Towards an integrated modelling framework for engineering design processes

Abstract

Engineering design processes consist of an administration level where the coordination of the design workflow takes place and a process level where human actors perform their tasks following engineering methodologies. Most of the existing information system infrastructures support either of these two levels, resulting in isolated islands of support. In this paper, we present an integrated modelling framework that bridges the gap between these two levels. The key idea behind this framework is a multi-perspective modelling language that adequately captures both levels by interrelating them according to a number of semantic bridges. Our approach has been evaluated in an interdisciplinary chemical engineering project focusing on the conceptual design and basic engineering phases of the nylon production.