Software architecture knowledge for intelligent light maintenance

The maintenance management plays an important role in the monitoring of business activities. It ensures a certain level of services in industrial systems by improving the ability to function in accordance with prescribed procedures. This has a decisive impact on the performance of these systems in terms of operational efficiency, reliability and associated intervention costs. To support the maintenance processes of a wide range of industrial services, a knowledge-based component is useful to perform the intelligent monitoring. In this context we propose a generic model for supporting and generating industrial lights maintenance processes. The modeled intelligent approach involves information structuring and knowledge sharing in the industrial setting and the implementation of specialized maintenance management software in the target information system. As a first step we defined computerized procedures from the conceptual structure of industrial data to ensure their interoperability and effective use of information and communication technologies in the software dedicated to the management of maintenance (E-candela). The second step is the implementation of this software architecture with specification of business rules, especially by organizing taxonomical information of the lighting systems, and applying intelligence-based operations and analysis to capitalize knowledge from maintenance experiences. Finally, the third step is the deployment of the software with contextual adaptation of the user interface to allow the management of operations, editions of the balance sheets and real-time location obtained through geolocation data. In practice, these computational intelligence-based modes of reasoning involve an engineering framework that facilitates the continuous improvement of a comprehensive maintenance regime.     

Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

IT outsourcing is a complex and opaque decision problem. Managers facing a decision about IT outsourcing have difficulty in framing what needs to be thought about further in their discourses. Framing is one of the most crucial steps of human decision making and needs to be assisted to better understand a decision situation. In this research, we examine a number of decision primitives in the context of an IT outsourcing decision situation. We demonstrate how the decision primitives can be employed so that managers can probe deep to better understand a decision situation and to establish a decision basis. In the organizational setting, we exemplify the use of the decision primitives in relation to the perceived outsourcing implications for the managers looking for assistance in accommodating a knowledge management perspective on IT outsourcing. Consequently, we induce insight and a guideline on how to use knowledge management for effective outsourcing in one of the leading financial institutes in Europe.

Software metrics knowledge and databases for project management

The construction and maintenance of large, high-quality software projects is a complex, error-prone and difficult process. Tools employing software database metrics can play an important role in the efficient execution and management of such large projects. In this paper, we present a generic framework to address this problem. This framework incorporates database and knowledge-base tools, a formal set of software test and evaluation metrics, and a suite of advanced analytic techniques for extracting information and knowledge from available data. The proposed combination of critical metrics and analytic tools can enable highly efficient and cost-effective management of large and complex software projects. The framework has the potential for greatly reducing venture risks and enhancing production quality in the domain of large-scale software project management     

Sketch theory as a framework for knowledge management

In this paper, we give an overview of sketch theory as a knowledge management framework and discuss its strengths relative to logic, the semantic web and relational algebra. Sketch theory, for example, supports modularity among meta-data, instance data and uncertainty. It also provides a notion of constraint-preserving map. We explore Q-trees as a technique for inference with sketches and compare it to logical deduction. Ideas can be formulated in distinct ways even within a fixed formalism. We illustrate solution of this alignment problem using sketches and the notion of Morita equivalence of logical theories. Sketch theory provides rich notions of contextual view with which we compute illustrative examples. Finally, we outline a program for advancing sketch theory as a complement to other knowledge management technologies and discuss transformations between sketches and other models.     

Security as a contributor to knowledge management success

Security is an important topic, but is it important for Knowledge Management (KM)? To date, little mainstream KM research is coming through with a security focus. This paper asks why, and proposes that security be integrated into KM success models. The Jennex and Olfman (International Journal of Knowledge Management 2(3):51–68, 2006) KM success model is used to illustrate how security, specifically risk management, and the National Security Telecommunications and Information System Security Committee (NSTISSC) security model can be applied to KM management support and governance and KM Strategy. Finally, two case studies are provided that illustrate the application of risk management through governance to KM.     

Graph-based reasoning in collaborative knowledge management for industrial maintenance

Capitalization and sharing of lessons learned play an essential role in managing the activities of industrial systems. This is particularly the case for the maintenance management, especially for distributed systems often associated with collaborative decision-making systems. Our contribution focuses on the formalization of the expert knowledge required for maintenance actors that will easily engage support tools to accomplish their missions in collaborative frameworks. To do this, we use the conceptual graphs formalism with their reasoning operations for the comparison and integration of several conceptual graph rules corresponding to different viewpoint of experts. The proposed approach is applied to a case study focusing on the maintenance management of a rotary machinery system.     

Supporting management and maintenance of manufacturing knowledge in design automation systems

Many companies base their business strategy on customized products. To enable a high level of product adaptation in an engineer-to-order approach companies invest time and resources to develop design automation systems. Initially, when implementing a design automation system, the focus is on successfully developing a system that generates design variants based on different customer specifications (i.e. the execution of system embedded knowledge and system output). However, in the long run, two important aspects are the management and maintenance of the knowledge that governs the designs. Further, the increasing emphasis on deploying a holistic view of a product’s properties and functions implies an increasing number of life-cycle requirements. The knowledge to adapt the product to fulfil these requirements should also be used and consequently incorporated into the knowledge-base, allowing for correct decisions to be made. In a system for automated variant design, the implications on the product of these life-cycle requirements have to be expressed as algorithms, production rules and/or computational statements to be intertwined with the design calculations. The number of requirements can be significantly large, and the knowledge scattered over different application systems used for the realisation of the design automation system. This makes it difficult to manage and maintain the system as the product life-cycle environment changes and evolves.In this article, the focus is on the requirements related to manufacturing. For that, an approach for the modelling of manufacturing requirements, supporting both knowledge execution and information management, in systems for automated variant design is introduced. The approach has been applied and refined when developing a design automation system in cooperation with a company to demonstrate and verify the approach’s usability.     

Enterprise knowledge management model: a knowledge tower

One of the most important aspects of knowledge management (KM) is to create a system that is capable of providing mechanisms and methodologies allowing the right knowledge to be at the right place and at the right person as well as at the right time within an enterprise. There have been several models developed for this purpose. The main objectives of these models are to organize the knowledge activities to increase competitive advantage and turn the market share into a continuous and permanent superiority through utilizing the intellectual capital of the enterprise for better products and services. When existing models are carefully analyzed, it can be clearly seen that every model addresses different aspects of KM. While some of these models have been intensifying on the use of technology and production of knowledge, the others rather focus on the utilization of knowledge itself. Although these models point out the importance of managerial participation, they are mainly designed to be facilitated at operational levels. It is now obviously seen that there is a need for a new model that will deal with KM at strategic, tactic, and operational levels in an integrated manner. In this study, an enterprise knowledge management model (EKMM) is developed to facilitate this. The model is also called the “Knowledge Tower” due to its dynamics and tower-like infrastructure. EKMM does not only deal with utilizing the knowledge but also create KM strategies, knowledge culture as well as respective leveraging activities. It provides an extensive assessment capability to make sure that the KM practices are carried out as effectively as possible. This surely helps identifying the lack of implementations and areas requiring improvements.     

Information technology as a facilitator for enhancing dynamic capabilities through knowledge management

Research on dynamic capabilities is an emerging field: it studies the activities of firms during turbulent administrative environments. Current management interests are also focused on knowledge management as a major determinant of business excellence and competitive advantage. Our motivation for this paper was to answer the research question: Does knowledge management (KM) contribute to the enhancement of dynamic capabilities and thus to the enhancement of business excellence and competitive advantage? Our effort examined the use of KM in enhancing dynamic capabilities. Based on results from a survey of major Taiwanese firms, we tested a set of hypotheses with regression models. Empirical findings suggest that management of both endogenous and exogenous knowledge through IT applications significantly enhances dynamic capabilities.     

软件维护模型及其发展

介绍了软件开发模型与软件维护模型及其发展过程，通过对软件开发模型的研究，引出系统生命期的最后一个阶段软件维护的模型。详细讨论了软件维护模型的发展过程及现代维护模型-IEEE维护模型与ISO/IEC 12207的维护模型，并依此对软件维护进行了重新定义，指出软件维护是对一个需要提供高效低费的软件产品进行保障所采取的全部活动，最后对维护模型的发展方向作出简单预测。     

Software agents for knowledge management: coordination in multi-agent supply chains and auctions

A fundamental question that must be addressed in software agents for knowledge management is coordination in multi-agent systems. The coordination problem is ubiquitous in knowledge management, such as in manufacturing, supply chains, negotiation, and agent-mediated auctions. This paper summarizes several multi-agent systems for knowledge management that have been developed recently by the author and his collaborators to highlight new research directions for multi-agent knowledge management systems. In particular, the paper focuses on three areas of research:

• •Coordination mechanisms in agent-based supply chains. How do we design mechanisms for coordination, information and knowledge sharing in supply chains with self-interested agents? What would be a good coordination mechanism when we have a non-linear structure of the supply chain, such as a pyramid structure? What are the desirable properties for the optimal structure of efficient supply chains in terms of information and knowledge sharing? Will DNA computing be a viable tool for the analysis of agent-based supply chains?
• •Coordination mechanisms in agent-mediated auctions. How do we induce cooperation and coordination among various self-interested agents in agent-mediated auctions? What are the fundamental principles to promote agent cooperation behavior? How do we train agents to learn to cooperate rather than program agents to cooperate? What are the principles of trust building in agent systems?
• •Multi-agent enterprise knowledge management, performance impact and human aspects. Will people use agent-based systems? If so, how do we coordinate agent-based systems with human beings? What would be the impact of agent systems in knowledge management in an information economy?

     

Evaluating a domain-specialist-oriented knowledge management system

We discuss the evaluation of software tools whose purpose is to assist humans to perform complex creative tasks. We call these creative task assistants (CTAs) and use as a case study CODE4, a CTA designed to allow domain specialists to manage their own knowledge base. We present an integrated process involving evaluation of usability, attractiveness and feature contribution, the latter two being the focus. To illustrate attractiveness evaluation, we assess whether CODE4 has met its objective of having users not trained in logical formalisms choose the tool to represent and manipulate knowledge in a computer. By studying use of the tool by its intended users, we conclude that it has met this objective. To illustrate feature contribution evaluation, we assess what aspects of CODE4 have in fact led to its success. To do this, we study what tasks are performed by users, and what features of both knowledge representation and user interface are exercised. We find that features for manipulating the inheritance hierarchy and naming concepts are considered the most valuable. Our overall conclusion is that those developing or researching CTAs would benefit from using the three types of evaluation in order to make effective decisions about the evolution of their products.     

Using a simulation model for knowledge elicitation and knowledge management

The work reported in this paper is part of a project simulating maintenance operations in an automotive engine production facility. The decisions made by the people in charge of these operations form a crucial element of this simulation. Eliciting this knowledge is problematic. One approach is to use the simulation model as part of the knowledge elicitation process.This paper reports on the experience so far with using a simulation model to support knowledge management in this way. Issues are discussed regarding the data available, the use of the model, and the elicitation process itself.     

A programmable approach to maintenance of a finite knowledge base

In this paper,we present a programmable method of revising a finite clause set.We first present a procedure whose formal parameters are a consistent clause set Γand a clause A and whose output is a set of minimal subsets of Γwhich are inconsistent with A.The maximal consistent subsets can be generated from all minimal inconsistent subsets.We develop a prototype system based on the above procedure,and discuss the implementation of knowledge base maintenance.At last,we compare the approach presented in this paper with other related approaches,The main characteristic of the approach is that it can be implemented by a computer program.