Product Development-Oriented Knowledge Service: Status Review, Framework, and Solutions

The product development knowledge stored in manufacturing firms can be obtained and re-used to assist the development engineers in new product development and facilitate the use of knowledge resources, which in turn enhances the quality and reduces the time-cost of product innovation. This study presents a knowledge service integrated framework for product development, which is refined from the literature and supported by practice needs. The proposed integrated framework is supported by four pillars of work, namely, how to represent knowledge exactly, the model of knowledge integration, the method of knowledge recommendation, and the mechanism and performance evaluation of knowledge service. A demonstration of a gantry crane design is provided to show the effectiveness and benefit of the proposed integrated framework and technology solutions. Finally, we offer some pointers for future research.