Towards a knowledge-based engineering system to support computational simulation activities at Renault Company

Numerical simulation, from the solutions it provides, is more and more widely used and involved in the industrial product development processes. But spreading the numerical simulation activities from small scale to industrial level gives birth to new problems. These include problems of organization, information spreading, lack of tracking, knowledge control and preservation, repeated mistakes, actors training, ..; which stands in the way of its functioning and efficiency in a constrained industrial environment. In this context, knowledge engineering and management are very interesting through the solutions they can provide. The Renault Company, which develops and sells cars and trucks, is faces in a similar problem and has a great need for knowledge management in the numerical simulation domain to assist concurrent engineering in the global Design Process. The work presented in this article is articulated around the proposition of a knowledge-based engineering system to assist the concurrent work in the numerical simulation domain, in a specific Renault department environment. This system, based on simulation activities tracking and capitalization of related knowledge, allows the sharing of knowledge created and built at all stages of a project, while being a cooperation support between actors.