Enabling supplier discovery through a part-focused manufacturing process ontology

Numerous ontologies have been introduced to represent and activate engineering knowledge across the development process. However, many of the ontologies in the manufacturing domain provide limited usability for individuals who lack knowledge of manufacturing processes available within the domain. Similarly, web-based e-sourcing portals lack the ability to adequately pair components whose developers have limited knowledge of manufacturing processes with manufacturers who are able to produce their product. Motivated by these current gaps, an ontology is proposed which is designed to enable both users with a limited knowledge and those with a pre-existing knowledge of manufacturing to identify potential processes. The Part-focused Manufacturing Process Ontology is designed around the concept that manufacturing processes can be selected based upon desired features and attributes of a component/product. This differs from other ontologies that model the manufacturing process domain on the characteristics of the resources utilised in manufacturing. Further, the ontology is populated with some manufacturer data and its functionality demonstrated using component cases.