VWS4LS

Decentralized data management for the development process

SP2 "Development processes of the wire harness" focused on recording and modeling the complex and collaborative development processes and the underlying data management concepts. Various players are involved in a complex process during the development and production of a wire harness. The OEM as the vehicle developer and client for the Wire Harness, the assembler as the coordinator of wire harness development and the various supplier levels, the so-called "tiers". Tier 1 typically refers to system suppliers such as manufacturers of control units or manufacturers of wire harnesses. Tier 2 refers to suppliers of individual components for the overall system. Other suppliers of indirect goods or resources are referred to as Tier 3. In addition, before components are used, their approval must be obtained from the actual client (in this case the OEM) and documented accordingly. These players are spread across several companies, which are often based in different countries. In addition, the information flows between the players are characterized by the situation and cannot be generally defined in terms of direction and sequence.

One of the main results of WP2 is WP 2.5 with its observations on the decentralized storage of the Asset Administration Shell , in which, depending on the use case, one of the repositories involved acts as a reference point, the so-called "single-point-of-truth" (SPoT) as a reliable data source, but which does not hold all the data, but links to the repositories of the other stakeholders. The following figure shows the schematic structure of such decentralized data storage.

Figure [Overview of input and output data in the development process]

It was also recognized that the VWS offers real added value both for the provision of master data by the tiers and for ongoing change management in the development process, not only in terms of traceability, but also in the actual discussion and incorporation of changes. Instead of many different files in different formats, there is now a structured availability of data that can be exchanged seamlessly via standardized interfaces. This results in enormous opportunities for optimization and time savings.

In the process analysis, the organizational roles involved were divided into OEM, LS developer and component developer, with the latter also including housings, covers, adapted cable ducts and other components in addition to connectors.

Figure [Reference process wire harness development]

Each LS component and each process step was included and the necessary submodel types were defined as follows:

Figure [VWS types and their stakeholders]

The resulting requirements for the process steps in production and the necessary automatic negotiation processes between product and machines (interaction VWS - MES) were recorded and defined in TP6 on the basis of I4.0 messages in order to be able to implement automation of the production processes.