Methodology to apply semantic wikis as lean knowledge management systems on the shop floor

In manufacturing facilities, redundant work and poor product quality can be prevented by the effective use of the worker's knowledge. The use of knowledge management systems can significantly improve the required knowledge management process, but need to be adapted to the requirements of manufacturing facilities. This paper presents a methodology to develop lean knowledge management systems based on semantic technology, which are designed for the needs of small and medium sized manufacturing companies. The underlying system architecture foresees a semantic wiki-system as the user interface to the workers. This user interface enables workers to access heterogeneous data like equipment specifications, manuals, pictures and videos as well as to rapidly create reports on their observations and actions in the system. Furthermore, the system is equipped with a semantic inference engine, which performs automatic content analysis and thereby generates new facts in the knowledge base. Last, the system is interconnected via semantic data interfaces to the production systems on the shop floor. The interface allows importing, interlinking and storing machine recipes and reports in the knowledge base. By using these three semantic system components, the system facilitates structured and integrated access, storage and re-use of expert knowledge and machine data.