| The continuous improvement of quality and productivity has been accepted as the basic operational strategy for both manufacturing and service industries. It is very difficult for companies to stay in business without continuously improving the quality and productivity of their products. Market competition, environmental and resource restrictions and customer requirements drive companies to gear strategic planning towards continuous improvement and develop methods to implement the strategy.; This research involves the development of Process Knowledge Base (PKB). The PKB is a methodology and set of associated techniques for continuous product/process understanding that provides enhanced quality improvement through integrated use of process knowledge, knowledge inferencing and continuous process learning. In practice, the PKB is a computer-based decision support system which aids the decision maker in determining how best to improve or control the process for greater accuracy and precision. The PKB system design includes Process Evaluation, Process Diagnosis, Knowledge Generation, PKB Exploration, Process Knowledge Representation, Process Interface, External System Interface, and User Interface. Five kinds of process knowledge resource have been identified: analytical, experimental, observational, document, and expertise. Three types of process knowledge representations have been adopted: structural, functional, and behavioral. The algorithms for process diagnosis and process knowledge integration have been developed.; The methodology of the PKB is implemented in the prototype based on the turning process. The emphases of the prototype are functions of Process Evaluation, Process Diagnosis, PKB Exploration, and User Interface. The PKB system can be applied in manufacturing, service, and other processes. The methodology and techniques for the PKB can be easily extended into other systems for continuously improving the performances of the systems. |
