An advanced method for time treatment in product lifecycle management models

Abstract

Time is the only fundamental dimension which exists along the entire life of an artefact and it affects all artefacts and their qualities. Most commonly in PLM models, time is an attribute in parts such as "activities" and "events" or is a separate part of the model ("four dimensional models") to which other parts are associated through relationships. In this work a generic idea has been developed about how to make better treatment of time in PLM models. The concept is that time should not be one part of the model, but it should be the basis of the model and all other elements should be parts of it. Thus, we introduce the "Duration of Time concept". According to this concept all aspects and elements of a model are parts of time. A case study demonstrates the applicability and the advantages of the concept in comparison to existing methodologies.