing model
O n ce the process-centred description was com-
pleted, the inform ation was used to create the object- As explained before, the first stage of the rational
centred description. This describes the changes that un ified method is the requiremen ts capture, this is
occur in an object through the product life cycle. The m ainly done with the application of use case diagrams
selected objects for the object-centred description were that capture the n eeds of the users of the system
the product, the process and the system. This descrip- ( actors). H owever, this is done assumin g that the
tion gives a view of the transfor mations that take place design er has a previous good un derstanding of the
through the different stages of developmen t. requiremen ts for the system . Usin g the in form ation
In the IDEF3 object cen tred description som e m odelled with IDEF0 and IDEF3 this understanding
referen ts are sh own between the differen t stages; these can be provided.
refer en ts sign ify th e pr ocesses d ur ing wh ich th e In the construction of the UML class diagram it is
indicated tran sition occurs, or at least a p rocess n ecessary to in clude the classes with their attributes and
involved in the transition . Due to the focus of this beh aviour, and the relationsh ips between classes. This
research the selected referents for this m odel are those infor mation can be obtained from the un it of beh aviour
related to assembly topics. elaboration diagrams. At this stage, the top-down and
The IDEF3 object centred descriptions were pro- bottom-up approaches m eet. An example is shown in
duced to display different stages in the evolution of the figure 13.
design of th e p rodu ct, p rocess, an d system . Th e
diagrams illustrate that some transitions require several
referen ts. An example of these object-centred descrip- 10. Concluding comments
tions is shown in figu re 11.
In figure 12 an example of the sequence of the The approach followed is a combin ation of top-
methods used is sh own . The use of IDEF0 in form ation in down and bottom-up approaches. The top-down was
IDEF3 is not direct, and it implies the addition of the time performed starting with the analysis of the en terprises
parameter in the model; h owever, the elaboration of an and the definition of the basic fu nctions that the
IDEF3 process diagram starting with the information of infor mation m odels h ave to support. This was done by
the activities captured in IDEF0 has proven to be sim ple. m odelling the activities with IDEF0 and the processes
In the IDEF3 object centred description, key objects with IDEF3. These methods proved to be very effe ctive
h ave to be m o delled in or d er to iden tify th eir in m odelling the infor mation at the enterprise and
interaction with processes. The elaboration forms are infor mation levels of the RM-O DP. The combin ed use
a good way of docum enting the units of beh aviour, of these m ethods overcomes their in divid ual limita-
considering that the facts and constraints captured will tions.
be usefu l for determ ining the attributes and behaviour The bottom-up approach gave the necessary details
of their related classes in the application of the UML to the general structure, detailing classes, defining their
methodology. attributes and operations, and buildin g the relation-
As m en tion ed befor e, th e IDEF0 an d IDEF3 sh ips with other classes. The UML methodology can be
methodologies have been used to obtain the in form a- used alone in software design ; h owever, it h as been
tion required in the en terprise and in formation levels fo un d that the UML m ethodology n eeds extra support
of the RM-O DP. The computational level comprises the in the requirements capture stage, mainly for the
creation of the object-orien ted description of the system defin ition of the structure of the in form ation m odels.
and its implemen tation in the construction of the Alth ough there is no direct interaction between the
info rmation m odels and software applications. infor mation m odelled in IDEF3 and the UML metho-
 444
J. M. Dorador an d R. I. M. Young

Figure 13. Use of IDEF3 UOB elaboration diagrams in the definition of subclasses in the UML class diagram of the manufacturing model.
 Creation of information models 445

dology, the IDEF3 m odelled in formation can be used as D O U M EING T S, G., 1998, GIM, Grai Integrated Methodology.
a guide in the definition of the attributes and behaviour (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Pu blish-
ers), pp. 227 ±288.
of the classes. H U AN G, C. C. and KU SIAK, A., 1998, Manufacturing con trol with
UML notation and the rational unified process are a push±pull approach. International Journal of Production
very useful for the definition of the application software Research 36, 251 ±275.
that will use the in formation stored in the in form ation JO RYSZ, H . R. and Vernadat, F. B., 1990, CIM-O SA Part 1: Total
models, due to their focus on the interactions with the enterprise modelling an d function view. International Journal
of Computer Integrated Manufacturing 3, 144 ±180.
user in the use cases. This in cremental process allows KRAU SE, F. L., KIMU RA, F., KJELLBERG , T. and LU , S. C. Y., 1993,
the designer to build the classes and their relationsh ips, Product mod elling. Annals of the CIRP, 42, 695 ±706.
wh ich are the core of the object-oriented design of the KU SIAK, A. and ZAKARIAN, A., 1996, Reliability an d risk analysis of
system . process models. American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
Modelling the design process with IDEF0 and IDEF3 Materials Division ( MDv 69-2, 1995) , pp 959 ±980.
MAYER, R. J., MENZEL , C. P., P AINT ER, M. K., D EWITTE, BLIN N, T.,
gives a clear view of the in teraction points between DFA an d P ERAKAT H , B., 1995, In form ation in tegr ation for
and APP, besides th e clear represen tation of the concurrent engin eering (IICE), IDEF3 Process Description
concurrency in the design of the product, the process Capture Method Report, Kn owledge Based Systems Inc.,
and the system ( resources) . The defin ition of the DFA USA.
an d APP ap p lication software is cur ren tly un d er McKAY, A., BLO O R, M. S. and PENN ING TON , A., 1996, A framework
for product data. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data
developm ent usin g UML, these applications will in ter- Engineering, 8, 825 ±838.
act with a product and manufacturin g m odel, giving MO LINA, A., 1995, A man ufacturing model to support data-
support to the design ers and manufacturing en gin eers driven applications for design and manufacture, Ph D thesis,
through the product life cycle. Lough borough University of Technology, UK.
MOSES, R. g., 1992, MOSES: Manufacturing Mod el & Product
Mod el, http:/ / leva.leeds.ac.uk/ www_m oses/ mm.html
NIST, 1993, Integration Definition for Fu nction Mod eling
Acknowledgments ( I DEF0) , h t t p :/ / www. i d e f.co m / d o wn lo a d s/ D o wn -
loads.htm
The research un dertaken by J.M. Dorador is fu n ded by NIST, 1997, The STEP Project, http:/ / www.nist.gov/ sc4/
the Universidad Nacional AutoÂn oma de MeÂxico, UNAM P RASAD, B., 1996, Toward a functional design of a concurrent
information mod eling system. CMSE, Computer Modeling and
and by the CONACYT, MeÂxico. This research is bein g Simulation in Engineering 1, 7 ±29.
don e as part of the Manufacturing In form ation Models Q U ATRANY, T. 1998, Visual Modeling with Rational Rose and UML
project, fu n ded by the EPSRC Grant No. GR/ L41493. (Reading, MA. Addison-Wesley).
T EX EL, P. P. and WILLIAMS, C. B. 1997, Use Cases Combined with
Booch/ OMT/ UML: Process and Products ( En gelwood Cliffs:
Prentice Hall).
References T O H , K. T. K., 1999, Modelling architectures: a review of their
application in structured methods for information systems
ASHWO RTH , M., BLO O R, M. S., MCKAY, A. an d O WEN , J., 1996, application. International Journal of Production Research, 37,
Adop ting step for in-service configuration control. Compu- 1439 ±1458.
ters in Industry 31, 235 ±253. WILLIAMS, T. J., 1998. The Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture
BAXT ER, J. E. 1994, A functional data model for assemblies. and Methodology (PERA) . ( Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Ph D thesis, Leeds University, UK. Kluwer Academic Publish ers) , pp. 289 ±330.
CO LQ U HO U N, G. J. and BAIN ES, R. W., 1991, A generic IDEF0 YO U N G, R. I. M. and BELL, R., 1995, Prod uct and manufacturing
mod el of process planning. International Journal Production models: information tools for the designer. Department of
Research 29, 2239 ±2257. Manfuacturing En gin eering, Lough borough , UK.
DO RAD OR, J. M. and YO U N G, R. I. M., 1999, Information models ZU OBAO , W., G U AN GLEN G, X. and YI, P., 1996, Prod uct develop-
to support the interactions between design for assembly and ment process simulation for con current engineering. High
assemly process planning. International Symposium on Assem- Technology Letters, 2, 1 ±4.
bly and Task Planning, Porto, Portugal, pp. 39 ±44.