A framework for management of Knowledge-Based Engineering applications as software services: Enabling personalization and codification

This paper reports on a system that has been developed to facilitate the structure and reuse of engineering rules (ERs) in Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) systems. The proposed structure for rule elements supports the traceability of knowledge sources as well as where the knowledge elements are used in KBE applications. This forms the infrastructure to systematically manage the use and reuse of knowledge and control the version and update of the rules when new knowledge is gained. Representing product knowledge in rules is a way to capture the know-why of the design by modelling the decisions involved in the design process. KBE has been used as the mechanism to deploy this knowledge. Although the KBE technology can support the management of this knowledge, the maintenance of the knowledge is often a neglected task. This leads to a number of practical difficulties in the large scale rollout of KBE applications. To design an improved KBE rules maintenance system, the research team developed a generic representation to unify the off-line storage of the IF, COND and CASE statements used in the ICAD Design Language. Additional data fields are defined to maintain the traceability of the origin and use of rules. This is implemented in a Microsoft Access database. The integration of this off-line rule repository with the ICAD KBE system is achieved and validated in an industrial application. The data structure defined and the implementation system is detailed in this paper.

As organisations grow, consequences of poor knowledge management are evident for new employees in product developing companies. The problem of leveraging existing knowledge between development projects and departments is still relevant. This paper presents an industrial case study of a traditional manufacturing company and extends prior research addressing the reuse of organisational knowledge in new product development. The paper outlines barriers that hinder effective reuse of codified engineering knowledge and suggest means to overcome those barriers by using A3-reports in the PLM-system.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the role of top management control in stimulating innovation through their effect on the creation of knowledge in new product development (NPD) projects. Top management has a crucial role in stimulating innovation in companies, in particular as top managers affect knowledge creation through their interaction with project teams before and during an NPD project, which can of course affect innovation.Design/methodology/approachThrough comparative case‐based research in two companies in high‐velocity industries, chosen through theoretical sampling, the authors have studied six NPD projects.FindingsThe control top management exercise over an NPD project influences the creation of knowledge in different ways, both hampering and facilitating knowledge creation. In particular, this control focuses on explicit knowledge, and not tacit knowledge, which may reduce the overall capacity for knowledge creation and ultimately innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThe results are considered to be generalizable within high‐velocity industries. In terms of future research the results should be tested in other industries using either case‐based research or by increasing the sample and doing survey‐type research.Practical implicationsThe advice, or perhaps challenge, for managers is to know when to exercise control, when not to and what type of control to exercise. In particular the paper highlights the importance of managers not solely controlling projects by focusing on explicit knowledge in the project, but also by understanding that tacit knowledge is necessary in order to facilitate knowledge creation and innovation.Originality/valueThe paper helps clarify the relationship between top management control and knowledge creation by specially examining how and why top management control hampers or facilitates knowledge creation.

Product development is a highly creative and knowledge-intensive process that involves extensive information and knowledge exchange and sharing among geographically distributed teams and developers. How to best integrate such heterogeneous product knowledge has become an extremely important knowledge management (KM) subject associated with product development. Product development knowledge integration and sharing is becoming a key issue in the enterprise KM. This paper addresses the challenges of product development knowledge integration and sharing during product development. The aim of this research work effort is to develop a method to enhance the integration and sharing of product knowledge during the development phase. This study presents a systematic approach to developing knowledge integration and sharing for product development. The proposed approach includes the steps for designing a framework of product development knowledge sharing, developing representation model for product development knowledge, designing product development knowledge sharing process, designing product development knowledge integration ontology, developing knowledge integration and sharing method for product development based on ontology, and implementation of product development knowledge integration and sharing method. The proposed method could bring out an efficient and proactive way for knowledge integration and sharing among product developers in the product development process.

The re-use of product knowledge is vital to the development of Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) systems and to the deployment of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategies. This paper addresses the challenges related to KBE-PLM systems integration in order to unlock engineering knowledge from proprietary representations and to manage the lifecycle of KBE models as well as their usage by different design automation applications. Essential constituents of product knowledge are identified and analyzed and the concepts of design intent and design rationale are re-introduced as key enablers to re-use this product knowledge in the appropriate KBE context. The paper introduces a KBE-PLM integration framework including a platform-independent Open KBE repository structured according to the KBE-PLM integration schema. This schema is a multi-layer neutral product and knowledge data model designed for integrating information from parameterized Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models, rule-based KBE systems and PLM systems.

Manufacturing companies are trying hard to anticipate a disrupted supply chain. Internal changes are encouraged to adapt to external conditions. Partnerships with external parties through supply chain collaboration are needed to improve supply chain performance and increase competitiveness. This research examines the effect of supply chain collaboration on supply chain performance by adopting new product development, product knowledge, and production technology. The study surveyed 148 manufacturing companies at managerial level using questionnaires. Data processing using SmartPLS software version 4.0. The results show that supply chain collaboration positively influences production technology, product knowledge, new product development, and supply chain performance. Production technology positively impacts product knowledge, new product development, and supply chain performance. The results also show that supply chain performance is influenced by product knowledge and new product development. In addition, production technology, new product development, and product knowledge mediate the indirect influence of supply chain collaboration on supply chain performance. This study contributes to enriching supply chain management theory. The practical contribution is to enlighten the company's managerial to run supply chain collaboration in generating performance and competitiveness.

The paper deals with the computer aided process of developing Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) applications [7]. When creating KBE applications, both the product and its design process are modeled. The worked out concepts are presented in the paper. They base on an real world example developed by the authors [4, 5, 6].KeywordsCADKnowledge Based Engineering

In recent years, thanks to the ICT systems, there has been a continued growth and an increasing accumulation of the available information. Managing information has become one of the key activities in any sector. Indeed, information management emerged as the core and the basis of manufacturing enterprise. The research activity mainly focused on the development of a Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) methodology for supporting a manufacturing company, in particular railway manufacturers, in reusing company knowledge. A Decision Support System (DSS) has been developed with the scope of identifying products already designed that fully or partly fit what required by new bids. The DSS has been built within a PLM software and part of the research has concentrated on comparing the PLM suites available in the market searching for the best tool able to act the role of a centralized management dashboard for knowledge reuse. The proposed methodology involves different business units and several expertise, emphasizing the importance of a collaborative environment and the need of a methodology for design review sessions. Contents of this thesis retrace these considerations: the second chapter reports a technology scouting on the available PLM tools; the third and the fourth chapters deal with a KBE methodology and the development of a DSS; the fifth one proposes the development of an immersive virtual reality environment aimed at deploying review sessions by design and manufacturing teams with interdisciplinary skills; at last, in the sixth chapter, it is reported a Discrete Event Simulation application as example of a procedural KBE application.

This paper shows the application of a Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) system to optimise the design of gearshafts used in aircraft engines. A new design process and a tool have been introduced to automate the preparation of CAD models by engineers. Time required was reduced by more than 60%, resulting in a sensible decrease in costs and indirect quality benefits. The study is based on a company case and findings are consistent with other studies in the aerospace. The paper helps understand the potential value of KBE in New Product Development (NPD) and can be a proof-of-concept for further implementations in complex engineering sectors.

Knowledge has been recognized as one of the most important resources for the success of product development. An approach on integrating knowledge management into product development processes is proposed. In the approach, the product development process is analyzed through the state-process-resource modeling method. The product development process model provides the context for structuring knowledge and organizing designers. It leads to a user-oriented structure of knowledge produced and used in product development tasks and a process-based informal network of product developers. In addition, the integration between knowledge management processes and product development processes gives not only guidance for managing knowledge activities, but also an optimization for product development process modeling.

This paper deals with the development of a Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) methodology for supporting a manufacturing company, in particular railway manufacturers, in their analyses for reusing existing products in new projects. The proposed methodology is based on the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) and the use of an analysis, called Adopt/Adapt/Innovate (AAI), aimed at identifying products already designed that fully or partly fit what required by new bids. The DSS is built within a PLM software and part of the research concentrated on comparing the PLM suites available in the market searching for the best tool able to act the role of a centralized management dashboard for knowledge reuse. DSS and AAI analysis are the base for future research activities for obtaining a KBE system that automatically models complex railway products starting from the customer requirements, drastically reducing the time to market.

With knowledge and expertise increasingly being recognized as important, firms have made significant investments in document repositories as part of their knowledge management initiatives. Document repositories are intended to enhance the ability to access codified knowledge and help improve task performance through knowledge reuse. However, it is not clear what effects they have on how knowledge workers perform their tasks. Using longitudinal data on repository accesses and calls to technical support by field technicians in an engineering firm, we examine how just-in-time access to codified knowledge affects patterns of help-seeking from technical support. We find evidence that greater accessing of codified knowledge reduces calls for help to technical support. The type of codified knowledge accessed from the repository affects field technicians’ calling behavior. Accessing general knowledge reduces calls to support for low-complexity problems, while accessing procedural knowledge reduces calls related to high-complexity problems. Further, accessing procedural knowledge is significantly associated with promotion, suggesting that the use of document repositories can help individuals build firm-specific human capital. Building on the insights of cognitive load theory, this study suggests that making information available just in time through document repositories reduces the cognitive load involved for task performance and enables learning. This work contributes to a greater understanding of the value of knowledge management systems and suggests that, beyond the efficiencies gained from knowledge reuse, just-in-time access to knowledge repositories builds problem solving capabilities and contributes to human capital development.

For the deployment of both Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) approaches, product and process engineering knowledge needs to be identified, acquired, formalized, processed and reused. While knowledge acquisition is still a bottleneck process, the formalized engineering knowledge is still too often encapsulated in CAD models and in KBE systems developed in vendor-specific environments. To address this issue, this paper introduces a possible solution enabling the enrichment of a CAD-KBE-PLM integration schema that provides a standardized and neutral representation of engineering knowledge for further reuse across heterogeneous CAD, KBE and PLM systems. To enrich this schema, the proposed solution combines the use of a Multi-CAD API library – which allows platform-independent and automatic extraction of engineering knowledge from CAD models into an XML-based representation – and a Knowledge Acquisition and Formalization Assistant (KAFA) which assist domain experts to formalize their procedural knowledge.

In multi-domain product development organizations, there is a continuous need to transfer captured knowledge between engineers to enable better design decisions in the future. The objective of this paper is to evaluate how engineering knowledge can be captured, disseminated and (re)used by applying a knowledge reuse tool entitled Engineering Checksheet (ECS). The tool was introduced in 2012 and this evaluation has been performed over the 2017–2018 period. This case study focused on codified knowledge in incremental product development with a high reuse potential both in and over time. The evaluation draws conclusions from the perspectives of the knowledge workers (the engineers), knowledge owners and knowledge managers. The study concludes that the ECS has been found to be valuable in enabling a timely understanding of technological concepts related to low level engineering tasks in the product development process. Hence, this enables knowledge flow and, in particular, reuse among inexperienced engineers, as well as providing quick and accurate quality control for experienced engineers. The findings regarding knowledge ownership and management relate to the need for clearly defining a knowledge owner structure in which communities of practice take responsibility for empowering engineers to use ECS and as knowledge evolves managing updates to the ECS.

This paper explores the integration of a Knowledge-Based Engineering System (KBES) for design heuristics to enhance sustainable engineering education. The primary goal is to equip students with the skills needed to develop sustainable products while comprehending the complexities and multifaceted nature of sustainability. As sustainability is highly context-dependent, the importance of utilizing context-specific knowledge in product development is emphasized. A key question addressed in this study is how digital tools can effectively provide and facilitate the sharing of knowledge critical for sustainability-oriented design. The paper also examines how to build competency in sustainability using design heuristics, which are easy to understand and apply, offering students a practical approach to sustainable problem-solving. By integrating KBE systems with these heuristics, this paper proposes a framework for engineering education that fosters a deeper understanding and actionable skills for developing sustainable products. This approach aims to empower future engineers to create solutions that are not only innovative but also responsible and adaptive to the complex demands of sustainability.