Markomichalis, Panayiotis S. (1991) An object oriented approach to automating the product specification concept in the automotive industry. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The research in this thesis is focused around the control of rapid automotive product specification changes which are due to multiple and unexpected factors ie. legal requirements, technological improvements, climate conditions.

Automotive companies use the Product Specification Concept which consists of a multidisciplinary theory using Boolean logic as the applications environment and a team of auditors - people who check the validity of such a theory - to control the complexity of the changes in its products.

Although the specifications data are stored electronically in data bases, the core of such business is dependent on the knowledge and experience of people within the automotive companies and still generally operates manually. Thus, human characteristics have an affect upon the business (ie. the inability of people to work with codes and many different data at once, people tend to forget or they lack proper training and skills, etc.) which makes it less efficient and consequently more costly.

In this thesis possible ways of computerising such an environment (specifically, Rover's Auditing function and Product Specification Concept) are investigated. The characteristics of the problem domain indicate the need to use knowledge based reasoning and Object Oriented Programming.

A system, ROOVESP (Rover's Object Oriented VEhicle Specification) was developed as the "vehicle" to explore the area and it proved that knowledge and experience can be automatically acquired from the existing data and procedures. When these are coded into rules, computer intelligence can contribute to this traditionally human oriented environment and automate fully both the Auditing area and the Product Specification Concept in Rover.

The techniques adopted were proved applicable to other similar areas

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Object-oriented programming (Computer science) -- industrial applications, Automobile industry and trade -- Specifications, Automobiles -- Design and construction, MG Rover (Firm)
Official Date:	1991
Dates:	Date Event 1991 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Engineering
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Dowd, Amanda
Extent:	2 volumes
Language:	eng

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