KM in Aerospace Industry
01-Sep-05
This short post in the KnowledgeBoard SIG Incubator has for purpose to initiate exchange of ideas in the area of Knowledge Management in Aerospace. The main objective is to discuss the opportunity to launch a SIG (Special Interest Group, see http://www.knowledgeboard.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=69298) with a specific focus on Aeronautic KM issues. Why launching a new SIG ? European Aerospace industry has already a long history in Knowledge Management. Most of the companies with business in this area have already launched KM approach. On the other hand many European research projects in Aeronautic include work packages dedicated to KM. PhD. Students, KM practitioner are already involved in online communities such as KnowledgeBoard. One could think that the existing online resources are covering all the issues encountered … Nevertheless, I strongly believe that Aeronautic industry has specificities that justify a dedicated sharing zone. These specificities and their impact on Knowledge Management could be one of the first points to be discussed here; I propose here a first list: - products and services are characterised by : o long lifecycle that implies to have access to linked knowledge from development to maintenance during up to 40 years o strong links with regulation o Advanced technologies in very specific areas that have to be proved safe ! - Processes : o Systematic use of sub-contractors o Going virtual (from requirements to qualification tests) o Distributed in the extended enterprise - Extended enterprise (Customers / partners / competitors) : o Internationalisation: for instance, aircraft cockpit has to be designed for pilots coming from all over the world ! o Mix of product and services provided by complex consortiums (e.g. recent AirTanker consortium for RAF) All those aspects raise many issues for developing successful Knowledge Management in Aerospace. A SIG in this area is a unique opportunity to gather information about current projects, ideas, opinions, and discussion. It could be also a place for networking and give access to the contributions from the numerous PhD Students and researchers in the area. Let’s start !
Details
- Author:
- Barthelemy Longueville
- Publisher:
- KnowledgeBoard
- Date:
- 01-Sep-05
- Categories:
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Let us meet the challenge of an Aerospace SIG
Dear all,
thank you very much for your comments so far. Although most of you are a bit pessimistic about an KM in Aerospace SIG I'm glad to see that the topic has already found some prospective participants.
I agree with you that KM practioneers might already be involved in a lot of other networks. But I believe that KnowledgeBoard could offer a different kind of platform, which allows to exchange ideas and experience with the whole KB community and connect to other SIGs and sectors.
How do you in general rate the willingness of sharing knowledge and experince in the Aerospace sector?
Let's keep the discussion going on!
kind regards
Corinna Flöck - KB Community Stewards Team -
I would be interested in an Aerospace SIG
I agree with the comments posted so far that whilst some 'standard' practices are being adopted across the industry, the aerospace sector poses some interesting challenges to efficient and beneficial adoption of KM practices. One additional challenge is with the extensive and interrelated supply chain that exists within aerospace and how a prime organisation's KM must take account of how knowledge flows in and out. As with the AirTanker example, there are very few (if any) major aircraft projects that do not involve extensive collaboration between disparate organisations. Speaking from the supply chain viewpoint, however, another challenge is in dealing with/connecting with the KM practices of many different prime organisations and how a KM approach that is right for the supplier may not be able to be 'connected' easily with that of a prime.
Anyway, before I continue on still further, I hope this proposed SIG can provoke more wide ranging discussions, but it does run the risk of becoming too large (i.e. too wide ranging a scope) perhaps? Like many aerospace research/projects ...
Gain access to Aerospace KM community
Hello all,
I agree to Alastair's comments about the fact that maybe the interest for a SIG dedicated to KM in aerospace is not here yet. This is mostly due to the fact Aerospace KM community in active in specific Aeronautic / Engineering / Research Networks and not necessarly here.
Just as you proposed, as I still beleive that Aeronautic industry needs specific approaches to KM, I will try involve my contacts in the Knowledge Board Community.
SIG for Aerospace
I agree that the Aerospace industry faces KM problems with at least unique features, if not completely unique situations.
I'd like a SIG to talk about the KM problems Aerospace companies have and the solutions they've found to them. We are working on fairly standard CoPs, Lessons Learned and Virtual Team Working problems, but the spread of personnel and scope of the company's work add a level of complexity to any solutions we implement.
I've long thought a SIG for Aerospace would be a good thing, but I guess from the response so far, the interest may not be here yet. I will canvas my contacts across Aerospace to see if they would be interested in a SIG to share what they are doing.
Would like to join a KM in Aerospaced Industry SIG
Tenix Defence (http://www.tenix.com) is Australia's leading defence project management company with a number of intersts in the aerospace industry.
We are carrying out a number of KM initiatives at the grassroots level, for instance, implementing complete product lifecycle management built around the S1000D standards for electronic technical documents, but have not yet developed a coherent corporate overview and direction for our KM activities.
It would be very useful to be able to compare notes with our industrial peers to see if we can't develop more coherent policies.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation and KM Systems Analyst
Head Office
Tenix Defence
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Australia
http://www.tenix.com
mailto:bill.hall@tenix.com
should we think about sub-areas
Dear,
In fact, as in many industries, there are lot's of potential topics and KM in aerospace industry is someway naive. I just want to ask you if it make sense to be more specific? My original thoughts was based on the fact that at a high level we may attract several contributors and then let's the specialists take the lead and cover the spaces they want to address... may be also too naive!