Knowledge map and knowledge management tools to support distributed product design

Abstract

In order to support distributed design work, it is necessary to use all kinds of geographically dispersed design expertise and knowledge as soon as possible. At the same time, all the knowledge base is asked to accumulate and update, as well as to retrieve and share. This paper focus on the knowledge map and knowledge management tools to support distributed design. Design activity in distributed product design includes calculation and reasoning, as well as simulation and evaluation. Design knowledge includes formula and rules, as well as constraints. The object of product design knowledge management includes the knowledge of the product domain, the design process knowledge and the expert with design knowledge. Knowledge management architecture can be described as four layers, which are management tool layer and basic management layer, as well as high management layer and knowledge integration layer. Knowledge map is used to connect all knowledge nodes with different kinds of knowledge base. To increase the transparency and agility of knowledge map, the knowledge indexing is a very important work. Knowledge expert can move along six paths that are central for effective knowledge visualization in product design contexts. The XML based knowledge index support building knowledge map automatically, and provide user information about the design knowledge. The map is constructed in the text based SVG format, so user can search the needed knowledge by key words. The basic element of product design knowledge is represented as BNF format. Some technologies of management tools had been analyses. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.