Work

An ontology-based digital thread framework to support early concurrent engineering in the aerospace industry

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The increasing complexity of the aerospace industry has highlighted the need to fathom the entire lifecycle of an aircraft. Identified too late, issues originating from the manufacturing or the maintenance phases can have considerable consequences on the overall development costs, time and quality. Concurrent Engineering is an approach that aims to improve the design process of a system by considering all lifecycle phases from the initial conceptualization. However, this way of working necessitates a high degree of collaboration and extensive knowledge sharing among the involved stakeholders. Nevertheless, the digitization of the industry has permitted new opportunities to emerge addressing these challenges. The development of approaches based on Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have provided compelling ways to foster cross-domain collaboration while incorporating engineering knowledge supporting design decisions. This paper leverages an ontology-based digital thread framework as a bridge between aircraft and manufacturing engineering activities. With enriched insights and global perspectives, this framework aims to enable early cross-domain trade-offs analysis to support knowledgedriven Concurrent Engineering during the conceptual design phase.

Source: Journal of Industrial Information Integration

DOI: 10.1016/j.jii.2025.100984

Authors: Eliott Duverger, Alexis Aubry, Rebeca Arista, Eric Levrat

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CRAN, Université de Lorraine, Airbus (France)

Language: English

Topic: Systems Engineering Methodologies and Applications

Subfield: Control and Systems Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,810