Methods and Tools for Effective Knowledge Life-Cycle-Management

This first chapter has to be considered like a general entry in the problematic of Knowledge Life-Cycle Management. Some general issues are addressed. First a literature review is proposed that is supposed to highlight the domain and the corresponding concepts and aims through definitions. Knowledge Life-Cycle (KLC) is more especially considered and the strategic dimensions of KLC are described and commented. Then Knowledge Management is positioned with respect to information technology. A conclusion paragraph closes the paper.

The handling of knowledge in specific contexts is often labeled knowledge management. A more precise analysis of the literature in the knowledge management field, though, distinguishes four different domains with regard to the handling of knowledge in context, i. e., knowledge management, knowledge processes, knowledge media, and knowledge exploitation. These domains we name knowledge work. We also introduce four approaches to the study of knowledge work, and operationalize the domains of knowledge work, knowledge contexts and the knowledge concept itself, to help researchers and practitioners in the manufacturing field to be more precise with regard to their analyses of knowledge work.

The knowledge-sharing culture is a type of organizational culture in which knowledge, in all its diversity and representations, is willingly made available and effectively utilized for realizing the mission and goals of the organization. The increasing attention given in the last years to knowledge management in organization, in particular to the valuing of the role of knowledge management practices in creating a rich information knowledge environment, infrastructure and resource for learning, has also generated considerable discussion centering on how effective knowledge management might be enabled, and how a knowledge sharing culture might be established. In the following, we discuss some important aspects for building the knowledge sharing culture in a virtual organization and we shall debate the case of the Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Production, Network of Excellence (NoE). The main subchapters are:

(1) Individual Knowledge and Organizational Knowledge in the VRL-KCiP Organization;

(2) Knowledge Creation Process – the Core of Building the VRL-KCiP Knowledge- Share Culture;

(3) The Way of Building the Knowledge Sharing Culture in the VRL-KCiP NoE Organization;

(4) Final Comments and Conclusions.

In the context of this article, virtual teams are considered not only separated by time and space, but also different in national, cultural, linguistic attributes, and use information and communication technologies as their primary means of communication and work structure. The potential advantages of virtual teams are that they can create culturally synergistic solutions, enhance creativity and cohesiveness among team members, promote a greater acceptance of new ideas and provide a competitive advantage for the whole organization. Yet, culture has been identified as not a sure or stand-alone remedy to improved organizational performance, described as being complex, multileveled and deeply rooted – a concept that must be observed and analyzed at its every level before it can be fully understood or successfully changed and managed. The theoretical aspects are sustained by presenting the results of the organizational culture research within the Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Production. The questionnaire used in research was inspired by the survey which was presented by Anawati and Craig [1]. They proposed a framework of behavioral adaptations in order to give an orientation for cross-cultural virtual team members by considering the following items: general overview of the virtual team; spoken and written characteristics for the communication; religious belief importance for scheduling meetings and deadlines; time zone linked with the time organization; face-to-face meetings are the most relevant ways for building trust in the organization. The research underline that cultural aspects have an important influence on the VRLKCiP network; the culture emphasizes the individual teams’/partners culture, and the culture is in a state of transition.

This chapter presents a paradigm for collaborative management and verification of design knowledge through a platform that is based on the seamless integration of Web services and Virtual Reality technology. The DiCoDEv (Distributed Collaborative Design Evaluation) platform enables online collaboration among distributed design expert groups or individuals, through a shared virtual environment. The developed platform supports efficient knowledge management and facilitates synchronous and asynchronous communication during the whole design phase of a new product. The use of Virtual Reality enables the advanced multi-user visualization and interaction with the virtual prototype. The aim of this work is to present a robust Web-based collaboration tool for the efficient use of designer’s knowledge for improving the group decision making capabilities during the product development.

This chapter discusses the typical characteristics of virtual enterprises. Additionally, web based systems features are analysed. The focus is on modeling and implementation of such systems with respect to handling the knowledge in the virtual enterprise. Typical applications that have been developed to support the knowledge management in the virtual enterprise are discussed. Especially, the support of business process execution as the core of a knowledge management approach is discussed. Use of modern technologies for business process modeling like the UML is discussed. Flexible data exchange standards are compared like the XML to other alternatives and the advantages are demonstrated in a series of industrial scenarios. Finally, the synthesis of these technologies to implement web based systems is discussed.

Knowledge management focuses on the effective utilisation of an organisation’s knowledge assets, with a view to furthering the organisation’s objectives. For virtual organisations however, performing effective knowledge management can become quite complex. The reason for this being that such organisations have additional requirements over and above those of regular organisations as to ensure shared understanding and effective dissemination of information to its various units. A solution that addresses the knowledge management requirements of a virtual organisation, have to provide functionality for (at least) the following aspects: Knowledge storage, Publishing knowledge, Subscription, Reusing knowledge, Collaboration, and Communication. EDEN™ is a software environment developed to facilitate the efforts of individuals working on innovation projects in multi-disciplinary teams, enabling them to follow the same project structure (roadmap) and giving them access to each others’ information as well as best practice information from current and past projects. This chapter discusses how EDEN™ supports the aspects listed above, and concludes by listing existing EDEN™ implementations in the 6th Framework’s VRL-KCiP.

This chapter defines the misunderstandings which might occur in engineering, especially when teams are “virtual”, and the risks linked to these misunderstandings. Based on related work and our experience in particular in the VRL-KCiP network of excellence, we make the assumption that if we intend to manage these risks; we have to focus on communication errors, which are rooted in six interrelated semiotic layers. We suggest general guidelines in terms of crosscultural communications and discuss the role that IT-based tools could play in solving misunderstanding problems in virtual engineering teams.

Pro-active management of the knowledge supply chain facilitates rapid technology, product and enterprise innovation. Collaboration has become an imperative for innovation. The knowledge “explosion” and abundant connectivity hampers rapid innovation and leads to communication overload. Structuring collaborative knowledge, exchanged via an integrated knowledge network, fosters the rapid exploitation of knowledge. An adequate (adaptable) configuration of network components within a domain of knowledge is required. This paper provides a framework for such an Integrated Knowledge Network (IKN); it also provides a navigation space to access knowledge contextualized with project life cycles. A practical case study that facilitates innovation research in this manner, spanning different private and public domains and including more than 100 projects, 130 users and in excess of 30.000 documents is briefly discussed.

The Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Production (VRL-KCiP) is a network of 27 carefully selected partner research laboratories located in 16 different countries that have coordinated to build a knowledge community in the field of design and manufacturing research (www.vrlkcip. org). The VRL-KCiP comprises over 300 multilingual, multicultural and multidisciplinary researchers, both permanent staff and graduate students. Expertise mapping was identified as a key process for integrating the network researchers to create the desired cooperation, collaboration and synergy required for network success, due to the inherent nature of the network.

The paper addresses problems inherent to gathering, managing and browsing knowledge relevant for maintaining and serving a collaborating group with common interests, i. e., a knowledge community. First, current solutions for information management will be examined, highlighting the need of more flexible means of information storage and retrieval. Hereafter, two of the most common – currently available – paradigms, i. e., semantic web technologies and topic maps, will be presented in an overview, and finally, the most suitable of these will be explained in a practical example.

In this work we address the need to formalize knowledge in a systematic way in order to productively explore it. We present a methodology on how to capture and archive information and then transform this plain information into valuable knowledge. In a specific case study, the competencies of each node/organization of a networked Virtual Laboratory have been identified. Conceptual maps aiming to host the identified competencies are structured based on specific rules; the population of the conceptual maps and the mapping of the competencies give a user-friendly overview of the Virtual Lab’s overall knowledge and expertise, considering both internal and cross-organizational aspects. The benefits of this work are described and guidelines for the implementation and introduction of the proposed work to multi-stakeholders environments are provided. The results of this work are expected to be of value to both industrial and academic audience with interests on topics such as knowledge mapping, knowledge formalization, competencies mapping, conceptual maps, tacit knowledge, and ontologies.

Innovation issues require knowledge management to support the innovation process towards the new industrial goals. The Mass Customization and the High Value Added products & processes paradigms constitute the target of the most important innovation initiatives. These two manufacturing paradigms have been deeply analyzed in relation to both Technology and Market & Society, driving forces of the industrial innovation. The research object is to develop a topdown ontology approach – the Production Paradigms Ontology (PPO) – to enable Knowledge Management to support the innovation process towards Mass Customization and HVA products and processes for competitiveness and sustainability of industry. This paper consists of three parts concerning the Production Paradigm Ontology approach, the macro-categories and three study cases. PPO approach implies relevant elements that are the Time Horizon, the Driving Forces Technology and Society & Market, the Enabling Factors of the Innovation process life-cycle (design, implementation, use and reconfiguration) and the Infrastructure Level. The macro-categories describe real entities. The three study cases, analyzed through the three phases of the innovation process (implementation, use and reconfiguration), show how PPO could support knowledge management in the innovation process that each organization is carrying on to respond to turbulent and competitive markets.

During the early stages of the new product development, several decisions related to design, manufacturing, supply chain, etc. have to be made. This paper presents a framework for generating compatibility knowledge from data about new product development activities to help companies in making such decisions. This framework comprises two main approaches: an approach for information search and an approach for evaluating compatibility between alternatives. Compatibility knowledge is obtained through the investigation of the compatibility between information from the internal and external environments of the company. A case study illustrating the evaluation of compatibility between alternatives is provided.

The present work proposes a conceptual reference framework for the integrated modeling of product, production process and system data. The framework is flexible (easily adaptable to different production contexts), extendible and scalable (in terms of levels of details) and integrated (products, processes and systems are all considered and described). The framework has been developed as an object-oriented model by means of the UML (Unified Modeling Language) defacto standard. In particular, the class diagram of this UML model, representing the core portion of the framework, is described in detail. The conceptual reference framework was developed to support both researchers and industrialists – in different manufacturing domains – in the modeling activities behind their problem solving methodologies, also aiding them in exactly modeling the information they need. The basic idea behind the work is that a more effective use of the heterogeneous decision support methods, normally employed at the different enterprise levels, can be obtained if these methods are based a common conceptual model. The first two applications of the proposed reference framework are also described in the final sections.

The stages of an industrial product life-cycle can be described using process networks. A more generic and complete modeling is requested to improve the effectiveness of the knowledge life-cycle management related to the product.

Three aspects have to be considered.

• First, knowledge is extracted from specific processes and is often of a high complexity level. It is used by different users at different times, transmitted from one user to one another even if they are concerned by different points of view.

• Second, modeling is highly influenced by the used software that often considers particular views. The consequences are information redundancy, lack of integration of the different views and lack of information completeness.

• Third, knowledge is not static: the whole enterprise processes affect it. As a result, the transformations of knowledge have to be modeled but this is still a major difficulty for the usual models.

Consequently, a new generic and structuring model based on the FBS concepts (Function, Behavior and Structure) is proposed. These concepts are applied to four objects (PPRE): the Processes, the Products (objects stemming from the processes), the Resources (objects needed to realize the processes) and the External effects (constraints having an influence on the processes).

All along history, humans have always invented, created to improve their standard of living. Many machines have been built, sometimes simple and others very complex. In order to achieve the best results for customers, machines, industrial plants and humans are moved, displaced and replaced. It is the global humanity technical knowledge that disappears. Indeed, there is a lack in the actually conservation methods: sciences and technologies have to be considered and not only architecture. Our heritage research focuses on the mechanical and technical point of view. For instance, in a factory, there is the building but also actuators, motors and machines that produce product: taking into account the technical point of view can reach to a better understanding of the past. That’s why preserving the national technical patrimony has now become the priority of governments and world organizations. Our approach proposes a new kind of finality: as saving and maintaining physical object cost a lot for museums, and sometimes dismantling is impossible as the machine falls in ruin, we propose to preserve it as a numerical object. The aim of this research is to define the global process and technologies used for implementing a numerical model of old machines. The final aim is to constitute a new reference for museologic actors, using actual techniques and methods for putting old machines and technical means in “virtual use”, taking into account the working situation including human being at work. This process is illustrated by an example we performed: a steam engine.

This chapter discusses the role Knowledge Management plays in the management of a radical innovation project. A radical innovation produces a fundamental change in the activities of a company [1]. A company’s capacity to innovate is dependent on its capability to integrate internal processes and to understand the larger market and technological environment [2]. Knowledge Management supports a company’s efforts to understand its internal and external environments. A method for managing a radical innovation project is presented. This method, called the Innovation Implementation Method (IIM) consists of a high-level structure and seven supporting concepts. This chapter highlights the aspects of the IIM which promote Knowledge Management and explains how each aspect supports the successful implementation of a radical innovation. The chapter ends with an overview of a case study in the insurance industry, where the IIM was used to implement a radical innovation project.

For a business to remain competitive in the global marketplace, agile decision-making capability is vital. A thorough understanding of the organisation’s high-level entities and their relations, modelled in a Conceptual Framework (CF), facilitates well-informed business decisions. A CF eases the exploitation of organisational information by means of visual querying using self-explanatory entity and relation names. The CF is populated with actual information by linking it to key informational entities residing in electronic, organisational documents. A Mapping Layer is used to realise and maintain the interface between the relevant electronic documents and the CF.

In this chapter, we present knowledge engineering (KE) and knowledge management (KM) techniques and applications in design. Then, we introduce an original model of knowledge representation called Hypertopic, and different methods of building collective knowledge representations based on Hypertopic.

This paper addresses the problem of generating design knowledge from product field data. The main motivation to consider this issue is the fact that in many companies there is quite a substantial history of collection and analysis of products field data which can be exploited in the generation of valuable knowledge to aid designers in improving specific aspects of their (re)design activities for products of the same family. Currently, field data is mainly used for managerial, marketing or logistical purposes. A product oriented framework with an appropriate analysis of this data and a deliberate focus on issues related to design aspects such as reliability, maintainability, environment and safety can enable the generation of useful knowledge which can aid designers in improving the considered aspects of their (re)design activities. In this paper, we present a general approach for generating design knowledge from product field data and we illustrate the main steps of this approach for the case of generating reliability knowledge from maintenance field data.

Knowledge management is an essential requirement for innovation, especially in initiating, guiding and improving the innovation process. It is a significant challenge to capture the planning and deployment of innovation that takes place within a company. It is not only the individual components of innovation that are challenging, but also integrating all of those activities in a focused manner. This chapter describes the importance of enterprise design models and reference architectures as knowledge management tools and methodologies for guiding and supporting the enterprise design or innovation process. It also briefly discusses the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture (PERA) and Master Plan as examples of enterprise design reference architectures.

Ontology previously belonged to the field of philosophy. It is now applied in practical computer applications. Through NICT, globalisation encourages the emergence of networks that overcome traditional organisation boundaries. Knowledge is now a key resource that confuses traditional, organisational, economic and innovative models. International enterprises, European-Community Networks of Excellence or French Competitiveness Poles indicate the need to define a new way of thinking. This new way moves towards an agile, continuous innovative use of knowledge. Based on an epistemic study of knowledge management best practices, four examples show the barriers that can be encountered today. Best practices from collaborative platforms enable the design of high standard information systems and initiate knowledge ecosystems. A balance has to be obtained between the formalism required to apply knowledge and the fuzziness of social networks that triggers new initiatives. This ensures the validity of information exchange through virtual collaboration. It helps to maintain group coherence despite exceeding the natural maximum number of collaborators. The transition from economic-driven to expertise-driven models is then facilitated.

Aim of this chapter is to introduce reader to Collaborative Engineering (CE), a method providing concepts, technologies and solutions for product development in dispersed engineering teams. Initially, a reference is made to the main features of CE along with its advantages and some basic CE methodologies. Some of the methodologies mentioned in the chapter are collaborative product conceptualization, collaborative CAD, multiplying time project and collaborative virtual reality. Afterwards, the aforementioned CE methodologies are applied in a case study, so as to better explain them. More precisely, the study deals with the creation of a dispersed multinational team, having as main objective the design, analysis and manufacture of a mini formula student single seater car.

This article reviewed the present industrial practice and challenges facing the automotive industry in designing the complex suspension component – the sub-frame. It revealed that the lack of design knowledge in terms of generic geometry representations and design rules is the root of the current repetitive and time-consuming process in the design concept development. Based on a comparative study of a selected group of existing sub-frame designs, this work identified performance and manufacturing related geometrical features of sub-frames. These include geometrical related features (design constraints, configurations, structures, dimensions), performance related features (stiffness, strength, mass), and manufacturing related features (material, manufacturing and joining methods). Finite Element method was applied to investigate the effects of changing the configuration, structures and dimensions of sub-frame members on the stiffness characteristics. The important geometrical features that affect the sub-frame stiffness were identified and quantitative relationships between the main features and the performance were established. Based on the quantitative analysis, a decision making hierarchical tree with three layers of design decisions was proposed for the effective design of future sub-frames.

In small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), knowledge management systems cannot be considered as in large companies. In this paper, we argue that knowledge management can be achieved within SMEs by the creation of a knowledge sharing culture. In this context, our aim is not to formalize specific technical job know-how, but rather to formalize some simple contextual knowledge descriptors associated with the technical objects handled by actors. A prototype software tool, called KALIS, has been developed to foster collaboration and to support information and knowledge sharing between engineers. The framework of the tool is based on knowledge repository principles and on three kinds of workspaces associated with a showroom concept to improve information retrieval. By the means of two examples we demonstrate the support brought to engineers during projects.

The interest of the integration of the manufacturing processes during the design product has already been strongly demonstrated. For some of these processes, it needs first the capitalization and reformulation of the knowledge transmitted by apprenticeship, in order to create specific computer aided design systems and applications. This paper presents such work for the forging process and particularly the difficulties to transform the huge quantity of non structured information into generic knowledge. The capitalization of knowledge being dependant of the human context, we demonstrate here that it is not a definitive process, as the reformulation can induce new applications than put in default the initial hypothesis

Designers, process planners and manufacturers naturally consider different concepts for a same object. The stiffness of production means and the design specification requirements mark out process planners as responsible of the coherent integration of all constraints. First, this paper details an innovative solution of resource choice, applied for aircraft manufacturing parts. In a second part, key concepts are instanced for the considered industrial domain. Finally, a digital mock up validates the solution viability and demonstrates the possibility of an in-process knowledge capitalisation and use. Formalising the link between Design and Manufacturing allows enhancements of simultaneous Product/Process developments.

In this chapter, a diverse set of applications in different manufacturing areas is examined in order to demonstrate the different approaches followed for the knowledge management in manufacturing process modeling. The discussion includes: the information technology platforms for knowledge management in manufacturing, the automotive assembly process, the knowledge management for the estimation of the cost of an aircraft engine, a case for the knowledge-based process planning, an approach for the knowledge management for materials processing, and a short presentation of a rule-based system for quality control and maintenance. In all cases, the knowledge management process was a part of larger projects and the implemented software modules had to be interfaced with other systems with the objective to incorporate and reuse formal and tacit knowledge. Even though most of these systems were experimental prototypes, they prove that knowledge management for manufacturing process modeling may yield a lot of advantages to the users and the organizations, although, on the other hand, the development is often quite complex and costly.

Knowledge Management (KM) refers to a range of practices and techniques used by organizations to identify, represent and distribute information, knowledge, know-how, expertise and other forms of knowledge for leverage, utilization, reuse and transfer of knowledge across the enterprise. This chapter presents and discusses some typical knowledge management cases for the planning and scheduling problems of real manufacturing systems. The formalization of the captured knowledge and experience of the personnel, and their inclusion in a modern software system to support the production planning and scheduling processes was the common objective in the three presented case studies. The specifics of each case, the approach, the implementation and the results are presented and discussed

Information services transfer information goods from a creator to a user. Information services have three design aspects, i. e. content, value, and revenue, and their design has an evolutionary nature, i. e. that information gained in the service’s usage stages is part of their (re)design efforts. The literature abounds of fragmented insights for information services design. This article gives a literature review of methods and techniques that are useful in the representation and analysis of the above-mentioned aspects for each evolving step of information service design. The article also describes several scenarios for information service design projects. These insights have considerable consequences for information services design practices and a list of topics for new design theory research is given.

This chapter provides an overview on a web based knowledge management platform developed for the “Virtual Research Lab for a Knowledge Community in Production – Network of Excellence” (VRL-KCiP NoE). The platform accumulates all software tools developed by the NoE partners. This software representing expertise of the VRL-KCIP partners is made available to prospective clients of the VRL.

The central aim of the Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Production (VRL-KCiP) Network of Excellence (NoE) is to create research synergy by integrating the expertise and capabilities of the different network members to support product life cycle engineering in the modern manufacturing environment. Knowledge, the basis of expertise, is therefore the core asset of the network, and as a result knowledge management is the focus of numerous network tasks and activities. This chapter details the implementation of a central Knowledge Management System (KMS) in the VRL-KCiP NoE – a virtual, multilingual, multidisciplinary, multicultural network – to enable basic knowledge management capabilities.

For large and complex projects a dedicated tool for the central management of contact data of project participants is essential. On the strength of past experience commercially available groupware tools turned out to be not sufficient to meet the various requirements on contact data handling. For these reasons a tool has been developed, which aims at a comfortable, consistent, and efficient administration for both contact and appointment data. Core features of this tool are the structural representation of organizations and projects including the assignment of participants. This comprises categories assigning group participants to tasks, a role concept to emphasize specific functions of person within categories, and the possibility to define relations between project participants. Furthermore, functions for the management of appointments and the creation of mailing lists are provided. To become independent of operating systems and user location, a new web based version is planned.