Knowledge capitalisation based on textual and graphical semi-structured and non-structured information: case study in an industrial research centre at EADS

Abstract

The aim of an industrial research centre is to produce knowledge to answer the requirements of operational units. So the constraints of cost, delay and quality also apply to research activities. Consequently, industrial research centres need to be rationalized, including the design and engineering system departments. They have to optimise internal and external knowledge flows. To this end, after describing knowledge and information typologies in engineering activities, a knowledge management system is proposed. The goal is to support: (1) semi-structured information (e.g. reports, journal articles, etc.) thanks to the ANITA tool functions, which are based on attributing points of view and annotations to documents but also to document zones, and (2) non-structured information, one of the important aspects of research activities that concerns common resolution of research problems within project teams. In the latter context, the MICA approach intends to support exchange of technical messages (dialogues) and to capitalise relevant knowledge. For both semi-structured information and non-structured information, respectively addressed by the ANITA and the MICA approaches, prototype tools have been developed and evaluated, primarily to feed back design departments with manufacturing knowledge in the EADS industrial environment.