Horst-Artur Crostack
Dortmund University of Technology, Chair of Quality Engineering, Germany
Jonas Mathis
Dortmund University of Technology, Chair of Quality Engineering, Germany
Katharina Noll
Dortmund University of Technology, Chair of Quality Engineering, Germany
Download article
Published in: 11th QMOD Conference. Quality Management and Organizational Development Attaining Sustainability From Organizational Excellence to SustainAble Excellence; 20-22 August; 2008 in Helsingborg; Sweden
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 33:70, p. 831-841
Published: 2008-12-09
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Originality/value: In this paper; we present the steps taken to develop the prototype of an IT-based requirements management system for the domain of intralogistics facilities. So far; there is no RM system which takes into account the specific constraints of the intralogistics domain and which uses domain ontologies to facilitate the machine-understanding of stakeholder demands.
Purpose: When planning and designing large production or conveyor facilities according to customer needs; a large number of stakeholders along the product life-cycle and an accordingly large amount of demands have to be considered. Thus; computer-based methods have to be developed which “understand” all requirements and prepare them for further processing.
Methodology: Comparable approaches from requirements engineering and software engineering and their respective limitations were used to form a baseline model in which core components (e.g. “source” and “intended feature”) were identified. Next; example requirements were taken from interviews; literature or sales catalogues. A comparison of those requirements led to a requirements data model. It represents the information possibly contained in a stakeholder’s demands. This data model was implemented in a relational database; and a framework to create and use domain ontologies to integrate domain knowledge and logistics-specific wording was developed.
Findings: The data model is sound with respect to all requirements studied so far. The attributes collected during the original template creation serve as the foundation for an intralogistics ontology. The application collects additional attributes which can later be used to extend the domain ontology. This enables a designer of intralogistics systems to use additional structuring techniques and thus facilitates the planning of such a system.
Eequirements management; intralogistics; data model; domain ontology; transport components
