Research On Evolution Model And Acquisition Method Of Engineering Empirical Tacit Knowledge

The experienced engineers and engineers' empirical knowledge are important asset of the enterprise.However,Along with skilled engineers and domain experts leave the enterprise,their empirical tacit knowledge will be taken from the enterprise.The enterprise will face a very serious loss of knowledge resources under such background.Therefore,it is a very important and urgent task for the enterprise to effectively acquire and retain the tacit knowledge of skilled engineers and domain experts.However,the tacit knowledge research faces two major obstacles.At first,the "tacit paradox" due to the descriptive definition of tacit knowledge makes the tacit knowledge research often caught in a dilemma.In the second,the understanding of tacit knowledge tend to stay in the level of “know what,however do not know why”.The formation and evolution mechanism of tacit knowledge is lack of in-depth research,which limits the tacit knowledge acquisition and reuse.Aiming at the obstacles in the tacit knowledge research,the paper structure is as follows:(1)The “multi-level tacit features of knowledge” is presentedIn the classical definition of tacit knowledge,the identification of tacit always rely on the visibility of result.Such sole criteria make the research on the tacit knowledge fall into a paradox.Aiming at solving such “tacit paradox of knowledge”,we extend the tacit features of knowledge and present “multi-level tacit features of knowledge”,such multi-level features include: result visibility,process visibility,and scenario visibility.The meaning of tacit knowledge is enriched based on the multi-level tacit features of knowledge.(2)An empirical tacit knowledge evolution framework is constructedA “two-dimensional knowledge system evolution model” is presented,which is based on the time-space dimensions.The process of empirical tacit knowledge transformation from origination,maturation to extention,and eventually become the general explicit knowledge is covered in the knowledge evolution model.(3)Research on the evolution model of empirical tacit knowledge in problem solvingThe characteristics of knowledge evolution and knowledge owners in the process of knowledge evolution are discussed in our paper.Aiming at individual empirical tacit knowledge formation and evolution phenomenon in problem solving,the novel experiment is designed to simulate the engineer's repeated practice and reflection in the problem solving.The characteristics and influencing factors of knowledge evolution in the engineer's problem solving are obtained,according to the statistics and analysis about the rounds of knowledge evolution and accumulation.At last,the tacit knowledge evolution model is constructed.Aiming at knowledge evolution phenomenon in the decision-making team collaborative problem solving,we construct the knowledge evolution path,and then analyze the role of team members using social network analysis.The characteristics and reasons of knowledge evolution are summarized at last.(4)Research on the empirical tacit knowledge acquisition method in the problem solving process of the decision-making teamA novel two-stage acquisition method is proposed in this paper.The acquisition method consists of two phases,the stage from ETK in the mind of expert to ETK in initial state,and the stage from ETK in initial state to structured ETK.It constructs a complete tacit knowledge acquisition process from the domain expert's experience to the structured tacit knowledge.An engineering decision case is used to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach.Satisfactory results are reached for the study.