Process-based Structuring Knowledge in Product Development

Efficient knowledge management is a key success factor for product development. A basic idea behind knowledge management is to construct a global architecture of knowledge. Product development process modeling can help knowledge engineers structure knowledge. A so-called "state-process-resource" model in the product development domain is proposed. The results of a product at the intermediate-stages are called product states. Process elements, allocated with corresponding resources, transform the product states from one to another. According to the "state-process-resource" model, knowledge is hierarchically categorized into six subjects: products, processes, methods, tools, specific application domain, and other resources. These six subjects of knowledge are inter-relational.