Hidden product knowledge: Problems and potential solutions

Requirements and constraints form the base for each new design but in the design phase only a limited amount of them is known; more requirements and constraints appear during the later phases of product lifecycle. At the moment, the information that is collected after the main design phase is not often stored in a re-usable way. On the other hand, large amount of decisions made by design engineers during the design phase is either not stored or documented at all. This lack of lifecycle knowledge causes large amount of unnecessary costs in a form of scrapping, re-work and additional work hours, therefore providing a potential for large savings. This paper explains the current situation, the challenges, the problems and the consequences of poor knowledge management. The problem of hidden product knowledge is a complex one and solving it requires changes to processes, tools, and maybe even to ways certain functions in companies are organized and managed. This paper proposes ways to at least partially solve the problem by using the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools and modifying the way engineers work.