Knowledge Graph-Based Approach for Interactive Problem Solving with the 8D Method

The electrification of the powertrain is leading to profound changes in the automotive industry. However, manufacturing must continue to maintain high quality standards in the production of innovative product systems. Despite the widespread use of advanced methods and tools for preventive quality management, nonconformities-deviations from the defined target state or objective state-occur. The industry standard for managing nonconformities is problem solving with the 8D method. In the traditional, manual approach, the problem description in particular requires a great deal of effort, which means that analyses are often too perfunctory and take too long. This paper therefore presents a novel knowledge graph-based and interactive IT application for problem solving in 8D. For the technical implementation, we use OWL ontologies and SKOS taxonomies compliant with W3C standards. The proposed approach was evaluated at a Tier-l automotive supplier using a practical example in the area of electrified drive and mobility solutions.