Epistemic Debt: A Concept and Measure of Technical Ignorance in Smart Manufacturing

摘要

This paper introduces the notion of epistemic debt as an analytical tool for understanding and managing the effects of technical ignorance in smart manufacturing. Drawing on the concepts of technical and social debt from software engineering, the metaphor of epistemic debt refers to the implied long-term costs of rework (e.g., redesign, replacement, reconfiguration or systems and/or organizational structures) caused by a lack of understanding and/or means of knowing the internals of complex software-based manufacturing systems essential to the value chain and core business of an organization. After defining the concept, we identify three of its sources and propose strategies for coping with epistemic debt in manufacturing.