Knowledge Capture with MOKA A400M Airbus UK pilot

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Knowledge Capture with MOKAA400M Airbus UK pilot
MOKA seminar, 25th April 2001
Florence Sellini Alun WrightDavid Chadwick
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Introduction

• 1 - Context
• 2 - Pilot project
• 3 - Feedback Suggestions
• 4 - Conclusion

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Context
1 - Context 2 - Pilot project 3 - Feedback
Suggestions 4 - Conclusion
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• KBE _at_ Airbus UK

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KBE team ambition

• Help aircraft project teams to reduce design time
  cycle
• Partly automate design with KBE approach and
  techniques
• Provide methods and tool supports to manage
  engineering knowledge
• KBE current context
• Complex and difficult to implement engineering
  knowledge
• No adequate systematic way to design KBE systems
• Difficulties to maintain and to reuse existing
  applications
• Long product development timescales
• Nevertheless
• clear business benefits
• challenge to do it better

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KBE approach automate routine design tasks
Reuse design knowledge
Capitalise knowledge to reuse
Fed with knowledge captured
Initial capture
Proto-typing
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Update with what we doand learn
Analyse, store project experience
Update Knowledge Base
Update KBE application
Refine Validate
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Airbus UK KBE team

• 10 years experience
• ICAD tool platform used
• 86 KBE developers KBE managers
• Hierarchy of ICAD applications
• 1 of integrated wing/aircraft
• 6 of major assembly/system
• 36 _at_ component level
• continuous improvement of all
• Big challenge with the A380 and A400M
  projectsbecause KBE applications address
• complex tasks that impact on product value
  (better)
• complex tasks on critical path (quicker)
• engineering costs for repetitive tasks (cheaper)

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Nowadays, KBE dev. process
Challengebetter, quicker, cheaper
1. User Request
4. Activate Introduction and Use
Enablingresources
2. Collect knowledge Discussions
3. Appli Dev.

• We will improve Knowledge capture
• Avoid piecemeal capture
• Be sure that we have collected all relevant
  knowledge
• Provide better quality application
• Increased guarantee for correct use and
  maintenance

• Experiment, mature and prove with a methodology
• MOKA

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Pilot project
1 - Context 2 - Pilot project 3 - Feedback
Suggestions 4 - Conclusion
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• AIRBUS UK MOKA pilot

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Project context

• A400M project, military transport aircraft
• Specific context 1st time using composite
  material for certain wingbox parts
• Provide a KBE application to evaluate weight of
  the wingbox structure
• Need to collect knowledge about
• weight prediction/evaluation/calculation process
• product description, especially get knowledge
  about structure design of composite parts

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Informal Model
Expert
Formal Model
Code Generation Round Trip
KBE Application
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Some numbers...

• Knowledge capture
• 75 regarding the specific KBE development needs
  (LEGO for A400M)
• 15 regarding the whole wingbox design domain
• Knowledge formalisation not begun
• Project began end January
• 2 KBE developers
• 4/5 experts consulted
• Product description
• structure chart defined
• 35 forms
• Process description
• process chart defined
• a few forms begun

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Product description
Wing description
Systems
Structure
Fuel system
Wingbox
Cover Assembly
Landing Gear
Fixed Leading Edge
Spar assembly
De-icing
Fixed Trailing Edge
Ribs
Moveables
Fire protection
Reinforced areas
Navigation lights electrics
Wing tip
Hydraulics
Winglet
Lightning strike
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Product description
Spar Assembly
Spar sub-assembly
Spar joint
Ribpost
Spar web
Vertical stiffener
Spar Flange
Horizontal stiffener
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Product description
Cover Assembly
Joints
Bolts
Skin Panel
Stringers
Padups
Joints
Bolts
Bonding
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Calculation process - 1st layer
Weight calculation process
Drawings available
Early stages
No
Yes
Collect all information
Collect all information
Collect drawings
Evaluate size of wing structure
Estimate weight structure
Evaluate volume of the structure
Estimate extra weight systems
Evaluate number of bolts and extra holes
Weight prediction
Calculate structure weight
Wing systems weight calculation
Calculation context
Evaluation context
Prediction context
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Calculation process - 2nd layerexample
Calculate structure weight
Calculate structure weight
Estimate extra material for engine attachment
Estimate wing context weight
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ICARE forms customisation

• New form created Document reference
• How
• Why
• New field added To know more
• Why
• New semantic link relationship between a
  constraint and another constraint
• Why
• New field in the constraint form

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Feedbacksuggestions
1 - Context 2 - Pilot project 3 - Feedback
Suggestions 4 - Conclusion
3
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Good points / added value
Capture knowledge with a methodology is.

• Useful to develop the KBE applications
• Store knowledge properly, with history
• Provide readable and explicit rules
• Structure development process, get all
  information up-front
• Increase robustness of the application
• Help in writing generic code
• Knowledge gathering and structuring process helps
  in a better understanding of the task
• Knowledge captured can be re-used in other KBE
  applications
• Increase understanding and credibility of KBE,
  increase customers trust in the KBE team
• Useful for design teams, as a starting point to
  initiate a knowledge management process
• Re-use knowledge in different ways, by different
  people, for different purposes
• Increasing need as A400M team expands

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Bad points / difficulties

• MOKA process has not been followed strictly
• not really interviews
• code development begun too early
• the target was too much focused on the
  application to deliver
• Difficult to capture and structure knowledge
• Where to stop / how far to go ?
• Difficult to initially comprehend its usefulness
• Not easy to conduct interviews
• Not easy to structure, distinguish concepts and
  find relationships
• KBE developers havent yet got all the required
  skills
• Difficult to cope with application development
  pressure
• the code development has to be finished before
  it has begun !
• cultural habits are difficult to change

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Suggestions / improvements

• Identify / distinguish different roles
• KE
• KBE applications developer
• dual issue of skills
• choose relevant individual profiles for both
• needs training
• Knowledge capture requires identified time
  up-front
• KBE needs to re-use more some traditional
  software engineering techniques methods
• Need specific supports to achieve knowledge
  capture
• need a drafting package to generate sketches for
  filling in the forms
• need a tool to support knowledge structure -
  house keeping

Is it time for revolutions ?
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Conclusion
1 - Context 2 - Pilot project 3 - Feedback
Suggestions 4 - Conclusion
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• Mid-term target towards a complete solution

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Strategy
Collect, Structure,. Re-use, Maintain
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Strategy
Collect, Structure,. Re-use, Maintain
Added-value - consolidate, validate knowledge -
document design rules - knowledge book easy to
validate - early validation - clarify user
requirements - provide 2 complementary
results Challenge - change role/operating of
design domain specialist - business managing
issue
KBE application
Define KBEarchitecture Development
Collect structureengineering knowledge
Knowledge Book
Provide knowledgeback to designers Develop
interface
Knowledge server, intranet