Design and prototyping of knowledge management software for aerospace manufacturing

At the University of the West of England we are involved in a project with Rolls-Royce AeroEngines. This is the Design Analysis Tool for Unit-cost Modelling (DATUM) project. The aim of this project is to produce a knowledge-based system which is capable of costing an aircraft engine and its’ sub-components, and generating a process plan for the manufacture of the engine. From this we hope to learn how to develop a generic knowledge-based system that could be used for the manufacture of any product. We also hope to learn about the best methods for using software to share knowledge within and between organisations. We are researching how to structure this knowledge in such a way as to make it easy to retrieve both by humans and automated software. We are also examining how to visualise the results output from the software in a way which carries the meaning to the user. Our preferred method of delivery for this project is the use of open-standard Web technologies such as XML (extensible Markup Language). This will be used to provide a high level view of information held in distributed data sources.