Review of Product Information Retrieval: Representation and Indexing

Engineers spend a significant amount of time searching for the right product information during the design and manufacturing process. A large amount as well as various types of product information have been generated and are available within the engineering databases. But representing and indexing the products effectively and retrieving them efficiently, remains a challenge. The purpose of this survey is to document the current state of research and development. We then identify avenues for exploration and provide a comparison of the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations among the various techniques. This survey concludes by suggesting possible future research directions.