The design of complex systems, such as mechatronic products or plant infrastructure, is an arduous process that is carried out by a team of engineers in which senior engineers play an important role. While most companies have defined and documented the high-level design process steps, this only scratches the surface, as typically the rich knowledge of experts that has built up over years of experience is not formally captured in the organisation. Even companies that have an advanced level of design process management and monitoring systems are currently not able to transfer lessons learned from a past design cycle into a new design cycle.

With EXKNOP, we aim to develop a learning framework that will speed up the design process of complex systems and boost the number of first-time right designs by giving engineers unprompted recommendations at the right time in the design process. These recommendations encompass the next steps to comply with the defined process, as well as support the creative design activities by providing relevant information based on engineering knowledge learned from past process executions.

The learning framework consists of three interconnected components. A state-of-the-art process mining tool will detect the factually executed process by using digital breadcrumbs left behind by the engineer, such as simulation log files, uploaded documents, datasheets, etc. This automatically gathered data will be completed by expert knowledge formalised in a knowledge base as the second component. The process knowledge obtained in both components will be integrated into a unified engineering process model by exploiting knowledge graphs, which is the third component of the learning framework.

The expected impact of EXKNOP is threefold: 1/ it can protect the organization from loss of knowledge when the senior engineer leaves the company; 2/ novice engineers will be able to accelerate the learning process by being provided with extensive, product-specific design knowledge; 3/ specific, custom-tailored recommendations throughout the design process will support all engineers to achieve a first-time right design and be compliant with the defined design process.