Knowledge Management and Digital Diagrammatisation of Innovative Technical Systems

摘要

A novel methodology is proposed for the analysis and knowledge management of the processes leading to innovative industrial. The methodology is derived from study cases in the field of "big science" instruments, such as space telescopes, for which the technical and natural environments are necessary conditions for their functioning. Big Science instruments are designed and realised over a long time, sometimes decades, and each generation represents a major technical progress compared to the precedent ones as they are always made to accomplish huge breakthroughs in science. They result from international planning, complex management, scientific coopetition, industrial research and production, and inventions born in the fundamental research laboratories. Similar properties characterise large programs in the space, energy or maritime industries. In this paper, we focus our study on the Herschel space observatory, an ESA space science mission launched in May 2009 and ending in April 2013. The study consists of various steps, including technological analysis, interviews with the designer team, analysis of transductions inside the instruments, historical analysis of technical lineages, and socio-technological analysis of the industrial design process. At the end of the study process, thanks to digitalisation, this information can then be displayed as digital database, diagrams and images allowing knowledge management, innovation forecast and even public outreach.