| In an integrated manufacturing environment, the database plays a central role. Traditional database technologies, hierarchical, network, and relational databases, have not completely satisfied the data management needs in a complex manufacturing environment. The emerging object-oriented database technology has shown some potential capability in areas where complex data management is needed.; This dissertation applied the object-oriented database technology to manufacturing data management. The purpose of this research was two fold. First, it intended to provide a framework for a full life cycle object-oriented data management approach. Second, it intended to contrast the object-oriented approach to a traditional approach (e.g. the relational database approach).; A generic production management system was used as the domain for the object-oriented data modeling framework, which consists of Product Data Management (PDM), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP). Entities, inter-relationships, and interactions among entities have been modeled both structurally and behaviorally in the framework.; To verify the modeling process, the modeling results were implemented in a commercial object-oriented database system. Applications pertinent to the domain were developed in a fashion that is coherent with the database modeling process to test the validity of the database. Sample runs for PDM, MRP, and CRP were performed.; To contrast the object-oriented approach with a traditional approach, the same domain was also modeled with the relational approach. A qualitative comparative study between the two approaches was performed based on a set of metrics: semantic richness, integrity support, coherence among development phases, language support, and performance. The results show that the object-oriented approach has advantages over the traditional approach in most areas. Extension of this research may be directed to making use of the object-oriented database as a logically integrated database in an integrated manufacturing environment. |
