Improved codification and transfer of engineering knowledge through human intermediaries
Ruck, Tobias; Albers, Albert; Reiß, Nicolas
Type:
Year:
2017
Editor:
Anja Maier, Stanko Škec, Harrison Kim, Michael Kokkolaras, Josef Oehmen, Georges Fadel, Filippo Salustri, Mike Van der Loos
Author:
Series:
ICED
Institution:
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany
Section:
Design Information and Knowledge
Page(s):
257-266
ISBN:
978-1-904670-94-0
ISSN:
2220-4342
Abstract:
In multi-domain product development and companies with a high division of expertise, there is a permanent need to transfer expert knowledge to mechanical designers. Especially in large distributed organizations, the “people-to-documents” approach plays an important role since experts are often temporarily or locally not available. However, experts face several problems when they independently codify their knowledge for mechanical designers into a computer-based knowledge system. Difficulties are resulting from the characteristics of expert-layperson communication or from cognitive and motivational barriers. In order to overcome the problems, an intermediary is suggested as a medium to reduce the experts’ effort and support them in anticipating designers’ knowledge needs. For this purpose, an intermediary based knowledge codification method has been applied in a case study in the German automotive supplier industry. Thereafter, the method was evaluated by interviews with experts who have participated in that process.
Keywords:
