Development of a Human-Centric Knowledge Management Framework Through the Integration Between PLM and MES

Data management systems represent a powerful tool for collecting and managing real-time data in a company. One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) firms, which leverage on their knowledge about past products and manufacturing processes to reduce lead time, are the ones which can potentially benefit the most from deploying systems like PLM and MES. However, the benefits arising from data management systems are still limited due to the scarce integration among them. In particular, for OKP companies it is crucial to be able to collect and formalize the knowledge generated by operators during the manufacturing process, in order to constantly improve the design process. In this way, the iterations of trial and error can be reduced, saving time and costs. This paper proposes a framework (i.e., a Knowledge Base System) for the integration of a PLM software used for product design and production cycle definition, and a MES software able to collect operators’ feedbacks about manufacturing criticalities. The integration is realized by means of a centralized database, able to receive data from both systems and to relate them to generate useful information. Finally, a case study developed on a car prototyping company is presented to exemplify the advantages of systems integration.