Encouraging reuse of design knowledge: a method to index knowledge

The long-term aim of this research is to develop a method to index design knowledge that is intuitive to an engineering designer and therefore encourage the reuse of information. Eighteen interviews were carried out to understand how designers described the process of designing a particular component or assembly. The analysis led to the development of a method of indexing design knowledge, which has been evaluated in two stages: (1) evaluation of individual taxonomies within the method; and (2) indexing of 92 reports using the method. The research contributes to the development of an ontology for engineering design.