Managing Engineering Knowledge

Knowledge is power and money, and making the best use of expensively acquired important information is vital to any company or organization that wishes to make the most of its assets. A well run and structured system for "Managing Engineering Knowledge" can literally prevent engineers from having to re-invent the wheel, saving precious expert time and effort.

Exploiting the capital associated with design knowledge has been shown to release considerable savings in the cost and lead times for detail design of new products. Until now there has been no common way of collecting, structuring, and formalizing the engineering knowledge associated with designs. This not only makes it hard to plan and organize the process of building knowledge-based engineering applications, but also means that updating them and re-using modules is almost impossible.

MOKA-methodology and software tools oriented to knowledge-based engineering applications-was created to fill this need. It is a practical tool to help those involved with building systems that represent knowldege, rather than a set of academic principles.

"Managing Engineering Knowledge" is a comprehensive user guide to the methodology and provides:

Accessible, readable writing style; Clear and easily navigable structure; Summary margin notes for handy, quick reference; Generous use of examples and cases; Numerous lively and informative diagrams; Comprehensive guide to further reading, chapter by chapter; Convenient to use, fold-flat, ring-bound format with tabbed dividers.

"Managing Engineering Knowledge" caters for a wide range of people and backgrounds-including general managers operating at the strategic level, project managers, engineering designers, information technologists, system modellers, and technical analyists. Indeed, it bridges the communication gap between engineers with experience of the finished product and the design process, and the modellers and programmers from a computer science background.

This book will be useful to any engineering or technology-based organization that values its expertise and knowledge base as an asset.