Effective method for creating engineering checklists

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an empirical study of a project whose aim was to develop a driveline for commercial vehicle applications containing a totally new mechatronic sub-system with a significant amount of new functions and interfaces. The purpose of the empirical study was to identify areas where explicit knowledge management efforts are needed in the development process of a mechatronic systems integrator. The results show that the management of knowledge related to component/system interfaces is not addressed neither in the state of practice nor the state of the art. Based on these findings, the method of engineering checklists to manage interface-related knowledge was found suitable. Methods on how to implement engineering checklists however are largely lacking and the main contribution of this paper is a method dedicated to creating engineering checklists from a knowledge management perspective. The evaluation of the developed method indicates a high level of both usefulness and usability of the method in the processes of the studied company along with potential improvement mainly regarding the instructions for the application of the method.

Design method validation – an investigation of the current practice in design research

“…Two such methods are described in the remaining two studies in our sample. Ćatić and Malmqvist (2013) present and evaluate a method addressing knowledge management throughout the whole design process. Consequently, they study a single case within a company to learn about the effects of their method through the whole process.…”

“…An example on how to possibly define goals from the use of tools can be derived from the study of Ćatić and Malmqvist (2013). The design method investigated in their study addresses the generation of engineering checklists as a means for knowledge management during design.…”

“…The design method investigated in their study addresses the generation of engineering checklists as a means for knowledge management during design. By applying their method in a case study, Ćatić and Malmqvist (2013) illustrate in which design stages their proposed method was deemed useful by users and why. By using engineering checklists, the knowledge of the method users was documented in a simplified form.…”

Supporting Knowledge Re-Use with Effective Searches of Related Engineering Documents - A Comparison of Search Engine and Natural Language Processing-Based Algorithms

“…The literature reports various formats and capture techniques for DGs in order to efficiently become applied in future development projects. A few common techniques include LL sessions, post-action reviews, project debriefing, post-project reviews, Postmortems and Engineering Checksheets (Schindler and Eppler 2003;Catic and Malmqvist 2013). However, the process of identifying which lessons that should be captured is often non-systematized and irregularly performed (Chirumalla 2014).…”

From Checklists to Design Process Support Systems: Initial Framing

“…That is, checklists constitute 'actionable' knowledge . "Checklists [guide] a user and act as verification after completion of a task, without necessarily leading users to a specific conclusion" (Ćatić and Malmqvist 2013). According to (Scriven 2000), checklists have the following benefits: help to reduce errors of omission; are relatively easy to understand and validate; reduce human biases ('halo effect' and 'Rorschach effect'); reduce the problem of double weighting in evaluative tasks; and help to capture and transfer knowledge.…”