Simulating Reality
I'm currently researching for an article on product lifecycle management (PLM). The first thing I discovered is that PLM is in the eye of the beholder. It seems that most companies that supply PLM solutions define this application area in terms of what each supplies.
Those who have thought through this area maintain that PLM is a process, a set of company procedures and workflows, that is aided by a variety of software application tools. Some companies supply a "cradle to grave" solution that begins with product definition in the computer aided design model and follows the data flow all the way to supply chain management incorporating engineering change management along the way.
Two things stand out in my mind right now. First is the necessity to have firm procedures and workflows in place supplemented by Web-based software for assuring that far-flung operations all work from the same product definition. Many companies are now supplying tools to help this effort. I have not tried any personally, but compared to what we did in the 1970s when I managed that part of an engineering department, it sounds great. I've talked with many users of the products, and they all tout the benefits.
The other part of this whole area has to do with taking all the engineering data for both product and manufacturing process and simulating how it will all work. Some systems can simulate a production line and even generate fundamental machine logic that can be tested and tweaked in software before any steel is cut. Automation World will have an article on that area in October, as well, to go along with my article.
If you are interested in simulation and scientific inquiry, I recommend an article in the IEEE Spectrum magazine that tells the story of a group of cosmologists who have written a simulation program to run on extremely powerful computers at the Max Plank Institute to simulate the development of the universe based on current theoretical models and measured data. The idea is--if the model ends up with a universe that looks similar to the one we know, then some credence is given to the theoretical models. The article is a great overview of current thinking in cosmology. Check it out at http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/aug04/0804cos.html.
7:31:18 AM 
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