Application of a Product Platform Knowledge Management Methodology Using the Semantic Web Paradigm to a Playground System

Information management has been recognized as an essential ingredient for effective product family planning strategies through the utilization of product platforms. Product platforms utilize commonality of parts, modules, and processes during design and manufacture. This commonality must be well documented for its effective use, and ontologies are one way to organize this information to promote knowledge management. The following provides a case study to verify a proposed methodology for product platform knowledge management that uses the semantic web paradigm by applying it to a component from a major modular playground equipment producer. Our objective is to verify the developed methodology using a case study of a modular playground component and to evaluate the methodology’s user adoptability. It will be shown that the methodology is successful and valid to apply to other applications, with some improvements, in the future.