Knowledge Systematization: Configuration Systems for Design and Manufacturing (IMS/GNOSIS)

The IMS Program

GNOSIS is one of the projects belonging to the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems programme. IMS is a collaborative research programme implemented as a joint effort of industrial and research partners from Europe, United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia. For more information on IMS and GNOSIS at large, see this. For more information on the work carried out at HUT, see this.

Background

The manufacturing sector has historically been the key to wealth generation and human prosperity. However, the manufacturing world has reached an impasse, with its hitherto accepted value to society being questioned due to its undesirable effects. Problems include environmental difficulties such as natural resource depletion, excess waste generation and political ones such as international trade friction. Reactive and uncoordinated remedies are being applied to these problems, but these often achieve only short-term, partial success. Without a concerted and radical initiative, the manufacturing sector will in the future be faced with either self-imposed or externally-imposed restrictions.

In tandem with these political and environmental issues, the world is also experiencing forces for socio-economic change. Consumers are demanding more value-for-money and more customized products. The established producing countries are experiencing greater and more diversified competition, yet the costs of research and development that will allow companies to stay competitive are becoming prohibitive.

Objectives

The ultimate goal of GNOSIS is to help promote a new manufacturing paradigm which will overcome or minimize the problems inherent in the existing mass production paradigm. Thus a Post-Mass Production Paradigm is proposed, which involves a new approach to manufacturing, recognizes resource limitations and the balance of nature in order to achieve a sustainable manufacturing environment.

This paradigm will be realized by the development of products, processes and industrial enterprises that exhibit greater adaptability and growth potential together with congeniality to the natural environment and human society.

A key enabler in achieving this goal is the effective use, re-use and sharing of the knowledge resource amongst cooperating and possibly geographically distributed participants. GNOSIS aims to develop techniques for facilitating the systematization and hence more effective sharing and application of knowledge relevant to all aspects of the manufacturing life-cycle within the context of the post mass-production paradigm. GNOSIS is therefore also a catalyst for the development of a large-scale, distributed, knowledge and information infrastructure.

Present activities

GNOSIS was one of the original six test case projects conducted in 1993-1994 to examine the operation of an international research programme. The original test case was concluded in 1994. See the final report of the test case for progress at that stage.

After completion of the original test case, GNOSIS partners have prepared a new research programme for the full-scale project. This was accepted by IMS in 1995, and the project has been begun in Japan and Canada. European activity is currently pending on funding decisions. The topics of the future work will include (but not necessarily be limited to):

Contacts at HUT

At HUT, the project is headed by prof. Martti Mäntylä. Other members of the project team include M.Sc. (Eng.) Mervi Ranta and M.Sc. (Eng.) Tomi Männistö.

GNOSIS archive

Click this to get access to the anonymous ftp archive of GNOSIS maintained by the University of Calgary.

Other pointers

Consult Tomiyama lab WWW pages for further information on GNOSIS-related activities.