Quote Generation for Special Tools: an Ontology-based Method

The continuing drive towards an increasing degree of products customization leads companies to produce individual highly personalized items according with customer requirements. Therefore, the ability to generate accurate and timely offers has become a critical successful factor, because it has an impact on the profitability of the possible contract. This paper takes in consideration the quote generation process for special tools and the knowledge engineering as possible solution to the problem. A new approach in the field of CAPP and AI is proposed. This method is based on an ontology of knowledge representation and on problem solving techniques; it automatically defines the work cycle for the realization of the tool, in terms of times and costs. The authors have tested the proposed approach on real industrial cases of quoting for special tools, obtaining good results.