Knowledge Engineering is one of the most significant factors contributing to sustainability of Manufacturing Systems. Principal concepts embedded in the knowledge structure present fundamental bricks of manufacturing system ontology. Organisational function, mission and scope impose branching and hierarchy on information, and much knowledge is categorised into sub-domains understood only by “experts”. This has raised barriers to cross-disciplinary communication. Development of information processing and artificial intelligence significantly contribute to effective knowledge utilisation. Yet, an environment in which the information can be stored, retrieved and transferred by the speed of magnetic waves also amplifies impediments such as prolixity, ambiguity and jargon. Presented analysis suggests that the root causes for these impediments include knowledge gaps, discrepancy of intentions, and differences in beliefs. Teams can perform quite differently depending on how they communicate knowledge. An appropriate understanding of a ‘team goal’ requires interactions that include common and individual perceptions, intentions and understandings. The released synergy is proportional to the completeness and concordance of all three above aspects. For example, an industrial system sufferred significant financial losses due to the lack of dialogue between two antipode expert teams protecting their territory of knowledge. Such examples of confidentiality safeguards result in the loss of the expertise due to the lack of knowledge sharing and stifling of creative endeavour. There are known cases of world-leaders in industrial engineering that employ quite aged experts because they are the only sources of relevant knowledge. Technology can be forgotten. The critical moment, when the experts leave, can cause a significant disturbance in the functioning the overall system. On a larger socio-economic scale so-called ‘brain-drain’ is well recognised problem affecting entire geo-political regions. This treatise hypothesises that the conflicts in interpretations of some basic engineering concepts significantly contribute to multiplication of ambiguities, which hinders knowledge sharing and application. Examples of ambiguous concepts such as \'technology\', ‘failure mode’, ‘vector’ and ‘frequency’, are presented, and a mitigation strategy discussed.
Tematska oblast:
Proizvodne tehnologije i inženjerstvo
Uvodni rad:
Da
Datum:
24.02.2011.
Br. otvaranja:
780
11th International Conference on Accomplishments in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Datoteka uz rad
(3.50 MB)
