Knowledge Based Configuration

Knowledge-based Configuration incorporates knowledge representation formalisms to capture complex product models and reasoning methods to provide intelligent interactive behavior with the user. This book represents the first time that corporate and academic worlds collaborate integrating research and commercial benefits of knowledge-based configuration. Foundational interdisciplinary material is provided for composing models from increasingly complex products and services. Case studies, the latest research, and graphical knowledge representations that increase understanding of knowledge-based configuration provide a toolkit to continue to push the boundaries of what configurators can do and how they enable companies and customers to thrive. Includes detailed discussion of state-of-the art configuration knowledge engineering approaches such as automated testing and debugging, redundancy detection, and conflict management Provides an overview of the application of knowledge-based configuration technologies in the form of real-world case studies from SAP, Siemens, Kapsch, and more Explores the commercial benefits of knowledge-based configuration technologies to business sectors from services to industrial equipment Uses concepts that are based on an example personal computer configuration knowledge base that is represented in an UML-based graphical language

"Challenging, theoretically rich yet anchored in detailed empirical analysis, Loet Leydesdorff's exploration of the dynamics of the knowledge-economy is a major contribution to the field. Drawing on his expertise in science and technology studies, systems theory, and his internationally respected work on the 'triple helix', the book provides a radically new modelling and simulation of knowledge systems, capturing the articulation of structure, communication, and agency therein. This work will be of immense interest to both theorists of the knowledge-economy and practitioners in science policy." Andrew Webster Science & Technology Studies, University of York, UK ________________________________________ "This book is a ground-breaking collection of theory and techniques to help understand the internal dynamics of the modern knowledge-based economy, including issues such as stability, anticipation, and interactions amongst components. The combination of theory, measurement, and modelling gives the necessary power with which to address the complexity of modern networked social systems. Each on its own would partly illuminate an innovation system, but the combination sheds a far brighter light." Mike Thelwall Information Science, University of Wolverhampton, UK ________________________________________ "The sociologist Niklas Luhmann is considered one of the few social scientists possibly able to explain a decisive event once it has happened. In this book, Loet Leydesdorff answers the challenge to take Luhmann's analysis one step further by introducing anticipation into the theory. This book provides a fascinating exploration of the use of recursion and incursion to model social processes." Dirk Baecker Sociology, Universität Witten/Herdecke, Germany ________________________________________ How can an economy based on something as volatile as knowledge be sustained? The urgency of improving our understanding of a knowledge-based economy provides the context and necessity of this study. In a previous study entitled A Sociological Theory of Communications: The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-based Society (2001) the author specified knowledge-based systems from a sociological perspective. In this book, he takes this theory one step further and demonstrates how the knowledge base of an economic system can be operationalized, both in terms of measurement and by providing simulation models.

This five-volume set clearly manifests the great significance of these key technologies for the new economies of the new millennium. The discussions provide a wealth of practical ideas intended to foster innovation in thought and, consequently, in the further development of technology. Together, they comprise a significant and uniquely comprehensive reference source for research workers, practitioners, computer scientists, academics, students, and others on the international scene for years to come.

Automated Configuration has long been the subject of intensive research, especially in Artificial Intelligence. It is a pervasive problem to be solved, and it is a good test of various knowledge representation and reasoning techniques. The problem shows up in applications such as various electrical circuit design, utility computing and even concurrent engineering. Automated Configuration Problem Solving defines the ubiquitous problem, illustrates the various solution techniques, and includes a survey using these techniques from the mid-70's until the mid-90's. During this time, various general approaches were developed, and then become more specialized. This book covers the development of the general problem solving techniques for automated configuration, which are based on both published academic work and patents.

This book contains the papers presented at the 5th International Conference on Pr- tical Aspects of Knowledge Management organized by the Department of Knowledge Management, Institute of Computer Science and Business Informatics, University of Vienna. The event took place on December 02–03, 2004 in Vienna. The PAKM conference series offers a communication forum and meeting ground for practitioners and researchers engaged in developing and deploying advanced bu- ness solutions for the management of knowledge and intellectual capital. Contributions pursuing integrated approaches which consider organizational, technological and c- tural issues of knowledge management have been elected for presentation. PAKM is a forum for people to share their views, to exchange ideas, to develop new insights, and to envision completely new kinds of solutions for knowledge management problems. The accepted papers are of high quality and are not too specialized so that the main issues can be understood by someone outside the respective ?eld. This is crucial for an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. Like its predecessors, PAKM 2004 featured two invited talks. It is a real joy seeing the visibility of the conferenceincrease and noting that kno- edge management researchers and practitioners from all over the world submitted - pers. This year, 163 papers and case studies were submitted, from which 48 were - cepted.

Provides the reader with a review of the latest discussion in the ongoing process of Product Structuring. Even though the meeting was of academic nature, the papers include many practical examples of industrial applications.

As understanding of the engineering design and configuration processes grows, the recognition that these processes intrinsically involve imprecise information is also growing. This book collects some of the most recent work in the area of representation and manipulation of imprecise information during the syn thesis of new designs and selection of configurations. These authors all utilize the mathematics of fuzzy sets to represent information that has not-yet been reduced to precise descriptions, and in most cases also use the mathematics of probability to represent more traditional stochastic uncertainties such as un controlled manufacturing variations, etc. These advances form the nucleus of new formal methods to solve design, configuration, and concurrent engineering problems. Hans-Jurgen Sebastian Aachen, Germany Erik K. Antonsson Pasadena, California ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We wish to thank H.-J. Zimmermann for inviting us to write this book. We are also grateful to him for many discussions about this new field Fuzzy Engineering Design which have been very stimulating. We wish to thank our collaborators in particular: B. Funke, M. Tharigen, K. Miiller, S. Jarvinen, T. Goudarzi-Pour, and T. Kriese in Aachen who worked in the PROKON project and who elaborated some of the results presented in the book. We also wish to thank Michael J. Scott for providing invaluable editorial assis tance. Finally, the book would not have been possible without the many contributions and suggestions of Alex Greene of Kluwer Academic Publishers. 1 MODELING IMPRECISION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN Erik K. Antonsson, Ph.D., P.E.