Negotiation in a knowledge‐based concurrent engineering design environment

Abstract

Abstract: Computational support for concurrent engineering design presents a number of issues in the design of knowledge‐based systems. A fundamental concern is the need to provide the life‐cycle perspective in recommending design alternatives. It is argued that such a complex knowledge‐based system should be distributed, due to the inherent problems with large knowledge bases and the maintenance of consistency. Inconsistent local views of a problem and different priorities on design issues are expected between different knowledge‐based design perspectives. These inconsistencies and different priorities will lead inherently to conflict which has to be resolved. This paper addresses the issues and key variables in conflict resolution and presents a strategy that can be applied for managing the conflict resolution process. We propose negotiation as the method of analysing a conflict situation, applying an appropriate conflict resolution strategy and monitoring its performance. We present an overview of the nature of conflict and some conflict resolution strategies, and see in what situations certain strategies are appropriate.