The Application of Knowledge Management in Early-Stage Warship Design

During early design stages a design team will investigate a variety of ship concepts, and the customer will use these concepts to elucidate a set of requirements and make decisions. To accomplish early stage design, designers use two types of knowledge: technical (engineering) knowledge, and programmatic (Naval Ship Acquisition Process) knowledge. The nature of technical knowledge is well known, but programmatic knowledge may require definition. Programmatic knowledge is the knowledge of the naval design and acquisition system that determines what would actually come out of the acquisition pipeline, with a given concept design as the input. The author's research has identified two areas where the tools of Knowledge Management could benefit the early stage design process. The first of these is a Decision Support System that would capture historical data on the evolutions suffered by previous ship designs, and package this data in a form usable to the concept design engineer. The second recommendation of this project is the creation of an electronic Community of Practice for the concept design community.